Scalping

Kentuckians invading Shawnee villages in southern Ohio dug up graves to take scalps for trophies. Scalp bounties and scalp-taking also took place during the War of 1812 and in the American invasion of the West. Reports of scalping cease with the close of the Plains Wars at the end of the nineteenth century. Following their entry into the New World, Europeans both adopted and encouraged scalping. During King Philip’s War (1675–1676) in New England, the colonies of Connecticut and Massachusetts offered bounties for the scalps of their Wampanoag enemies. Colonial authorities would pay ten shillings to Indians and thirty shillings to non-Indians for every enemy scalp.

American Psychological Association

The Chiricahua Apache saw the taking of an enemy’s scalp as disgusting, and declined the practice. Scalping is the removal of the skin and hair from atop the victim’s skull, usually accomplished with a knife. While long believed to be a traditional Native American practice, modern apologists have argued that Europeans introduced the custom of taking scalps from slain or captive enemies in America.

American Psychological Association

In 1688 they offered ten beaver pelts for every scalp—Indian or Puritan—brought to them. While Indians had practiced scalping for centuries, these bounties probably did encourage the spread of scalping to tribes who had not previously done so, or who had scalped only infrequently in the past. What Is a Stock Index For the Indians of the North American Plains and their neighbors to the east, those of the Great Lakes, the Eastern Woodlands, and the Gulf Coast, war was a major social tradition. Combatants in all these areas took scalps in the course of warfare, although how a scalp was taken and handled varied according to local customs. Plains Indians generally took scalps from the center of the victim’s head, pulling hair and a silver dollar-sized piece of skin away after a circular incision.

American Psychological Association

• Various scalping traditions can be traced from Alaska to Mexico, and sporadically even into South America.
• Scalping is the removal of the skin and hair from atop the victim’s skull, usually accomplished with a knife.
• Plains Indians generally took scalps from the center of the victim’s head, pulling hair and a silver dollar-sized piece of skin away after a circular incision.
• Scalp bounties and scalp-taking also took place during the War of 1812 and in the American invasion of the West.
• The Chiricahua Apache saw the taking of an enemy’s scalp as disgusting, and declined the practice.
• During King Philip’s War (1675–1676) in New England, the colonies of Connecticut and Massachusetts offered bounties for the scalps of their Wampanoag enemies.

Scalping and scalp bounties continued through the colonial wars of the eighteenth century, with a noticeable increase in colonists’ willingness to scalp Indian enemies. During the American Revolution, British Colonel Henry Hamilton at Detroit drew the derisive nickname « hair buyer » because he encouraged his Indian allies to attack the rebels and to exchange enemy scalps for bounties. South Carolina’s legislature offered seventy-five pounds for male scalps, and Pennsylvania’s offered one thousand dollars for every Indian scalp.

American Psychological Association

• Kentuckians invading Shawnee villages in southern Ohio dug up graves to take scalps for trophies.
• In 1688 they offered ten beaver pelts for every scalp—Indian or Puritan—brought to them.
• Scalping and scalp bounties continued through the colonial wars of the eighteenth century, with a noticeable increase in colonists’ willingness to scalp Indian enemies.
• Nevertheless, references to Indians’ scalping made by the earliest of European explorers, the elaborate methods and rituals often surrounding Indian scalping, and archaeological evidence in the form of telltale cut marks on pre-Columbian skulls indicate that scalping was a native practice prior to 1492.
• Following their entry into the New World, Europeans both adopted and encouraged scalping.

Nevertheless, references to Indians’ scalping made by the earliest of European explorers, the elaborate methods and rituals often surrounding Indian scalping, and archaeological evidence in the form of telltale cut marks on pre-Columbian skulls indicate that scalping was a native practice prior to 1492. Various scalping traditions can be traced from Alaska to Mexico, and sporadically even into South America.