WHY INDIANS TAKE SCALPS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 49, 5 December 1891, Page 654

WHY INDIANS TAKE SCALPS.

HEN Indians began to scalp, is not known, but it is likely they have pursued this barbarous practice in America ever since it was discovered by Christopher Columbus, in 1492, if not long before that time. The commonly received opinion among white men is that the Indians scalp their enemies to prevent them from making a respectable appearance in the Happy

. —rrj Hunting-Grounds. ‘How,’ says one writer, ‘would a bald-headed Indian look in the spirit-land ?’ Indians have bald heads, and it is, therefore, an error to believe Indians scalp people to keep them from going to Heaven or the Happy Hunting-Grounds, as they call their Heaven. The custom of taking scalps giew out of the many large stories Indians told after their return from their war expeditions. *1 killed three of the enemy with my own hand,’ said Bauscar to King Philip. ‘ But, where are their heads ?’ sagely asked the king. ‘Methinks thou art claiming too much valour for thy part in the battle.’ So, after that, when King Philip’s men slew an enemy, they cut off his head and broughtit to the king that they might prove to him their valour in battle. There was no doubting the warrior’s statement if he showed the heads to prove his words. For a long time the whole head was cut off, but these being inconvenient to carry, the practice of taking only the skin of the head began. At first, the head was cut off and taken to the nearest camp, where it was carefully skinned, leaving the ears and rings on it. In time, only the crown of the head or the scalp lock was taken off. Indians used to sew the scalps they had taken on the front of their lodges, and many of them placed these bloody trophies on poles in front of their wigwams. A Mandan Indian once had an entire suit made of the scalps he had taken, and when he died, they buried him in this strange winding sheet. They said he would wear it in the Happy Hunting-Grounds. A warrior wearing scalps was a brave man, a chief, every honour was paid to him by his people. Among the Sioux Indians a woman, when she felt bad or had ‘ a bad heart,’ as they called it, often went with a war party, and if they were successful, they brought her the head of one of their enemies, which she carefully skinned and then mashed the skull with a war-club ; this always removed her bad heart and made her feel quite cheerful. An American officer says that he once saw a man who had been scalped and had afterwards recovered. His name was Thomas Cahone, and he was a freight conductor on the Union Pacific Railroad. One day in April, 1868, as Cahone was running his train near Sidney, Nebraska, while crossing a small stream, he had to halt for some time, and he and a man named Willis Edmonston got out to fish. They were unarmed, but did not think of danger, although Indians had been coming and going through the country. The terminus of the road was then at Cheyenne. They had not been fishing long when suddenly a party of mounted Sioux Indians rushed down upon them, although they were in full sight of the town of Sidney. The Indians first attempted to run off with a band of horses nearby, but in this they failed. They then turned upon the poor fishermen, and, riding up to them, began to fire arrow s into their bodies. Edmonston received four arrows and died. Cahone had several arrows shot into him, the Indians riding up close alongside and firing at short range. One arrow pisiced Cahone’s lungs and he fell bleeding profusely. An Indian advanced, dismounted, and took Cahone’s scalp proper from the top of his head. Another Indian rode up and cut a strip about four inches wide and seven inches long from the side of Cahone’s head. All this time the man was either unconscious or lay still. The Indians, thinking him dead, did not mutilate his body beyond scalping him. There was at that time a small detachment of United States troops stationed at Sidney, under command of Lieutenant now Captain Bubb, U.S. Army. Seeing the attack from the village, Lieutenant Bubb and his men, re inforced by the citizens, rushed out to the assistance of the men. They found Cahone still living, took him in, ami sent hint to Omaha, where the arrows were extracted and his wounds dressed. It was not believed that he could recover, but be did, and regained excellent health. The American officer often saw him afterward on the Union Pacific Railroad, where he had been advanced to passenger conductor, and one day he showed the officer bis bead. 'lt was not a pleasant sight, but he said it did not hurt hint in the least. He wore a wig, and seldom took off his hat, which entirely covered up his wounds. That scalping is not necessarily fatal is proved by the case of Mrs Jane Johns. This woman was scalped in Florida, by Indians, and survived. The physician who attended her reported : ‘ I measured the extent of the skull divested of its natural covering, and found it nine and one-half inches from above one ear to the ear on the opposite side of the head. Only a few hairs had been left above the forehead and at the back of the neck.’ This was certainly a bad case of scalping, still the wonran lived to a good old age. From this it will appear that, while being scalped by an Indian is decidedly an unpleasant operation, it is not necessarily fatal ; and that, while Indians scalp their enemies, they do not do it for the sake of cruelty, but to prove to their people at home they have been brave in battle by overcoming a foe. The Milky Way in the sky is the Indians’ road to the Happy HuntingGrounds, and all who die in battle go there immediately, riding on their ponies, which the Indians kill to accompany them on their journey.