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
