The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-04-23
INDIAN SCALPlNG STORIES.

All Indian tribes with which am ac- quainted scalp their enemies killed in battle Of the origin of scalp taking but little is known, and that vague and indefinite. Nearly every tribe has some wild, wierd legend to account for the custom but these traditions vary widely as to the cause. That raising the hair" of an enemy is of great anti quity there is no doubt, for in the Bible it is related how the soldiers take the skin from the heads of their van quished foes
 With the North American savage there appears to be some close affilia- tion between the departed and his hair. have often asked many a blood be- grimed warrior why he should care for a dead mans hair says Capt. Henry Inman in the Kansas City Star and in variably number of reasons has been assigned. It is an evidence to his people that he has triumphed over his enemy. The scaIps are very promin- ent factors in the incantations of the | Medicine Lodge" feature of reli- gious rites. The savage believes there 1 is a wonderfully inherent power in the scalp of an enemy; all the excellent qualities of the victim with the hair the moment it is wrenched from his thead. If the victim is a renowned warrior, so much greater is the anxie- 1 ty to procure his scalp, for the fortu- nate possessor then inherits all the | 1,nf1X of fte, ,ieri11 al owner
 I I never mover knew of but one in- stance in all my experience among the Indians, covering a period of more than the third of a century, where q white man. taken prisoner in battle, escaped death. It was a great many years ago; the party, a dear friend, still liy- ing, grand old mountaineer but the homeliest man on earth, probably, He was red faced, wrinkIed and pock- marked with mouth as large and full of teeth as a gorilla, and there was no more hair on his head than there is on a billiard ball
 He was captured in prolonged fight and taken to the village of the tribe where the principal chief resided That dignitary gave one disgusted look at the prisoner and said that he was Bad Medicine" and if not the Evil Spirit himself, closely related to it. The chief ordered his subordinate to furnish the prisoner with a pony, load ed him with provisions, provided him with rifle and told him to go back to his people,
 For the reasons stated the Indian of the great plains and Rocky Mountains would rather take one scalp of a fam ous scout or army officer who has suc- cessfully chastised them-for example, Custer, Sully, Miles or Crook-than a dozen scalps of ordinary white men.
 There are many instances on record where men have been scalped and yet survived the terrible ordeal, but in every case the scalper supposed his victim dead, the latter taking good care that his foeman should not be disabused of the supposed fact.
 In 1867 party of Indians took up a rail on the Union Pacific Railway and laid Instructions on the track. After dark a freight train ran into the trap and was wrecked. The engineer and l fireman were instantly killed The conductor and brakemen jumped off, to find themselves beset by a band of l yelling savages. They ran into the darkness and all escaped except one, who was pursued, shot and fell. The l Indian who had fired dismounted from his pony, and straddling that unlucky mans body, scalped him, stripped him of all clothing but shirt and shoe and rode away,
 Early in the morning another freight train was Jagged by a hideous looking Iobject, which turned out to be the brakeman who had been shot through the body and scalped! He had recover ed his senses and knowing that the train was due, walked some distance down the track to save it from being wrecked. He was taken on boar1 and the train moved up to the wreck, witch after plundering it, the Indians leIt, just as it was thrown over through their devilish act.
 | I saw the unfortunate man some months afterward. He was perfectly recovered, but with horrible looking head. He stated that the bullet, al- l though knocking him down, had not made him unconscious, and the great est trial during that awful night was the necessity of shamming dead, he not daring even to groan while the Indian was saving at his scalp with very dull knife.
 The other instance which has come Robert McGee, In 1864 McGee, a slender stripling of lad, came to Leavenworth, Kan, seeking employ ment That town was the base of Government supplies for all the frontier military posts even as far away as Arizona. A freight caravan was at that time loading for Fort Union, N. M. The wagons and whole outfit were owned by contractor named H. c, Barret, but he would not take the chance of the long and perilous trip of more than seven hundred miles through the In- dian infested plains unless the Govern ment leased the train outright or gave him an indemmifying bond and assur- lance against loss. The bond was given and Barret proceeded to hire teamsters a hard task on account of the danger lattending the journey. Young McGee were perpetrated there. Some insigni- the caravan started July i, 1864.
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