THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
Indian War Parties
|
In: J. C. B., Travels in New France, (Stevens, Sylvester K., Donald H. Kent, and Emma Edith Woods, eds.), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Public Instruction, the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, Harrisburg, 1941, pp. 67-69. |
XI
INDIAN WAR PARTIES
IN THE MONTHS of July and August, various bands of savages passed Fort Duquesne, on their way to make raids on the English settlements in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, which is farthest from Fort Duquesne. Newly arrived savages, numbering two hundred, also set out on a raid, and returned fifteen days later with twenty-one scalps and nine prisoners. Three of these were given to the commander, and the rest taken by the savages to their villages. There were a great many prisoners and scalps taken in all the different raids.
This is the way the savages take a scalp and give prisoners the "bastonnade."
When a war party has captured one or more prisoners that cannot be taken away, it is the usual custom to kill them by breaking their heads with the blows of a tomahawk (a small axe, described before). When he has struck two or three blows, the savage quickly seizes his knife, and makes an incision around the hair from the upper part of the forehead to the back of the neck. Then he puts his foot on the shoulder of the victim, whom he has turned over face down, and pulls the hair off with both hands, from back to front, just as described before in connection with the scout dance. This hasty operation is no sooner finished than the savage fastens the scalp to his belt and goes on his way. This method is only used when the prisoner cannot follow his captor; or when the Indian is pursued. Then he wants to take away proof of his valor. He quickly takes the scalp, gives the deathcry,1 and flees at top speed. Savages always announce their valor by a deathcry, when they have taken a scalp. The English call it scalping.
When a savage has taken a scalp and is not afraid he is being pursued, he stops and scrapes the skin to remove the blood and fibres on it. He makes a hoop of green wood, stretches the skin over it like a tambourine, and puts it in the sun to dry a little. The skin is painted red, and the hair on the outside is combed. When prepared, the scalp is fastened to the end of a long stick, and carried on his shoulder in triumph to the (page 68) village or place where he wants to put it. But as he nears each place on his way, he gives as many cries as he has scalps to announce his arrival and show his bravery. Sometimes, as many as fifteen scalps are fastened on the same stick. When there are too many for one stick, they decorate several sticks with the scalps.
The French and English were accustomed to pay for the scalps, to the amount of thirty francs' worth of trade goods. Their purpose was then to encourage the savages to take as many scalps as they could, and to know the number of the foe who had fallen. This precaution gave rise to a trick among the savages, either native or suggested to them. To increase the compensation received for scalps, they got the idea of making them of horsehide, which they prepared in the same way as human scalps. The discovery of this fraud was the reason they were more carefully inspected before a payment was made. Consequently, the French and English finished by giving only a trifling amount in the form of presents.
It is shameful for the human race to use such barbarous methods. Yet, to tell the truth, the idea belongs only to the savages, who were using it before they heard of the civilized nations. This horrible custom was practiced by these savages alone, and sprang from their own barbarism, for it seems never to have existed in any other nation, not even among nations who, like them, have never received any idea of civilized life.
The practice of the "bastonnade" is just as ancient. When a party has taken prisoners, they take care of them and do not mistreat them. But if this party, on its return from war, passes any villages, which usually happens from pride or vanity, they take care to announce themselves at some distance from the village by cries quickly repeated. Then the young men come to meet them. When they have joined them, they lay hold of the prisoners, and force them to go between two lines formed by the young savages. They make the prisoners run to the end of the row by striking them with sticks and stones, and with their fists. The prisoner so unfortunate as to fall in the course of the bastonnade must get up quickly and keep on, or he will be beaten to death on the spot. No one is allowed to touch the prisoners when they reach the village of their captors. They then enter the custody of those bringing them. They could not take offense at the painful reception their prisoners received, even when some are crippled by it. This sometimes happens, especially when the party has passed several villages in a few days, and the prisoners have had this treatment in each place. This disagreeable ceremony is, however, sport for the young savages.
. . . Generally, savages have scruples about molesting a woman prisoner, and look upon it as a crime, even when she gives her consent; but when she is free, nothing that she will permit is forbidden.
. . .
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1 A short deathcry means a victory. If it is slow and long drawn out, it is a sign of loss. Several cries, following each other quickly, mean prisoners and scalps. If the same cries are repeated slowly, they are counted, as they give the number of men lost; and then the Indians return with their faces daubed with black.
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