The Truth about Scalping

On This Day (4/8/1756): In the spring of 1756 Governor Robert Morris of Pennsylvania offered cash bounties for the scalps of Delaware and Shawnee people. 

In front of a large group of people on the steps of Philadelphia’s courthouse Morris announced huge bounties for any subjects willing to “pursue[e], tak[e], kil[l], and destroy[y] the … Delaware Indians” in volunteer scalping parties. 

He would pay 150 Spanish pieces of eight for men over 12; 130 Spanish pieces of eight for women and children; 130 Spanish pieces of eight for scalps. 

These scalping parties were "the only way to clear our Frontier of Savages" according to Morris's councilor James Hamilton. As a result, hundreds of innocent Native Americans were killed.

Murder Of Natives By The Government

On This Day (3/31/1866): In 1866 Lt. J.D. Walker and Companies B and C of the 1st Arizona Infantry attacked a peaceful Apache camp in Arizona. 75 Apache were killed in the attack, and another 16 were captured. 

The Apaches were camped above Pinal at Picacho Peak. Walker and the infantry came from behind the Apache, surprising them and driving them towards the bluff. 

Those that were no directly killed in the battle were driven over the bluff, and the entire camp of 75 Apaches is believed to have been killed. 

“Even now,” recorded Major Doran, “you can see on this battlefield the skeletons of the Apaches in the crevices.” It is unclear why the infantry attacked the Apache.

Peace Treaty Brought About By Natives

On This Day (3/22/1621): In 1621 the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony signed a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoag. 

Massasoit Sachem or Ousamequin (c. 1581 – 1661), was the sachem, or leader, of the Wampanoag, and "Massasoit" of the Wampanoag Confederacy. The term Massasoit means Great Sachem. 

According to English sources, Massasoit prevented the failure of the Plymouth Colony and the almost certain starvation that the Pilgrims faced during the earliest years of the colony's establishment. 

In Massasoit's first contact with the English, several men of his tribe had been killed in an unprovoked attack by English sailors. 

He also knew of the Pilgrims' theft of the corn stores in their landings at Provincetown. 

As a result, Massosoit wanted a peace treaty with the Pilgrims to protect his people and land, which he arranged on this day.

On This Day (3/18/1877): In 1877 the Battle of Yellow House Canyon took place near present-day Lubbock, Texas. It was a battle between a force of Comanches and Apaches and a group of bison hunters. It was the final battle of the Buffalo Hunters' War, and was the last major fight between non-Natives and Native Americans on the High Plains of Texas. On February 1, 1877, Marshall Sewell discovered a herd of buffalo, and after setting up station, picked the animals off one by one with his rifle before running out of ammunition. Black Horse witnessed this, and with his warriors surrounded the hunter on his way back to camp and killed him for his senseless slaughter of the buffalo. In retaliation, local buffalo hunters attacked the Comanche and Apache camp, killing 21 and wounding another 20+ people. During the 19th century bison were relentlessly killed and slaughtered by the US Army, commercial agents, and others in an attempt to starve Native peoples and open land for cattle. The total number of bison killed is unknown, but some statistics paint a gruesome picture: one professional hunter killed 20,000 on his own, and commercial hide firms were killing between 2,000 to 100,000 bison PER DAY.

— with Freddy Lahmer and 12 others.