Native American Thoughts on Killing the Enemy
We shudder at the cruel torture inflicted by the Indian on the captives condemned to death. Yet he was no more cruel than the religious zealots of Europe, who in the very same century that the colonies were founded, were skinning and disemboweling the heretics under the hideous misbelief that they were saving their souls. In his own way the Indian was no less logical or consistent. He sought to make his foe incapable of harming him again. If possible he made sure of killing his adversary. He scalped and mutilated, not merely to preserve a trophy of his victory, but in accordance with his belief that no man may enter the future world who is disfigured in body or limb. He killed the wife so that she might not bear any more children to grow up and avenge the slain husband. He killed the boys because they would grow into warriors, and he killed the girls, because they would become the mothers of more warriors. If he spared a life, it was to adopt the captive into his own tribe in order to inrease its\ strength. Finally he burned the house in order to damage the enemy that much more.
57 gruesome tales of Indian capture and torture
