Hi Myrna,

You know me - when I hear something that strikes my curiosity - I simply must do the research. I found the following at The Straight Dope.com http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2685/did-native-americans-learn-scalping-from-europeans

Did native Americans learn scalping from Europeans?

A friendly London cab driver who knew a lot about American history told me Indians never scalped their slain enemies until the white man showed up and taught them. Can you cast some light on this claim?

— Taylor Waller, UK

Call it a case of parallel development, Taylor. Scalping; that is, the excision of the scalp and (usually) attached hair of one's (usually) dead enemies for display, exchange, or (if the victim wasn't dead) torture; is one of those classic concepts for which no single group can take all the credit. Native Americans didn't get the idea from Europeans, but the arrivistes encouraged them to bring it to what was arguably its fullest flowering.

The Seneca leader Cornplanter was perhaps the first to suggest Europeans imported scalping, in 1820, but the idea didn't become prominent till the 1960s and '70s. By then contrary evidence was mounting, but let's concede an important point: scalping has a long history in the Old World. Herodotus recorded scalping by ancient Scythians in central Asia, and archaeologists have since unearthed skulls with likely scalping marks at Scythian sites. Evidence indicates Europeans were scalping from the Stone Age till as late as 1036 in England.

Still, Europeans didn't introduce scalping to America. New World peoples invented it independently, probably multiple times; it's a natural progression from headhunting, scalps being less bulky than noggins and having fewer dribbly bits. By 1492, whites remembered scalping, if at all, as a quaint defunct custom. When explorers stumbled on the practice in two separate regions of South America in addition to North America, they apparently found it perplexing and couldn't agree on what to call it, with multiple terms long competing in each European language. In contrast, some native language families possessed common and apparently ancient scalping vocabularies. Explorers described Indians scalping each other in Mexico (1520), Canada (1535), Florida (1563), and elsewhere. In 1540 Simón Rodriguez, of Hernando de Soto's party, may have become the first white man scalped by Indians.

Since 1940 archaeologists have discovered hundreds of pre-Columbian skulls with scalping marks at North American sites ranging from Georgia to Arizona to the Dakotas. A few predate even the abortive Viking explorations. Many of the skulls come from a single site in South Dakota where almost 500 people were massacred and scalped around 1325 AD, refuting the common contention that scalping in the Plains arose after 1492. At least one instance of pre-Columbian artwork depicts a warrior toting scalps.

Scalping wasn't universal in North America. Eskimos never scalped. Though generally quite common east of the Rockies before white contact, the practice was rare in parts of the northeast, and in the far west was encountered only sporadically. (Some nonscalping tribes did mutilate their dead enemies, collecting heads or other trophies such as fingers.) The introduction of horses, metal knives, and guns, combined with territorial pressures, probably increased warfare and scalping. But only after the white man put the practice on a solid business foundation, by offering scalp bounties, did it really take off and spread to previously nonparticipating peoples.

Though the Spanish in Mexico had earlier offered head bounties, New Englanders were apparently the first to grasp the usefulness of scalps as proof of death. In 1637 they began paying their Indian allies for either the heads of their Pequot enemies or, when the return distance was too great, the scalps. New Englanders were also first to pay whites for Indian scalps (1675-76). The egalitarian French upped the ante in 1688 by offering to pay for any enemy scalps, white or Indian.

High scalp bounties (up to 100 pounds in 1704) encouraged grave robbing and inspired suspicion that entrepreneurs were killing friendlies for their pelts. Even men of God couldn't restrain themselves. One chaplain scalped two Indians in the 1720s only to be dispatched by friends of the deceased before he could claim his bounty. Another enterprising minister provisioned scalping gangs in return for a third of the cut.

Because they could be exchanged, captives generally commanded higher prices than scalps, but capture was a riskier proposition. In New Hampshire in 1697 Hannah Dustin and some fellow colonists killed their ten Indian captors, including six children, while they slept. Hannah had the good sense to collect the scalps, earning herself 50 pounds by some accounts.

Europeans didn't take a backseat to the locals when it came to inventive brutality. Spaniards may have introduced burning alive to the southeast; at least scalping victims were generally dead first. New Englanders displayed the heads of rebel Indians, just as the English did with Irish rebels. Let's not forget the biowarfare plan to infect Indians with smallpox that I've discussed before. (The Straight Dope: Did whites ever give Native Americans blankets infected with smallpox?) European soldiers often raped female captives, whereas by reputation Indians (at least those east of the Rockies) didn't. I wouldn't make too much of this, though. Newcomers and natives had their differences, but in their willingness to butcher their enemies they found common ground.

— Cecil Adams

Whatever the case may be, sounds quite Barbaric, doesn't it? Here's one of the most Peaceful Native American songs which I could find - River Song - enjoy, my Dear Friend.

Have A Blessed Evening My Friend,

Phil

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the information on scalping.

Check this one out.

God's Medicine

by Chief Noble Red Man,
Lakota Wisdomkeeper Mathew King

People ask me if I'm a medicine man. Well,I'm not. Some of our Indian people were blessed with that power in thepast. They're all gone now.

Today our people know only a little medicine. It's a specialknowledge. You can't read it in books. You can't inherit it. It can'tbe bought or sold. This knowledge can come to you only through theGreat Spirit.

We had great medicine men. I'll tellyou about one I knew when I was a boy. This was in 1908 or 1910, and myfamily was traveling from Pine Ridge to a summer get-together inSantee, Nebraska. There were no cars in those days. We traveled incovered wagons, and it took twelve days to get to Santee. On the way itwas so hot my little sister — she was about five — got sick. Sunstroke orsomething. By the time we reached Santee she was unconscious, almostdead. We set up a tipi and put her in there, out of the sun.

My mother saw our cousin Vine Deloria, and he took one look at my sister and said, "Let's go get Dr. Queen — he's here!"

So they ran and brought a man back to the tipi. He wore a suit and anecktie, not Indian dress. But he had black hair flowing down to hiswaist. He was a medicine man — one of the greatest.

He put his hand on my sister's body. "There's a cold spot insideher," he said. "It's cold and it's spreading. If we don't stop it,she'll die. We've got to heat her up from the inside. There's only onething that will work."

He went out, and a little while later he cameback with some roots, each about the size of my little finger. Hescraped off the skin and then sliced them up.

"I need a wooden bowl," he said. "We got to boil these."

In those days, when you wanted to offer a spiritual thing you used a wooden bowl, you didn't use the White Man's bowl.

"How you going to boil them in a wooden bowl?" my mother asked him.

Dr. Queen said, "You'll see."

So she gave him a wooden bowl with water in it. Dr. Queen put theroots in the bowl. Then he put it on a table and he held his hands overthe bowl like you hold your hands over a hot stove. A whole crowd ofpeople gathered around, watching him, wondering how he was going tomake that water boil.

"Watch!" he said.

They watched. Pretty soon, someone said, "Look! Look!"

The roots started moving in the water, just a little at first, thenmore and more, until it seemed as if they were alive, wriggling aroundin the water like snakes.

And then they started to smoke!

There was no fire, mind you, just the wooden bowl sitting on thetable. But the roots began to smoke. Pretty soon the water startedboiling and steaming like water boils on a stove. But there was nostove.

"That's God's power," Dr. Queen told us.

Then he gave the bowl to my mother. "Strain it," he said, "then give it to her. Put it to her mouth with a wooden spoon."

So my mother gave the hot broth to my sister, who was still asleep.She put it to her lips with a wooden spoon and then let her sleep somemore.

That night they held prayers for my sister at seven o'clock. Theysang spirit-songs. I went back and forth from the prayer meeting to thetipi to see how my sister was doing. I thought she was going to die. Sodid everybody.

An hour later we were all standing around her. We were all crying.And then she opened her eyes. She sat up like she was waking from anap. She yawned. She rubbed her eyes.

She looked at all of us.

"Why is everyone crying?" she asked.

Dr. Queen said, "Give her some more broth to drink." So my mother gave her some more broth and she drank it.

"Now let her rest," Dr. Queen said.

So after that we went back to the meeting and sang more spirit-songs. That happened about nine o'clock.

And all of a sudden, here she comes! My little sister, she cameright up and stood beside me where we were singing. She was smiling. Iasked her it she was all right.

"There's nothing wrong with me," she said. And there wasn't. She didn't even remember being sick.

So that's the power of God's medicine.

FINDING YOUR POWER

Every person has to find their own power, because each of uspossesses a certain power. Search yourself for that power, know how toreach it inside yourself, and then use that power in harmony withGod — for good and not for evil.

Blessings,

Myrna

Hi Myrna,

Thanks for the Story regarding the Medicine Man. Although I have never witnessed Natural Healing by a Native American Meicine Man, I have witnessed Spirit Healing numerous times and I do know that through the power of His Holy Spirit, all things are possible.

Here is a copy of the Seven Sacred Prayers...

The Sacred Seven Prayers

O Great Spirit, who art before all else and who dwells in every object, in every person and in every place, we cry unto Thee. We summon Thee from the far places into our present awareness.

O Great Spirit of the North, who gives wings to the waters of the air and rolls the thick snowstorm before Thee, Who covers the Earth with a sparkling crystal carpet above whose deep tranquillity every sound is beautiful. Temper us with strength to withstand the biting blizzards, yet make us thankful for the beauty which follows and lies deep over the warm Earth in its wake.

O Great Spirit of the East, the land of the rising Sun, Who holds in Your right hand the years of our lives and in Your left the opportunities of each day. Brace us that we may not neglect our gifts nor lose in laziness the hopes of each day and the hopes of each year.

O Great Spirit of the South, whose warm breath of compassion melts the ice that gathers round our hearts, whose fragrance speaks of distant springs and summer days, dissolve our fears, melt our hatreds, kindle our love into flames of true and living realities. Teach us that he who is truly strong is also kind, he who is wise tempers justice with mercy, he who is truly brave matches courage with compassion.

O Great Spirit of the West, the land of the setting Sun, with Your soaring mountains and free, wide rolling prairies, bless us with knowledge of the peace which follows purity of striving and the freedom which follows like a flowing robe in the winds of a well-disciplined life. Teach us that the end is better than the beginning and that the setting sun glorifies not in vain.

O Great Spirit of the heavens, in the day's infinite blue and amid the countless stars of the night season, remind us that you are vast, that you are beautiful and majestic beyond all of our knowing or telling, but also that you are no further from us than the tilting upwards of our heads and the raising of our eyes.

O Great Spirit of Mother Earth beneath our feet, Master of metals, Germinator of seeds and the Storer of the Earth's unreckoned resources, help us to give thanks unceasingly for Your present bounty.

O Great Spirit of our souls, burning in our heart's yearning and in our innermost aspirations, speak to us now and always so that we may be aware of the greatness and goodness of Your gift of life and be worthy of this priceless privilege of living.

©1996 Noel Knockwood, B.A

And another favorite from YouTube...

Have A Blessed & Peaceful Wekend My Dear Friend,

Phil

Hi Myrna just wanted to stop by & wish you & the Native Amercian forum members a Merry Christmas & happy new year!

Here is "We wish you a Merry Christmas" played on Native American flutes: