I believe that if you do a little research, the practice of scalping was taught by the British, as a way to account for rewarding the individual natives for wiping out their joint enemies. But it is true that the practice was readily and widely adopted by the Indians without a qualm, and passed on from tribe to tribe from then on.
Don't ever think of the native "Indians" as "noble savages," as upstanding, righteous followers of the Great Spirit, who ennobles all humans. That is just a fart-dream, my FRiends. Their idea of decency is that of the far greater rotten-souled British Army officers (Col. Joseph Butler et al) and half-white rogues like Joseph Brant who taught tyhem to abandon all thought of tolerance, let alone any thought of the milk of human kindness.
In the little town of Cuylerville, Livingston County, New York State (click here), near the banks of the Genessee River, is a little memorial park named after Lt. Boyd and Sgt. Michael Parker, advance scouts for the Sullivan Campaign through the Finger Lakes region. Boyd and Parker were captured, tortured, their intestines nailed to the torture tree (still standing the last time I was there). and they were whipped to run/crawl around the tree until they reached the end of their entrails.
"Here we find Lieut. Boyd and one of the men laying on the ground just on the edge
of the town, and so inhumanly murdered it is almost too much to describe. Their
heads were cut off and scalpt. They had been whipped horribly. Their bodies speared
all over and Lieut. Boyd partly skinned. Such is the barbarity of these savage villains. "
"This town is situated on the west side of the river, on the most beautiful flat I ever saw,
which town we entered without opposition and found two of our men, taken by the enemy
yesterday, dead. They wre brought to this place, killed and cut to pieces in the most
barbarous and cruel manner that savages were master of."
"When we Entered the Town We found Lt. Boyd & one man Dead and most Horribly
mangled, they were Laying near a tree which we Suposed they were tyed To While they
were massacred as their was Blood & other Signs near the tree; it appeared they first
whipt them and Very Severely, then Cut Out their tongues & Plucked out their Eyes and
nails, then Stabd them With Spears and after Venting all their Hellish Spite Cut off their
Heads and Left them, this was a Horrid Spectacle to Behold Indeed, and from which we
are taught nesesity of fighting those more then devil as Long as we have Life Tather then
to Surender Ourselves prisoners..."
"At this place we found the bodies of Lieut. Boyd and another, (mentioned yesterday) in a
putrified & mangled condition. Lieut. Boyd was found with his head cut off & skinned all
over, his eyes torn out, his nails pulled off, his body bruised & beat all over, & every
other cruelty exercised upon him that malice & savage barbarity could invent, some of
which are too shocking to relate. The greatest part of their cruelties appears to hav been
committed upon him while he was alive, in order to heighten his misery & satisfy their
revenge. Thus died a good citizen, an agreeable friend & a gallant soldier- Inspired with
every Heroe's virtue he fell a victim to their savage barbarity in defence of the injured
rights of mankind."
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FRiends and Brothers, that is us, without the modification to one's soul brought about by belief in the cross-death of Jesus, and faith in Him as the saving and sanctifying Lord and Messiach/Christ of God.
Believe me, the hellish British soldier leaders of the 1700s, inquisition skills forged in the English civil wars of the 1600s and the Spanish Catholics in the 1500s, could give the Mohammedanish ISIS some soul-destroying, conscious-searing tricks on how to really torture someone. Merely scalping or simply beheading? Paghh! Look to the British-prompted New York State Iroquois for some interesting lessons on what Satan and his devils are truly like.
But don't--repeat DON'T--mention to me anything about the wonderfulness and beauty of the dregs of humanity crawling through the forests and fields of America's fruited plains at the moment our Pilgrims and John Smith set foot on the shores of North America. I have no compassion as to their view of who their "Great Spirit" is.
It is Satan, while he is at home and not interfered with.
However, one should not forget the marvelous conversion to Christianity of the Oneida tribe (click here) of the native dwellers, who sacrificially assisted the American frontiersmen in their struggle against the Iroquois. But even then, their identity with the Iroquois pagans caused the settlers to lump them all together.
Today there are still missionary efforts playing out in the New York State reservations. Pray for them. My grandfather lived in Salamanca, in Cattaraugus County, on the Allegany Indian Reservation under the Seneca Nation. Pray for the little Assembly of Christians meeting at Red House, on the reservation. So much for now . . .