Scalp Dance

Now we must take this with a grain of salt as the author relies on propaganda pieces:
http://ift.tt/1hgBOGV

Quote:

When encounters occurred, it was almost always on the Indians’ terms. Though pitched battles and dramatic charges did occur, especially when the odds favored them, hit-and-run tactics were the warriors’ forte. And, after years of practice, the Indian had become a master of them. Expecting the open and “manly” combat displayed during the American Civil War, many novices to the plains at first laughed at what they construed as cowardly behavior. “I only wish you could witness the Indian mode of fighting; it really is amusing sometimes!” Albert Barnitz wrote to his wife, Jennie. “The Indians maneuver so much like wolves! They always ride at full speed, whooping, and . . . are no sooner driven from one sand hill, than they pop up on another, always passing around its base, and ascending it from the far side.” If Barnitz initially found Indian tactics amusing, he and many others soon discovered that they were engaged in deadly serious work. The captain continues: [They are] always watching for a chance to make a dash, and cut off some straggler, or drive through some thin part of a line! One morning, just as we were breaking camp, a party dashed down suddenly and cut off two men of “F” Troop, and 4 horses and were off like a flash, carrying off the men—whom they had wounded—on their ponies—a vigorous and immediate pursuit forced them to drop one of the men, who although badly wounded will probably recover, but the other could not be rescued, and if he lived long enough they doubtless had a war dance around and tortured him to death. “[i]n less time than it takes to write this, six Indians dashed up out of that hidden gully, filled Blair with arrows, took his scalp, then tomahawked him right before our eyes.” So wrote Alson Ostrander, sketching a scene he and hundreds of horrified soldiers would witness during their years on the plains. As Ostrander, Barnitz, and others learned firsthand, those who treated Indian tactics lightly, did so at their peril. Moreover, any who at first discounted the warriors’ weapons gained new respect after suddenly facing them. Although hostiles increasingly carried firearms, the bow and arrow remained their weapon of choice. As an officer’s wife, Margaret Carrington, sagely noted: Popular opinion has regarded the Indian bow and arrow as something primitive . . . and quite useless in a contest with the white man. This idea would be excellent if the Indian warriors would calmly march up in line of battle and risk their masses . . . against others armed with the rifle. . . . At fifty yards, a well-shapen, iron-pointed arrow is dangerous and very sure. A handful drawn from the quiver and discharged successively will make a more rapid fire than that of a revolver, and at very short range will farther penetrate a piece of plank or timber than the ball of an ordinary Colt’s navy pistol. Added Captain Eugene Ware: While a revolver could shoot six times quickly . . . it could not be reloaded on horseback on a run with somebody pursuing. But the Indian could shoot six arrows that were as good as six shots from a revolver at close range and then he could shoot twenty-four more in rapid succession. And so, when a soldier had shot out all his cartridges he was a prey to the Indian with a bow and arrow who followed him. There was another item about which newcomers to the West were soon made aware of. Of all the horrors the plains had to offer, falling into hostile hands alive was the most terrible. “Save the last bullet for yourself” was stock advice uttered in deadly earnest. “The great real fact,” declared one colonel, “is that these Indians take alive when possible, and slowly torture.” “You could always tell which casualties had been wounded [first],” one sergeant reminisced, “because the little Indians and the squaws, after removing the clothes, would shoot them full with arrows and chop them in the faces with hatchets. They never mutilated a dead man, just those who had been wounded.” “A favorite method of torture was to ‘stake out’ the victim,” revealed Colonel Richard Dodge: He was stripped of his clothing, laid on his back on the ground and his arms and legs, stretched to the utmost, were fastened by thongs to pins driven into the ground. In this state he was not only helpless, but almost motionless. All this time the Indians pleasantly talked to him. It was all kind of a joke. Then a small fire was built near one of his feet. When that was so cooked as to have little sensation, another fire was built near the other foot; then the legs and arms and body until the whole person was crisped. Finally a small fire was built on the naked breast and kept up until life was extinct. A similar procedure used by the red torturers was to slice with a sharp knife a small inch of skin on the foot then peel it up slowly in long strips until the head was reached. This agonizing procedure was repeated on all sides of the body until the crazed victim eventually “seeped” to death hours, even days, later.

Now, a chunk of these quotes are unnamed and one sided. Was this amazon review points out, he doesn't give all sides.
http://ift.tt/1hgBOGX
And indeed seems to manipulate history by ignoring context as well.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1IWaG6D