Kieft mismanaged the Indians and pursued policies of exterminating them, thereby provoking a full-scale war. He was dismissed as governor and succeeded by Peter Stuyvesant. On his return voyage to Europe, he was lost at sea.30
A number of crimes against Indians, including murder, were committed by the Dutch in New Amsterdam. A pamphleteer charged that a Hackensack Indian was publicly tortured by Dutch soldiers, skinned in strips, fed his own flesh, flayed from his fingers to his knees, castrated, dragged through the streets alive, and put on a millstone, where his head was beaten off.31 The authorities ignored these crimes. Finally, some Dutch went to Staten Island to kill all the Indians they could find. The Indians were quick to retaliate.
In 1644 the Susquehannocks, aided by settlers from New Sweden, fought Maryland militia. The Susquehannocks took 15 prisoners. They tortured 2 of them to death.32
There was a Jesuit mission in Huron country. The priest was Father Antoine Daniel. In 1648, just after he had concluded mass, it was learned that enemy Iroquois were coming. Apparently everyone wanted to be baptized, so Daniel remained to baptize all who wished it. He urged them to escape, promising to remain to continue with the baptisms. The Iroquois attacked, shot Daniel, hacked his body apart, and threw it in the flames of the burning town.33
In 1649, some Hurons who had escaped from another town under Iroquois attack warned the Indians in the New York town of St. Louis to flee. All who could did, leaving 80 to their fate. Two Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Jean de Brébeuf and Gabriel Lalemant, remained behind to baptize. After a fierce battle, the Iroquois captured the town, burned it, and tortured and beat the survivors, especially the 2 priests. The torture included a mock baptism in which scalding water was poured over their heads.34
In 1655, a Delaware Indian woman was caught pulling peaches from the tree of a settler, who then shot and killed her. He in turn was ambushed and killed by her family. Soon about 2,000 armed Indians walked into town, terrifying the city. The Indians destroyed houses, killed indiscriminately, and took 150 settlers captive before leaving town.35
In 1659, Stuyvesant called for a parley during a fight with the Esopus Indians. Their chiefs entered the town of Wiltwyck for the peace conference. The Dutch killed them as they slept that night. The Indians then took 8 Dutch soldiers captive and burned them alive.36
The sachem of the Wampanoag Indians*s was Metacom. His father was Chief Massasoit, who was very helpful to the Pilgrims. The settlers called Metacom King Philip. He was incensed with the settlers’ treatment of his people, however, and tried to organize a rebellion to oust the British from New England. When the British tried 3 Christian Indians of his tribe in 1675, then hanged them, King Philip went to war. This war, called King Philip’s War, lasted from 1675 to 1678. The Nipmuc, Narraganset, and other tribes joined him. More than 1,000 settlers were killed. The settlers eventually won due to superior numbers and firepower. They were aided by Indian allies from 4 tribes: the Massachusetts, Mohegan, Niantics, and Wampanoag. The war went against Philip. His wife and 9-year-old boy were captured and later, together with hundreds of other Indians, sold into slavery in the West Indies and Spain for the going rate, 30 shillings a head. This happened even though the preacher John Eliot, who was known as the Apostle to the Indians, opposed it. Eliot’s view was that “to sell souls for money seemeth to me a dangerous merchandise.”38
Cotton Mather said, “It must have been as bitter as death to him [King Philip] to lose his wife and only son, for the Indians are marvelously fond and affectionate toward their children.”39 Philip’s other relatives were killed. A Wampanoag warrior named Alderman counseled surrender. Philip killed him with his own hands. In 1676 Alderman’s brother deserted, led the militia to Philip’s hiding place, then killed King Philip. Captain Benjamin Church, who had headed the successful settler army, described how
[King Philip] was taken and destroyed, and there was he (Like as Agag was hewed in pieces before the Lord) cut into four quarters, and is now hanged up as a monument of revenging justice, his head being cut off and carried away to Plymouth, his Hands were brought to Boston. So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord!!40
In this war, it has been said, “the Puritans distinguished themselves by wholesale massacres of noncombatants that could scarcely be credited if not for the fact that it is the Puritans themselves who record them, with relish.”41 Three tribes, the Wampanoag, the Nipmuc, and the Narraganset, were nearly wiped out.42
King Philip was succeeded by Annawan. When confronted by soldiers, he surrendered, ending the war. He was tried in Plymouth and sentenced to death. Captain Church had come to respect Annawan and argued for his life, but while Church was away, a mob seized Annawan and beheaded him. He was the last leader of the Wampanoag Confederacy.43
Atrocities in the war were committed by the Indians as well. Author Howard Mumford Jones related that during King Philip’s War, the Indian atrocities consisted of
the raping and scalping of women, the cutting off of fingers and feet of men, the skinning of white captives, the ripping open the bellies of pregnant women, the cutting off of the penises of the males, and the wearing of the fingers of the white men as bracelets or necklaces.44
In 1675 a group of militia went to Philip’s own village, which was deserted. They found the heads of 8 settlers staring down at them from poles.45
A group of settlers went on a peace mission to the Nipmucs. The Nipmucs attacked them, killing several. The mission retreated to the town of Brookfield, where there was a garrison. The Nipmucs were close behind, and not all the militia reached the safety of the garrison. One was captured and decapitated. His head was kicked among the Indians, then stuck on a pole in front of his own home.46
That same year, 2 Massachusetts towns, Middleborough and Dartmouth, were attacked by Indians who
barbarously murdered both men and women in those places, stripping the slain whether men or women, and leaving them in the open field as naked as the day wherein they were born. Such is also their inhumanity as that they flay of[f] the skin from their faces and heads of those they get into their hands, and go away with the hairy Scalp of their enemy.47
The subject of scalping is perhaps the most notorious one related to the American-Indian War. Around 1721, a delegation of Cherokee presented the king of England with 4 scalps of Indian enemies. The king was reported to have said he was “graciously pleased to accept.”48 The Pueblos had a Scalp Chief.49
There is some disagreement concerning why scalps were taken. The earlier practice was to take the entire head as a trophy, but of course that was a little awkward, especially if there were several, so eventually just the scalp was taken.50 The Timucua tribe of Florida took arms and legs as well as scalps.51 Tribes in the St. Lawrence area stretched the skin of the dead man’s face on hoops.52 Another view about why scalps were taken is that Indian religion held that a scalped person could not enter the happy hunting ground. If your enemy is scalped, he or she won’t be there to bother you.53 A third view is that scalping was for the purpose of releasing the spirit of the victim.54
Here is a description of fairly typical scalpings that happened during the Second Seminole War:
Through Gen. Thompson were shot fifteen bullets, and sixteen through Rogers. The Indians scalped all, taking off the scalp clear around the head as far as the hair extended, and then beating in their skulls. The heads of Rogers and Suggs were shockingly mangled.55
But the method of scalping differed among tribes. The whole skin of the upper head was taken by some. Only the crown was removed by others. Later, when the Indians had steel weapons, many used a faster method, holding on to the hair, making one cut in the front, and taking the scalp lock with a sharp pull.56 The River Yumans tribe (which included the Mojaves and Maricopas) had scalping specialists who acquired powers in dreams that enabled them to take off the skin of the entire head, including the ears.57
Several Indian practices were connected with scalping. The captive James Smith was present when a Mo
hawk scalped his comrade. As they approached the Mohawk village, the Indians gave the usual scalp halloo, which was a long yell for every scalp or prisoner taken, followed by shouts of joy or triumph.58 The Pueblos had a women’s society “created to care for the scalps.”59 The Sioux captive Fanny Kelly described a scalp dance, which was held only at night. First the warriors came out and boasted of their prowess in war. Then their young women came with the scalps. The warriors leaped around in a circle, whooping and yelling the war cry. They made motions of cutting one another to pieces. They became furious, excited, ground their teeth, and tried to imitate the sound of death in battle.60
Scalping did not always cause death. A man living in northern Mexico described in detail how he was scalped by a Comanche. Some Black-feet reported that Indians who survived scalping wore caps to cover the area. It was not uncommon for Plains Indians to scalp an enemy, then send him back to his people as an insult.61 The daughter of Hepzibah Wells survived a scalping in 1690, as did others.62
Scalp bounties—the payment of money for a scalp—were common. In the early 1600s, the Spanish and the Apache did not get along at all. The Spanish then offered another tribe a bounty for Apache scalps.63 In 1675, both the Plymouth colony and Connecticut offered the Narragansets a bounty for Wampanoag scalps or captives during King Philip’s War.64 The French in 1703 paid the Choctaw and Chickasaw a bounty for the scalps of Alabama Indians.65 The same year Massachusetts paid 12 pounds for each scalp, but by 1722 they had raised it to 100 pounds.66 During the French and Indian War, between 1749 and 1763, New England and Pennsylvania offered scalp bounties.67 Some Pennsylvania settlers got $1,500 in 1763 by scalping 3 old Indian men, 2 women, and a boy who were making baskets in a nearby town.68 Pennsylvania offered a bounty of $1,000 for the scalps of all hostile Indians in 1780 during the Revolution.69 In 1776 New Hampshire offered 70 pounds for the scalp of each hostile male Indian and more than 37 pounds for that of each female or child over 12 years old.70 All 13 colonies eventually offered scalp bounties.71
The British offered the Indians bounties for white scalps. In 1778 alone, British colonel Henry Hamilton, headquartered in Detroit, reported that the Indians (mostly Miamis) had brought in 110 scalps.72 Two Mexican states offered bounties for Apache scalps in 1847.73
At times, scalp bounties were offered for Indians who had allegedly committed crimes, but bounties were paid even though the scalp wasn’t that of the alleged criminal. It was enough if it was the scalp of a person belonging to the designated group. Of course, except for the terror factor, scalp bounties weren’t very productive. Indians and others soon learned that whites couldn’t distinguish between an enemy scalp and that of a friendly tribe, so scalps were brought in from the heads of any tribe. Finally, the Indians learned that the whites couldn’t distinguish between an Indian scalp and a white scalp. Indians then got bounties for white scalps.74
There are reports of scalp bounties in California well into the nineteenth century. In 1859, the Marysville newspaper announced that
a new plan has been adopted … to chastise the Indians for their many depredations during the past winter. Some men are hired to hunt them, who are recompensed by receiving so much for each scalp, or some other satisfactory evidence that they have been killed.75
In 1861, the Shasta Herald reported that at a meeting “measures [were] taken to raise a fund to be disbursed in payment of Indian scalps for which a bounty was offered.”76 Communities and individuals in California even offered money for Indian heads. Shasta City, for example, awarded 5 dollars for each head. Residents of Honey Lake in 1863 paid 25 cents for each scalp.77
Soldiers and sometimes settlers scalped Indians from time to time, but such conduct was exceptional. The worst instance was by the soldiers at the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864. Major Scott Anthony testified at a congressional hearing that “he saw the soldiers committing many acts of mutilation but he noted that those were no worse than what Indians had done to whites.”78 According to Duane Schultz, his rationalization was this:
The only way to fight Indians is to fight them as they fight us; if they scalp and mutilate the bodies we must do the same. It is the general impression of the people of that country [the Colorado Territory] that the only way to fight them is to fight as they fight; kill the women and children. At the same time, of course, we consider it a barbarous practice.79
Atrocities other than scalping continued. Captain Richard Beers was dispatched with 36 men in 1675 to relieve the garrison in Northfield, Massachusetts. He and about 20 of his men were killed by Indians in an ambush. The next day, Major Treat with 100 men approached North-field in pursuit of Indians and were “much daunted to see the heads of Captain Beers’ Soldiers upon poles by the way side.” They turned back as a result.80
Mary Rowlandson, the wife of a minister, wrote about the events leading to her captivity by the Narragansets that same year in Lancaster, Massachusetts. Twelve settlers were killed in a raid and 24 taken captive:
Hearing the noise of some guns, we looked out; several houses were burning and the smoke ascended into heaven. There were five persons taken in one house; the father and the mother and suckling child they knocked on the head; the other two they took and carried away alive…. Another there was who was running along was shot and wounded and fell down; he begged of them for his life, promising them money (as they told me), but they would not hearken to him but knocked him in [the] head, stripped him naked, and split open his bowels.81
The Wampanoag then came to the Rowlandson house and set it on fire, which forced the occupants into the hands of the Indians.
No sooner were we out of the house, but my brother-in-law (being before wounded, in defending the house, in or near the throat) fell down dead; whereat the Indians scornfully shouted, halloed, and were presently upon him, stripping off his clothes. The bullets flying thick, one went through my side, and the same (as would seem) through the bowels and hand of my dear child in my arms. One of my elder sister’s children, named William, had then his leg broken, which the Indians perceiving, they knocked him on the head. Thus were we butchered by those merciless heathens, standing amazed, with the blood running down to our heels.82
Rowlandson described the Indians as “a company of hell-hounds, roaring, singing, ranting and insulting.”83 Other settlers were very much interested in this event. Her book, published in 1682,84 was America’s first bestseller.85 In the raid, her baby was shot dead in her arms, she was shot in the side, her sister was killed, her brother-in-law was killed, her house was burned, another child died after 9 days of forced marching, and she spent 11 weeks in captivity. She was sold by one Indian, Quinnapin, to another and became the servant of the latter, Wetamoo, sister-in-law of King Philip from an earlier marriage. She appeared before King Philip twice.86 She was freed for a ransom of 20 pounds, 2 coats, half a bushel of corn, and some tobacco.87 Cotton Mather commented on her captivity in a sermon, pronouncing that it was not individual courage and heroism, but faith in the power of God that had helped her.88
About the same time Rowlandson was captured, Maryland Nanticoke or Doeg Indians got in a dispute with a farmer named Thomas Mathew over an account. Before matters were over, 5 Indian chiefs, 27 Indians, and at least 49 settlers had been killed.89
A year later, Connecticut major John Talcott and his men pursued the Pocasset Indians. The Pocasset chief and sachem was the female Wetamoo. An Indian betrayed her and led Talcott’s men to her camp, where they captured everyone but Wetamoo. She jumped onto some wood and tried to escape out to sea. Her naked body was found later by the colonists. They severed her head and displayed it on a pole in Taunton.90
In 1689, the Pennacook, Ossipee, and Pigwacket Indians assaulted settlements in Maine and then attacked Dover, New Hampshire, where they killed 20 or 30 English. One of them was the 75-year-old fur trader Major Richard Waldron, an old enemy from King Philip’s War. They cut off his fingers one by one. Then they took turns slashing his chest, stating they were crossing out their
accounts.91
In 1676, the Christian Indians of Loretto burned an Iroquois to death in the presence of the governor-general of New France, Louis de Buade, comte de Frontenac. Other Frenchmen viewed the burning as well.92
Louis de Buade was in the military service of Venice, France, and the Netherlands and was then appointed governor-general of New France, an area that included what is now Canada and the central Mississippi Valley.93 Frontenac sent a party of 160 French-Canadians and 100 Indians from Montreal in 1690 to attack Albany. They found Albany too difficult because it was too far to go in freezing weather, so they chose to attack Schenectady instead. They attacked and found the gates open and guarded only by 2 snowmen. For 2 hours they hacked men, women, and children to death.94 It is said they acted without provocation and were motivated only by brutal lust and wantonness. It was also reported that pregnant women were ripped open and their babies thrown into the flames or dashed against posts.95 Sixty colonists were killed.96
The Abnaki Indians* and the French attacked Fort Loyal, now Falmouth, Maine, 2 years later. The fort surrendered on the condition that the soldiers would be granted safe conduct. As they marched out of the fort, however, they were massacred, and at least 100 of them died.98
The Abnakis had agreed by treaty to refrain from hostilities until May, but instead they with some Canadians attacked York, Maine, on February 5. They killed 48 and took 70 prisoners. In June they attacked Wells, Maine, and Deerfield, Massachusetts. Widow Hepzibah Wells and her 3 daughters were scalped. The Thomas Broughton family of 5 was killed.99
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