Talk:Native American Confederacy

Scalping

Scalping an enemy was not unique to the American Indian. Trophies from battle have always been taken by warriors throughout history. Historian Mark van de Logt wrote, "Although military historians tend to reserve the concept of 'total war' for conflicts between modern industrial nations, the term nevertheless most closely approaches the state of affairs between the Pawnees and the Sioux and Cheyennes. Noncombatants were legitimate targets. Indeed, the taking of a scalp of a woman or child was considered honorable because it signified that the scalp taker had dared to enter the very heart of the enemy's territory."

The Crow Creek massacre occurred around the mid 1300s AD between Siouan-speaking people and the Mandan people who first occupied the site sometime around 900 AD. In what is now part of the Crow Creek Indian Reservation about 500 bodies resulting from a massacre that too place about 1325 CE were unearthed. About 90 percent of the skulls show evidence of scalping. The attack was likely domination of territory because there was evidence of some malnutrition at that time.