Native American Tribes That Practiced Cannibalism

Native American Tribes That Practiced Cannabalism

Cannibalism. In one form or another 
Cannibalism has been practiced among pros- 
ably all peoples at some period of their tribal 
life. In America there are numerous recorded 
References to its occurrence within historic 
times among the Brazilians, Carib of northern 
South America, the Aztec and other Mexican 
tribes, and among many of the Indians n. of 
Mexico. The word itself, now more commonlj^ 
used than the older term anthropophagy, is 
derived from Carib through Spanish corrup- 
tion. Restricting treatment of the subject to 
the tribes n. of Mexico, many evidences of can- 
nibalism in some form are found — from the 
ingestion, perhaps obligatory, of small quanti- 
ties of human flesh, blood, brain, or marrow, 
as a matter of ceremony, to the consumption of 
such parts for food under stress of hunger, or 
even as a matter of taste. Among the tribes 
which practised it, in one or another of these 
forms, may be mentioned the Montagnais, and 
some of the tribes of Maine; the Algonkin, 
Armouchiquois, Micmac, and Iroquois; farther 
w. the Assiniboin, Cree, Foxes, Miami, Ottawa, 
Chippewa, llinois, Kickapoo, Sioux, and Win- 
nebago; in the s. the people who built the 
mounds in Florida (see Colusa), and the Ton- 
kawa, Attacapa, Karankawa, Kiowa, Caddo, 
and Comanche(?) ; in the n. w. and w. portions 
of the continent, the Thhngchadinneh and other 
Athapascan tribes, the Thngit, Heiltsuk, 
Kwakiutl, Tsimshian, Nootka, Siksika, some 
of the Californian tribes, and the Ute. There 
is also a tradition of the practice among the 
Hopi, and allusions to the custom among other 
tribes of Arizona and New Mexico. The 
Mohawk, and the Attacapa, Tonkawa, and 
other Texas tribes were known to their neigh- 
bours as "man-eaters." 

Taking all the evidence into consideration, 
it appears that cannibalism n. of the Mexican 
boundary existed in two chief forms. One of 
these was accidental, from necessity as a result 
of famine, and has been witnessed among the 
Huron, Micmac, Chippewa, Etchareottine, 
and others. In most of such instances recourse 
was had to the bodies of those who had recently 
died, but cases are recorded in which individu- 
als were killed to satisfy hunger. The second 
and prevalent form of cannibalism was a part 
of war custom and was based principally on the 
belief that bravery and other desirable qualities 
of an enemy would pass, through actual inges- 
tion of a part of his body, into that of the con- 
sumer. Such qualities were supposed to have 
their special seat in the heart, hence this organ 
was chiefly sought, though blood, brain, mar- 
row, and flesh were in many instances also 
swallowed. The parts were eaten either raw 
or cooked. The heart belonged usually to the 
warriors, but other parts were occasionally 
consumed by boys or even by women and 
children. In some cases a small portion of the 
heart or of some other part of an enemy might 
be eaten in order to free the eater from some 
tabu (Grinnell) . The idea of eating any other 
human being than a brave enemy was to most 
Indians repulsive. One of the means of torture 
among the Indians of Canada and New York 
was the forcing of a prisoner to swallow pieces 
of his own flesh. 

Among the Iroquois, according to one of the 
Jesuit fathers, the eating of captives was con- 
sidered a religious duty. Among the Heiltsuk, 
and recently among the Tsimshian and Kwaki- 
utl, cannibalism formed a part of one of their 
ceremonies. Several instances are recorded in 
which cannibalism was indulged in by individ- 
uals while in a frenzied state. Finally, it 
seems that among a few tribes, as the Tonkawa, 
Iroquois, and others, man-eating, though still 
with captives as the victims, was practised on 
a larger scale, and with the acquired taste for 
human flesh as one, if not the chief, incentive; 
yet the Tonkawa, as well as some men long 
associated with them, declared that the eating 
of human flesh by them was only ceremonial. 

Indian mythology and beliefs are replete with 
references to man-eating giants, monsters, and 
deities, which point to the possibility that 
anthropophagy in some form was a practice 
with which the aborigines have long been 
acquainted. 

                                Gruesome tales of Indian capture and torure