I am reading about Canadian history. A repeated motif is the horrific cruelty with which Native Americans treated captured or defeated prisoners, who were tortured to death in slow and ritualistic fashion.
These practices seem to have been widespread across diverse nations and cultures, over several centuries, and across a wide geographical area (extending at least from the Iroquois of what is now New York State to Athabaskan peoples of the North-west).
One example is the story, reported by Samuel Hearne, of an ambush by a group of Dené on an Inuit camp. The Inuit were asleep in their tents and were slaughtered. Later, the Dené found an elderly Inuit woman fishing for salmon nearby. They tortured and killed her.
My question is, why the torture? Surely it takes much more effort to submit someone to a protracted torture than to kill them outright. So they must have had a compelling reason.
In another separate case reported by Radisson, Iroquois prisoners were deliberately kept alive and carried away in canoes by victorious Ojibwa for the purpose of torturing them later, “to burn them at our own leisure for the more satisfaction of our wives”.
A pre-emptive request: please don’t post to tell me that other cultures also perpetrated terrible cruelties. I know that, but that is not what my question is about. My question relates to the motivation and intended purpose of specific behaviour by North American peoples.
Entertainment, and intimidation of enemies.
Same reason as the other cultures you mentioned.
From what I’ve read, it seldom included sexual assault except by the Comanches. Tell that to almost any other invading army and they’d ask “well then so what’s the point?”
I believe I read some years ago that it was thought that strenght was gained by the pain caused to your ememyies.
I know virtually nothing about this, so this may be a naive question, but…
Do we have verification of this torture from unbiased sources? It’s well-known that the settlers would fabricate stories about Native Peoples’ barbarism to justify their slaughter. The only person you quote has a Western sounding name, so I have to wonder.
Beyond that, if these allegations are factual, I would guess they tortured for all the same reasons anyone does it. I realize you don’t want to compare the situations, but people are people. I doubt there was some extra special reason native American’s tortured, as opposed to every other group of humanity that has done so.
Probably the same reason we were doing it recently, it’s a vengeful act. Except for sociopaths there’s never any other reason.
I’ve read this too, long ago. Generally speaking pain has a magical quality and you can use that by inflicting pain on others or yourself, so self torture was also rather wide spread (Sun Dance, for instance). I also read that being tortured as a prisoner of war was considered almost an honor, because the enemy only tortured great warriors, there was no point in torturing people you didn’t respect. I even recall reading how one apache indian during the torturing complained they didn’t come up with better methods and taunted the torturers because he felt he deserved better, and actually discussed the matter during a pause. It was a long time I read about this, I don’t know if it’s true but judging from the books I read I don’t think it was all bs either.
Was this specific kind of cruelty (the routine and ritualised torture to death of captured enemies) widespread or nearly universal among pre-state societies all over the world, and not just in North America? If so, then my question is not specific to Native Americans.
The “intimidation of enemies” is a convincing argument. For example, in the War of 1812 the American commander of Fort Detroit surrendered to an inferior force of British and Indian troops. When court-martialled, he argued that he had acted in conscience to save Detroit and the Territory “from the horrors of an Indian massacre”.
Similarly, Fort William Henry in New York province was surrendered in 1757 under threat of an “Indian massacre”. (Although in this case, the French were unable to completely restrain their native allies and a limited massacre took place.)