- Joined
- Oct 6, 2018
That's a pretty staggering number.In case anyone was curious about the actual archaeological data on this subject, Our World In Data put together an interesting meta-study presentation that covers the topic here, with a fairly extensive biography should you want to do further research on one particular group or era:
Ethnographic and Archaeological Evidence on Violent Deaths
Some of the numbers are pretty horrifying, suggesting (for example) that over 60% of total deaths among the South Dakota Creek ca. 1325 were human-inflicted. North American Indian tribes prior to European contact appear to have been extraordinarily violent even compared to other tribal societies around the world.
Reading Samuel Hearne's journal is somewhat illuminating about a NA tribe he considered one of the most placid, reasonable and peaceful. Written 5 years before the Declaration of Independence:
"Notwithstanding the Northern Indians are so covetous, and pay so little regard to private property as to take every advantage of bodily strength to rob their neighbours, not only of their goods, but of their wives, yet they are, in other respects, the mildest tribe, or nation, that is to be found on the borders of Hudson's Bay: for let their affronts or losses be ever so great, they never will seek any other revenge than that of wrestling. As for murder, which is so common among all the tribes of Southern Indians, it is seldom heard of among them..... The women, it is true, sometimes receive an unlucky blow from their husbands for misbehaviour, which occasions their death; but this is thought nothing of: and for one man or woman to kill another out of revenge, or through jealousy, or on any other account, is so extraordinary, that very few are now existing who have been guilty of it. At the present moment I know not one, beside Matonabbee, who ever made an attempt of that nature; and he is, in every other respect, a man of such universal good sense, and, as an Indian, of such great humanity, that I am at a loss how to account for his having been guilty of such a crime, unless it be by his having lived among the Southern Indians so long, as to become tainted with their blood-thirsty, revengeful, and vindictive disposition.
And yet, the account has regular mention of women being stolen into harems, beaten, used as pack animals. Some talk of cannibalism, rampant theft, sadistic pleasure in women suffering, that sort of thing. Huge issues with regular periods of starvation. The entire expedition was only undertaken because the tribe wanted to go out and kill some Inuit, since their anti-murder stance was only internal to the tribe. In the slaughter of the Inuit:
In a few seconds the horrible scene commenced; it was shocking beyond description; the poor unhappy victims were surprised in the midst of their sleep, and had neither time nor power to make any resistance; men, women, and children, in all upward of twenty, ran out of their tents stark naked, and endeavoured to make their escape; but the Indians having possession of all the land-side, to no place could they fly for shelter. One alternative only remained, that of jumping into the river; but, as none of them attempted it, they all fell a sacrifice to Indian barbarity!
The shrieks and groans of the poor expiring wretches were truly dreadful; and my horror was much increased at seeing a young girl, seemingly about eighteen years of age, killed so near me, that when the first spear was stuck into her side she fell down at my feet, and twisted round my legs, so that it was with difficulty that I could disengage myself from her dying grasps. As two Indian men pursued this unfortunate victim, I solicited very hard for her life; but the murderers made no reply till they had stuck both their spears through her body, and transfixed her to the ground. They then looked me sternly in the face, and began to ridicule me, by asking if I wanted an Esquimaux wife; and paid not the smallest regard to the shrieks and agony of the poor wretch, who was twining round their spears like an eel!
It ought to have been mentioned in its proper place, that in making our retreat up the river, after killing the Esquimaux on the West side, we saw an old woman sitting by the side of the water, killing salmon,..... It was in vain that she attempted to fly, for the wretches of my crew transfixed her to the ground in a few seconds, and butchered her in the most savage manner. There was scarcely a man among them who had not a thrust at her with his spear; and many in doing this, aimed at torture, rather than immediate death, as they not only poked out her eyes, {159} but stabbed her in many parts very remote from those which are vital.
These were natives who had just begun to interact with Eurpoeans. Probably Hearne was the first one for many of them. The modern narrative of some idyllic NA existence is completely false, as shown in the accounts of any first/early contact-ers that I know of, like de Cabeza, Champlain, etc...
All that narrative is good for is for self-loathing whites and POC charlatans to try to elicit guilt, sympathy, or money from white people, AFAIC.