Torture among Native Americans
Torture among Native Americans has historical roots in the practices of various indigenous tribes, where it was often directed towards enemies, captives, and those who violated tribal norms. While some tribes, like the Pueblo Indians, reportedly engaged in little to no torture, others, particularly in the Eastern Woodlands and Plains cultures, practiced it more frequently. European settlers often misinterpreted these practices, viewing them through a lens of cultural bias that labeled Native Americans as "savage," which led to exaggerated portrayals of their actions. Torture served various functions within tribal communities, including revenge, military strategy, social cohesion, and religious beliefs. Methods included burning, stabbing, and mutilation, often designed not necessarily for death but as a test of endurance, with the gauntlet being one example where captives could potentially gain freedom. The ritualistic aspects of torture were intertwined with tribal identity and spirituality, showcasing a complex understanding rather than merely random violence. Overall, the practice reflected deep-rooted cultural meanings and was often a communal experience tied to the tribe's worldview.
Subject Terms
Torture among Native Americans
Tribes affected: Pantribal
Significance: Torture was widespread among indigenous tribal peoples for military, social, and religious reasons
Many, if not most, indigenous tribal peoples practiced one or more forms of physical torture of enemies, prisoners, captives, and miscreants within the tribe. Some tribal groups, such as the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, may have committed very little or no torture. European Americans, themselves no strangers to torturous acts, commented regularly on what seemed to them purposeless or completely sadistic actions by “devilish savages.” Numerous accounts of scalpings and bodily mutilations, such as the famous ones including Colonel Charles Crawford in northern Ohio in 1782 or the Hungate family near Denver in 1864, became standard conversation fare of the frontier and parlor alike. Certainly European Americans misunderstood the reasons behind such actions; falling into stereotyping of Native Americans and feeding readers what they wanted to read, European American writers also undoubtedly overstated the case. Yet actual torture occurred frequently, especially in the Eastern Woodlands and among the Plains cultures.
Torture took place in several varieties. Often the captors tied enemies to a stake or other framework and burned them with bonfires, firebrands, or coals. Stabbing, beating, and cutting the victims often occurred along with the burnings, as did mutilation and dismemberment. Torturers often shot arrows or, after obtaining guns, bullets into the suffering captives. Some of the unlucky experienced the horrors of feeling themselves disemboweled, flayed, or scalped while they were still alive. On many occasions, however, the goal of torture was not death. With such customs as the gauntlet, in which victims had to run or stagger through rows of kicking, punching, and beating tribal members lined up in parallel or spiral formations, a tribe was often testing captives as potential adoptees or slaves. If a captive showed pluck or fortitude, he or she might even be rewarded with freedom.
To individual tribal groups, torture probably had many and different meanings. On one level it was surely an expression of simple revenge. Yet for most groups, torture also served military, social, and religious needs. Tribes could earn a terrifying and fearsome reputation through renowned torture. Members who had not participated in the actual battle or capture could join communally in a torture ceremony. Many indigenous peoples also believed that enemies would haunt them in an afterworld, and mutilation would distinctly disable those enemies. Sometimes torture was propitiation of certain spirits, manitous, or windigos. Whatever the case, torture was not, as many European Americans feared and believed, random, unthinking violence, but rather a custom integrated into the tribal worldview.