The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-11-28
CATHOLIC CHURCH IN UTAH.
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Is it any wonder then that woman became so ut
terIy shameless hcardhearted and cruel that in vim
dictiveness and ferceness she surpassed the brutal
ity of man?
The GROWING infamy of all the denominations
of the American Indian-and of savage every
where-was his utter contempt and disregard for
human life Savage as he was by inheritance, and
brutal as his passions had made him. it still to
be assumed that the instinct which moves one ami
NAL to spare another of It's species would have
fingered amid the wreck and ruin of his corrupted
nature. Such however, was not the case. The most
trivial incident or thirst for blood, at times led
to war which often ended in the dispersion or an
inhalation of a tribe.
Frequently and for no other end than acquiring
renown or scalps the Indian warrior gathered his
braves around him and, after haranguing them
his own past and prospective exploits, raised the ia
miliar war-whoop and moved out to a mission Of
bloodshed and piage. With the cunning of the fo,;
and the ferocity of the tiger they fell upon their
prey in the darkness of night or the dawning morn
ing, and unfortunately slaughtered men, women
and children.
"They approached like foxes" says Father vi
mont, attacked like lions and disappeared like
birds"
Il erept around them like WOLF said a Chip
peway chief telling of an attack he made on an
isolated Sioux family. Il crawled up to them like
a snake; I fell upon them like lightning cut them
down and scalped them"
Their prisoners were treated with unparalleled
fendishneAs and brutality Some were mutilated
inch by inch till they expired from physical pain
and extreme suffering. Others were reserved to be
tortured by FIRE and, by refinement of cruelty sur
passing belief their agonies we're prolonged from
sunset to sunrise. Others of their captives they
cut to pieces, boiled and devoured with unspeakable
relish
Father Bressani who was captured by the Sen
ecas, and shockingly mutilated before he was pur-
chased by the Dutch of the Hudson tells us in his
Relation Abregee" of his captivity: Il saw the
Iroquois tear out the heart from Huron captive
whom they had killed and in the presence of the
other prisoners, roast and devour it."
They are not men," wrote an unfortunate wo-
man whose child the Iroquois had torn from her
breast boiled and devoured in her presence, "they
are wolves"
The American Indian in his savage state set no
value on the attributes which distinguished him
from the wild beasts of the forest Feroeity in war
strength, agility and endurance alone excited his
admiration, and a result, many of them APP
preached it was possible to the condition
of the animals in which these qualities predominant
To attempt to make hero of the American In
dian is to raise monument to cruelty on pedestal
of lust. Their religious conceptions and practices
were no higher than their moral actions. They be-
lieved all things to be animated with good or evil
spirits and, when on the war trail, they often
sacrificed human beings to propitiate the spirits
which influenced the future of the tribe
"On the third day of my captivity" writes Faith
er Jogues, "they sacrificed Algonquin woman
in honor of Areskoui, their var-god, inviting the
grim demon, as if he were present, to come and
feast with them on the murdered woman's flesh"
They had no idea of God, as we understand the
tremendous word. The signing of the Winds the
melancholy moan of the midnight forest, the crash
of thunder, the CLEAN of lightning, the rush of the
hurricane and the sound Of the cataract we're the
voices of the shadowy phantoms gloomy spirits
which haunted the woods lowered in the air
around