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T O P I C R E V I E W |
James N. |
Posted - August 18 2010 : 5:43:21 PM I have just finished reading what is quite possibly the most graphic and disturbing recent ( 2008 ) book on this particular subject I have ever seen; the title says it all: Cannibalism, Headhunting, and Human Sacrifice in North America by author George Franklin Feldman. Subtitled A History Forgotten, it ALSO includes healthy ( ? ) doses of murder, rapine, destruction, terrorism, and especially torture as practiced by tribal groups from Florida and the Mississippi Valley through the Southwest, California, Northwest, Plains, and Great Lakes, as well as our usually-considered Woodland Northeast and Canada.
It's the perfect antidote for most of the silly romantic longings I read in here for the Naked - er, I mean NOBLE - Red Man! And it's quite fair in stating these practices weren't restricted to what the Native Americans did to each other and their Spanish, French, English, and American enemies, either; it gives "credit where credit's due" to groups like the Pilgrims and Puritans as well as later Southwestern "scalp hunters" too.
I'll post more about it in the section here on books, but wanted especially to reccommend it to some of our incurable Romantics, as well as those like Mr. Means who denies ANYTHING like this could ever happen here in the Happy Hunting Grounds prior to the appearance of the Evil White Man. |
6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
James N. |
Posted - August 20 2010 : 8:51:32 PM Interestingly enough, though Feldman has a chapter on the Comanches which stresses their cruelty like that meted out in the 1836 attack on Parker's Fort near Mexia, Texas, their deep-seated enemity to the Tonkawa is the connection to his narrative. The Tonkawa were the cannibals of Texas, along with the Karankawa and Caddo, and it seems that occasionally the Comanche had been on the menu! |
Diana |
Posted - August 20 2010 : 5:52:57 PM You're right about the cannabalism. Another good book to read on the general subject is EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON. It is about the Commanches. (I mentioned this book in another post in THE LONGHOUSE part of this forum.
Diana |
Fitzhugh Williams |
Posted - August 19 2010 : 3:52:44 PM But to look at things from another angle, an Indian might point out to a Jesuit priest that, according to the teachings of the Jesuits, he was eating the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ at every mass he performed. |
James N. |
Posted - August 19 2010 : 12:45:09 PM I put a few more details in the Books section, but will repeat that the most disgusting and disturbing ( and for me eye-opening! ) chapter dealt with the ritual cannabilism performed by the Kwakiutl in British Columbia who would go so far as to cerimoniously eat the nearly-mummified corpses of their long-dead relatives! Somehow they had the ( RIGHT! ) idea that this *might* not be a "healthful" practice, so the Hamatsa or "priest" of the Cannibal Spirit Baxbakualanuxsiwae who bolted down the unchewed chunks of flesh counted them as he did so. Following this noxious "feast", his acolytes dragged him to the shore and forced salt water down his throat to make sure he vomited up ALL the pieces he'd swallowed! ( Fortunately, the Hamatsas were the only members of their society who had the "privellege" of eating human flesh; their numbers were limited, and the only way to "become" a Hamatsa was by replacing one who had died - or that you had killed! ) |
Fitzhugh Williams |
Posted - August 19 2010 : 08:05:32 AM You mean that Russel might be wrong about something? Oh, the humanity!!!
There is a first hand account in the JCB narrative about events leading up to Braddock's Defeat, where the Indians are ritualistically cooking and eating a captive. JCB is offered a piece of flesh and pretends to eat it but lets it fall into the ruffle of his shirt. I use this as documentation for ruffles on soldiers shirts even when they are in the field. |
Monadnock Guide |
Posted - August 18 2010 : 5:57:45 PM I hear you James, - I've read a number of "first person" accounts in books from trappers and explorers. Both in this country and Canada, - quite often NOT a pretty picture. Earlier Hollywood movies where the only "good Indian was a dead one" are just as far off base as todays "politically correct" versions. Rape, torture, slavery, incest, theft etc. were not strangers - simply a part of life. |
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