Years ago i had an old VFW magazine article about the White Woman Of the Seneca, Mary Jemison.
The article described her first husband as having earned the respect of his community by coming up with a new form of entertainment.
Sheninjee had thought to take the children of the white mothers they had captured, and cover the children in clay, and roast them alive over a spit, while the mothers watched, I forget what they did with the meat, but at the time it was already soaking into me that Indian atrocities were not random horrors and crimes done by psychopathic killers hidden among the populace, or a few stray men pushed over the line in war. These were community affairs a culture.
In Indian life, the Mayor, the City Council and the entire town welcomed home the GI’s and prepared to make the next three days, or week if they were lucky, a celebration of serial killer type torture, and the screams of the dying.They would even nurture and refresh the victims to sustain the joyous activity.
I have read old books from Indian experts of the 1800s that say the children in some tribes were expected to torture and study animals that they could get their hands own, to learn how pain could be maximized, and delivered.
We read many accounts of raiding parties where, if they thought that they weren’t being pursued, they may take a couple of days off during the trip home, to torture to death a young teen girl, in a truly expert, methodical, formal manner.
Old books about the U.S. Army tell us that American GIs, actually did spend precious funds on small handguns for their young wife to kill herself and the children, if capture looked imminent. I think they knew things, that we aren’t told.
It is interesting to read accounts from the past, and to see how the people actually dealing with the Indians thought about the Indians, versus the New York City Easterners and writers.