Note by Hunterbear:
This is something I sent today in response to a
query by a former student of mine -- a Native
person:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
From Hunterbear:
Always good to hear from you. Your speaking trip sounds really great
and quite promising.
While there has always been some ambiguity about scalping and its
origins in North America, the best evidence indicates the English introduced
it in "Massachusetts" -- aimed against the
Wabanaki [Abenaki/Abnaki] nations of Maine and environs in the very
early 1700s. At that time, the province/territory of Maine was part of
Massachusetts and Maine didn't become a state until 1820. Initially,
however, these payments-for-genocide started as literal head-hunting -- the
English had a bounty on Native heads [men and women and children and
babies]. But the English headhunters complained that
the heads were heavy and smelly during the summer "hunting season" --
so scalping was then approved. English "head-hunting" started as early as
the latter 1600s.
This is one of the reasons that the Abenaki and some Catholic Mohawks,
joined by the French, swept down from the north and burned the town of
Deerfield, Massachusetts in February, 1704 -- killing many of the adults,
But the Indians, following their usual practice, did NOT kill the children,
some of whom were taken north and raised as Indians in the Indian
communities. Samuel Gill and Rosalie James were among those taken as
extremely small children to the St Francis Abenaki mission town at Odanak,
Quebec and raised as Catholic Indians. They eventually married each other
and launched a very famous family line in Native circles that, of course,
endures to this very moment -- their many descendants marrying other
Indians. One of their sons, Joseph Louis Gill, although biologically white
[culturally 100% St Francis Abenaki], served as head chief of that band for
50 years. His first wife was killed by the English when "Rogers Rangers"
launched their infamously genocidal raid in October 1759, The classic work
by Fr. J.A. Maurault -- Histoire des Abenakis depus 1605 jusqu'à nos jours
[1866 and reissued in 1969] -- contains a detailed genealogical chapter on
the Gill family line and sets forth about 900 known descendants by the
mid-1860s
I'm one of thousands today whose considerable Native ancestry traces
to, among other Native rivers, that specific line.
In a word, the English were racist. The Natives were not.
Older Maine Indians today use the term "kinjamus" [King James] to
refer to scalping.
From there, it spread into other
parts of North America. The French held "Euro-Canada", of course,
until the end of the "French and Indian War" -- ca. Treaty of Paris, 1763 --
and, although the French were sometimes accused by the English of paying
bounty on English scalps, this has never been historically proven.
Scalping came into Canada via the English practice in Maine [Massachusetts.]
You're aware, of course, that Minnesota paid a bounty on Sioux scalps
in the early 1860s -- but protests ended this. The protests didn't stop the
US from its genocidal mass hanging of the 38 Sioux at Mankato, MN on
December 26, 1862.
Here is a post I made many months ago. It recommends a truly
excellent book on the Wabanaki tribes. I also quote from some of the English
scalp hunting proclamations cited in Frank Speck's excellent Penobscot Man:
The History of a Forest Tribe in Maine.
Take care, amigo. As Ever -- Hunter or John [or Anything]
WABANAKIS OF MAINE AND THE MARITIMES [A very fine book!]
Strongly, strongly recommended! [by Hunter Gray/Hunterbear]
I'm pushing, via this very broadly listed post, an excellent resource
book
on Native Americans -- the Wabanaki Indians [People of the Dawn.] It's
a
splendid piece of work indeed: THE WABANAKIS OF MAINE AND THE
MARITIMES [A
resource book by and about Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, Micmac
and
Abenaki Indians.] It's just reached me via a good friend, Ed
Nakawatase,
Indian Desk, American Friends Service Committee. Just off the AFSC
press,
this is the revised third edition of this very solid work which first
appeared in 1989.
The Wabanakis of Maine and the Maritimes is a great big paperback
book: 8.5
by 11 inches, 520 pages. History, culture, legends and stories, some
acculturation -- but never assimilation, personal accounts, a myriad
of
organized facts, all sorts of resource lists [e.g., comprehensive
listing of
Native governments/organizations/institutions], 110 illustrations
[including
maps] and photos, lesson plans and much more indeed -- plus [state
of the
art!] a separate CD with word pronunciations from the Wabanaki nations
plus
songs. Bibliography and index. There is material here for all
educational
levels.
It's very well organized and clearly written -- refreshingly lucid.
These are the Native people who first encountered Europeans well over
four
hundred years ago. And, despite the most brutal forces -- e.g.,
English
head and scalp bounty hunters, repeated treaty violations and colossal
land
theft by British and Americans and Canadians, attempted cultural
genocide
via assimilation, hostile neglect, the destruction of much of the old
hunting economy [e.g. caribou] and much of that of fishing, pervasive
poverty, urban pressures in crucibles such as Boston -- they have not
only
very much survived in the socio-cultural sense but have fought back.
And the Wabanakis have fought back hard and effectively over the
epochs in
countless local and regional struggles [e.g., land preservation,
treaty
maintenance, fishing and hunting rights] and massive,
precedent-setting
legal struggles such as the prolonged and relatively successful Maine
Indian
land claims case carried a generation and more ago by the Penobscot
and
Passamaquoddy nations -- with beneficial implications for a number of
other
tribal nations as well.
The book has just arrived at our Idaho door. And my daughter, Maria,
has
just indicated it to a Maliseet friend at Tobique, NB -- who has the
first
edition and who has immediately ordered this one.
When WABANAKIS initially appeared, an older cousin of mine who was/is
listed
therein as a principal member of the Curriculum Committee, immediately
sent
me a copy. Sadly, she -- a very active person over generations -- died
in
February, 1998. So it's especially good to see the fine work of
herself
and so many other authoritative Indian people carried forward --
especially
since my youngest son, Peter, borrowed my original copy and continues
to
retain it. [My cousin would be pleased, though not at all surprised,
with
Peter's tenacious hold.]
It's available as a book -- or as an unbound three-hole [binder not
included.] The cost is $30.00 [U.S. currency only] with shipping and
handling extra. Ordering information from American Friends Service
Committee, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1479. Tel:
215/241-7048 or Toll Free 888-588-2372.
============================================================================
===
From Frank G. Speck: Penobscot Man: The Life History of a Forest Tribe
in
Maine, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940 -- and several
subsequent
editions including an enlarged one in 1997:
Typical English bounty proclamations directed against the Wabanaki in
the
mid-1700s:
"Whereas the tribe of Penobscot Indians have repeatedly and in a
perfidious
manner acted contrary unto their solemn submission unto his Majesty
long
since made and frequently renewed . . .
For every scalp of a male Indian brought in as evidence of their being
killed as aforesaid, forty pounds.
For every scalp of such female Indian or male Indian under the age of
twelve
years, that shall be killed and brought in as evidence of their being
killed
as aforesaid, twenty pounds.
------------
For every Indian enemy that they shall kill and produce the scalp to
the
Government and Council in evidence, the sum of three hundred pounds.
--------------
Also, voted, that the same allowance be made to private persons who
shall .
. .kill any Indian enemy which is made to soldiers on the frontiers of
the
province. "
In Solidarity -
Hunter Gray [Hunterbear] Micmac / St Francis Abenaki / St Regis Mohawk
www.hunterbear.org
Protected by NaŽshdoŽiŽbaŽiŽ
Hunter Gray [Hunterbear]
www.hunterbear.org
Protected by NaŽshdoŽiŽbaŽiŽ
and Ohkwari'
In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the junipers and sage, on the
game trails, in the tributary canyons with the thick red maples, and on the
high windy ridges -- and they dance from within the very essence of our own
inner being. They do this especially when the bright night moon shines down
on the clean white snow that covers the valley and its surroundings. Then
it is as bright as day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and
remembering way. [Hunterbear]
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