Scalping a Woman on the Plains

[Shotgun Steve]

Scalping a Woman on the Plains

Tags: Indians | Nevada | 1857
Racine Weekly Journal / November 4, 1857

Some weeks ago, news from Carson Valley was published, which told of the almost total destruction of an emigrant train by the Indians. The woman who was one of the train was scalped and left for dead. It turns out, however, that she was not dead, and she has since recovered to tell the extraordinary story of her sufferings and her resolute endurance, which deceived the savages. The Red Bluffs Beacon of the 10th of September thus tells the tale:

An instance of the most remarkable fortitude and heart-rending cruelty we have ever heard of is related to us by a black man by the name of Scott, who has recently arrived here from Missouri by way of the plains. He informs us that a short time before he arrived at Stony Point on the Humboldt river, the Indians attacked a train of six men, one woman and a child. The men were all killed but one, who made his escape. The child was also killed, and its mother shot in several places with arrows, scalped, and left for dead.

All the while they were scalping her and stripping the clothes from her body, she was perfectly conscious of what they were doing, but feigned death, and let them tear the skin from her head without giving signs of life, knowing that if she did, they would either dispatch her at once or take her at once in the hopeless captivity. At one time, when they had left her for a moment, she ventured to change her position, in order, if possible, to relieve herself from the uncomfortable position in which he was lying; but on their return, they very soon discovered that she had moved, and, for fear that life might yet not be extinct, they took hold of the arrows that were still sticking in her body, and worked them about in the wounds, and pushed them deeper into her flesh and stamped upon her with their heels.

All this she endured without uttering a groan or drawing a breath that could be perceived by the savages, and in that condition was left as food for the wolves. Fortunately, however, a train came along before she had lain long in that condition, and dressed her wounds and brought her along with them; and not the most remarkable fact attending the whole matter is that she is fast recovering from her wounds. Her head, we are told, is nearly well, and the arrow wounds doing better than any one expected.

[John Smith]

Hard Corps!

[kflach]

I saw an actual picture of a guy who'd been scalped and survived. I don't remember where I saw it. It's rather horrific. This is pretty incredible.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

That should be a movie!  They were tough back then.

[MontanaSlick]

The Indians learned scalping from the White man.
It's a matter of history

MS

[kflach]

MS,
I've heard that before. I'd genuinely like to know the background on that statement so I can be smarter about the true west. However, I don't want to get into any kind of blame game (I don't know how controversial it is but I suspect it's possible that it is?) so if you get a chance to PM me the information I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

kflach
[who knows that pretty much every human group has committed atrocities and had atrocities committed against it at some point or another in history]

[Don Nix]

It is my understanding the scalping was introduced by the British and French in the early years of colonization.
The French trying to push back the British enlisted the Indians help as did the English. they paid a bounty for the white men killed.
To ensure that the Indians had in fact killed as many as they claimed . The french required that they bring in the scalps of the victims .
Some credit the English with starting the practice,some the French. But it became the accepted  way to obtain a body count. 

[Steel Horse Bailey]

I've heard the same, Don.

I think it goes back further, 'tho - I THINK (but not sure) I've heard of Mongols and others taking scalps.  But Don N brought up how I've heard it got introduced to America.

[Shotgun Franklin]

If scapling was introduced by Whites and if it was used to pay some kind of bounty then it should be easy to document. I've never seen anything to support the believe that whites introduced the practice. If someone has anything I'd guess we'd all like to see it. Was scalping ever used in the Old Word? It would have had to have some point of origin.

[JohnR]

The Indians learned scalping from the White man.
It's a matter of history

MS

There is plenty of pre-Columbian archaeological evidence and linguistic evidence to the contrary.  The fact that bounties were paid for scalps doesn't prove that Europeans brought the practice to the new world.  It only proves that they were either familiar with it or found it an easy way to confirm body counts.

A simple google search will give you articles supporting both theories, but to me the archaeology and language examples I have been able to find are more convincing than articles that just say it's so.

[Stillwater]

From the British Concise Encyclopedia:

Removal of all or part of the scalp, with hair attached, from an enemy's head. It is best known as a practice of North American Indian warfare. At first confined to eastern tribes, it spread as a result of bounties offered by the French, English, Dutch, and Spanish for the scalps of enemy Indians and sometimes of enemy whites. Many American frontiersmen and soldiers adopted the custom. Among Plains Indians, scalps were taken for war honours, usually from dead enemies, although some warriors preferred a live victim. The operation was not necessarily fatal, and some victims were released alive.

For more information on scalping, visit Britannica.com.

http://www.answers.com/topic/scalping

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalping

Bill

[Mogorilla]

I think people are people and the custom seems to have sprung up world wide.  Various forms of "trophy" taking have existed in almost all warrior cultures.  I have read accounts of Anglo-saxons taking beards as well as the origin of the word Skoll.   We all have a dark passenger in our individual cultural history.  I think scalping falls in the chicken/egg category. 

[kflach]

I agree. Every one of us has ancestors who were slaves to someone. Everyone of us has ancestors who enslaved someone. Every one of us has ancestors who committed atrocities. Every one of us has ancestors who were victims of atrocities. The way I figure it, the ultimate question is how far back into the history of mankind are you willing to look in order to justify feeding whatever hate lurks deep within your most primal nature.

Not you specifically Mogorilla. That's a generic "you" directed mostly at myself but also to all of us.

[Will Ketchum]

I agree. Every one of us has ancestors who were slaves to someone. Everyone of us has ancestors who enslaved someone. Every one of us has ancestors who committed atrocities. Every one of us has ancestors who were victims of atrocities. The way I figure it, the ultimate question is how far back into the history of mankind are you willing to look in order to justify feeding whatever hate lurks deep within your most primal nature.

Not you specifically Mogorilla. That's a generic "you" directed mostly at myself but also to all of us.

This is so very true. At one time or another we were all "victims"  Time to quit whining about it and move on.  We are only responsible for our own actions not those of our ancestors.

Will Ketchum

[Ol Gabe]

Pards,
Good discussion and comments all around.
It gives impetus to what our collective cultural and societal history has done to or for us and what we can only surmise as part and parcel of it when it happened, as it was most certainly decades before we happened on the scene. Now we can only think of why it was and what our collective forefathers thought was important at the time.
Best regards and never stop researching or asking "Why?"
'Ol Gabe

[Short Knife Johnson]

It is my understanding the scalping was introduced by the British and French in the early years of colonization.
The French trying to push back the British enlisted the Indians help as did the English. they paid a bounty for the white men killed.
To ensure that the Indians had in fact killed as many as they claimed . The french required that they bring in the scalps of the victims .
Some credit the English with starting the practice,some the French. But it became the accepted  way to obtain a body count. 

I had read where the Indians were paid an exhorbitant bounty for the scalps.  They came to wonder why, and concluded that since their benefators were willing to pay so much for them that they must hold some magical powers.  The belief extended to where the scalps gave their holder supernatural powers.  However to have a victim survive a scalping encounter was to forver be cursed.  So that might be why they returned to the scene of the crime to make good and sure she was dead.