Native American Big Mouth Spring with decorated scalp lock on right shoulder.

Robert McGee, scalped as a child by Sioux Chief Little Turtle in 1864.

Scalping is the act of removing the scalp, usually with the hair, as a trophy of war. Scalping is usually associated with frontier warfare in North America, and was practiced by Native Americans and white frontiersmen over centuries of violent conflict. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2794x3762, 1100 KB) Native American Big Mouth Spring, three-quarter length portrait, standing, facing right, braids, one feather, beaded buckskin shirt, decorated scalp lock on right shoulder, black silk neckerchief. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2794x3762, 1100 KB) Native American Big Mouth Spring, three-quarter length portrait, standing, facing right, braids, one feather, beaded buckskin shirt, decorated scalp lock on right shoulder, black silk neckerchief. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2469x3790, 1499 KB) Robert McGee, scalped as a child by Sioux Chief Little Turtle in 1864. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2469x3790, 1499 KB) Robert McGee, scalped as a child by Sioux Chief Little Turtle in 1864. ... The Sioux (also: Lakota) are a Native American people. ... Michikinikwa (Little Turtle) (1752-July 14, 1812) was a chief of the Miami tribe in what is presently Indiana. ... The scalp is the skin on the head from which head hair grows. ... On the theory of the meaning of the frontier see Frontier Thesis. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... It has been suggested that Sexual Victimization of Native American Women be merged into this article or section. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Scalping was practiced by the ancient Scythians of Eurasia. Herodotus, the Greek historian, wrote of the Scythians in 440 BC: "The Scythian soldier scrapes the scalp clean of flesh and softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a napkin. The Scyth is proud of these scalps and hangs them from his bridle rein; the greater the number of such napkins that a man can show, the more highly is he esteemed among them. Many make themselves cloaks by sewing a quantity of these scalps together." Scythian warriors, drawn after figures on an electrum cup from the KulOba kurgan burial near Kerch. ... Eurasia African-Eurasian aspect of Earth Eurasia is the landmass composed of Europe and Asia. ... Bust of Herodotus at Naples Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: Ήροδοτος, Herodotos) was a historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC-ca. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: History For other senses of this word, see history (disambiguation). ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC - 440s BC - 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC Years: 445 BC 444 BC 443 BC 442 BC 441 BC - 440 BC - 439 BC 438 BC...

According to historian James Axtell, there is no evidence that the early European explorers and settlers in the Americas were familiar with this practice of the Scythians, or that they ever taught scalping to Native Americans. There is clear evidence, says Axtell, that the practice of scalping existed long before Europeans arrived, primarily in North America. The theory that Native Americans learned the practice of scalping from Europeans first appeared in the 1690s and is still professed by some writers and activists, but this belief is not supported by most academic scholars. This article is about the continent. ... The Americas (sometimes referred to as America) is the area including the land mass located between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, generally divided into North America and South America. ...

It is believed that contact with Europeans widened the practice of scalping among Native Americans, since some Euro-American governments encouraged the practice among their Native American allies during times of war. For example, in the American Revolutionary War, Henry Hamilton, the British Lieutenant-Governor of Canada, was known by American Patriots as the "hair-buyer general" because it was believed he encouraged and paid his Native American allies to scalp American settlers. When Hamilton was captured in the war by the Americans, he was treated as a war criminal instead of a prisoner of war because of this. However, both Native Americans and American frontiersmen frequently scalped their victims in this era. 2000 density of European Americans A European American, or more commonly a Euro-American, is an American of European descent, usually referring to Whites or Caucasians. ... Combatants American Revolutionaries, France, Netherlands, Spain, Native Americans Great Britain, German mercenaries, Loyalists, Native Americans Commanders George Washington Comte de Rochambeau Nathanael Greene William Howe Henry Clinton Charles Cornwallis (more commanders) The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence,[1] was a conflict that... Henry Hamilton (c. ... Patriots (also known as Partisans, or Rebels) were British North American colonists who rebelled against the Crown during the American Revolution and established the independent states that became the United States of America. ... A war crime is a punishable offense, under international (criminal) law, for violations of the law of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ... Geneva Convention definition A prisoner of war (POW) is a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ...

During the destruction of the Navahos homeland in 1863, carried out under the order of General James Carleton. A bounty was put out on Navaho livestock as a means to deplete their winter food supply. Some of the men extended this bounty to the deaths of Navaho men and consequently began cutting off the knot of hair fastened by a red string which the Navahos wore on their head. There was another occasion during the extermination and displacement of the Santee Sioux, "The Sioux Indians must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state" (Governor Ramsey) . A failed retaliation led by the Santee on the blue coats in 1862 near Wood Lake, led to another incident of mutilation to defeated Indians. Big Eagle, a Santee Chief, had this too say " We lost fourteen or fifteen men and quite a number were wounded. Some of the wounded died afterwards, but i do not know how many. We carried off no dead bodies but took away all our wounded. The whites scalped all our dead men - so i have heard". After the event the companies commander General Sibley was impelled to issued this order " The bodies of the dead, even of a savage enemy shall not be subjected to indignities by civilized and Christian men"

External link

• British Scalp Proclamation of 1756

References

• Axtell, James. "Scalps and Scalping" from Encyclopedia of North American Indians
• Answering Myths about American Indian Science (Takes the view that scalping was probably introduced to Indians by Europeans)
• Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee - Dee Brown (1970)