Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Butchering a Body

In 1636, the English led alliance became even stronger when a single Indian began circulating a trophy
Cutshamakin, a Massachusett warrior and guide to the English, "crept into a swamp and killed a Pequot, and having flayed off the skin of his head, he sent it to Canonicus, who presently sent it to all the sachems about him."
Once the scalp finally reached English hands, they rewarded the assassin with "four fathoms of wampom."
Cutshamakin's gift was not simply an example of an Indian offering a token of loyalty to his supposed overlords; crucially, the scalp had passed through a series of Indian villages before it got to Boston
                                                      (21)

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