The Archetypal Pan in America by Sukey Fontelieu

Author:Sukey Fontelieu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2018-05-08T00:00:00+00:00

This form of warfare was considered part of the warrior’s code of honor (2005). Their fierce attacks on frontiers people, cavalry forts, and the rivers of wagon trains engendered fear in many and led to the wars that brought their downfall (2005).

Projection of savagery onto Native Americans

The white settler’s projection of aggression and savagery onto the Indians is entirely misleading, not because the Indians did not torture their victims, but because the colonial Americans did as well. There are numerous accounts of brutality by the cavalry and vigilante groups (Goodwin, 1998; Meyer, 2005). For instance, in 1862 Geronimo’s mentor, the Chiracahua chief Mangas Colorados, was killed by the 7th US cavalry while inside their fort. He was decapitated, his head boiled, and then sent back east for display (Geronimo, 1996).

The following are eye-witness reports of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre of a village of Arapaho and Kiowas. Robert Bent, US Cavalry guide said, “When we came in sight of the camp I saw the American flag waving and heard Black Kettle tell the Indians to stand around it… . I saw a white flag raised. These flags were in so conspicuous a position that they must have been seen” (as cited in Hoig, 1982, p. 192). In another example of hypermasculinity, the desire to fight overcame the rule of law and the soldiers attacked without mercy.

I saw the bodies of those lying there cut all to pieces, worse mutilated than any I ever saw before; the women cut all to pieces … with knives; scalped; their brains knocked out; children two or three months old; all ages lying there, from sucking infants up to warriors… . By whom were they mutilated? By the United States troops.

(John S. Smith, Congressional Testimony of Mr John S. Smith, 1865, as cited in Scott, R., Editor, 2004, p. 192)

Fingers and ears were cut off the bodies for the jewelry they carried. The body of White Antelope, lying solitarily in the creek bed, was a prime target. Besides scalping him the soldiers cut off his nose, ears, and testicles – the last for a tobacco pouch.

(Hoig, 1982, p. 153, footnote 9)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.