My friend Cody Rheault — an exceptional photographer, videographer and storyteller — just returned from a 10-day work trip to Uganda. He came bearing an African Rosewood pipe. I love it. I shall fire it up and let the smoke drift me off to other lands…
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Adam Shoalts, you will recall, has the best job in the world: He is a professional explorer. Jim Baird digs in with him on his podcast.
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How I would love to explore Fort Pitt and the Fort Pitt Museum.
Just came across a blog post on an important aspect of Frontier Partisan warfare — the taking of prisoners by native raiders. The Fort Pitt Museum’s is currently hosting the exhibit Captured by Indians: Warfare & Assimilation on the 18th Century Frontier .
One of the most important steps for native war parties taking captives on the early American frontier was to prevent their prisoners from making an untimely escape. Tasked with the critical mission of bringing back live captives to take the place of deceased loved ones, Indian war captains and the men under their charge were loath to let their guard down, lest the traumatized prisoners attempt to flee.
While the threat of death at the hands of the war party was sufficient to keep most captives marching steadily onward, many war leaders preferred not to take such chances, binding their captives as an additional safeguard. For others, restraining the arms and hands of captives was as much a nod to an ancient custom as a practical matter. The ties they used were often not ropes, but elaborately decorated cords, deeply imbued with ceremonial significance. They were brought by the war party for a singular purpose, and they bound the prisoners both to their captors and to an ancient tradition.
A powder horn carving depicting Indian captivity.
I had not been aware of the ceremonial aspect of captive bonds — which makes sense given that every aspect of native life in the period was freighted with spiritual and ceremonial import. It’s interesting that, while some captives were bound for obvious security reasons, in some cases, it was almost purely ritual. John Fitch, captured from a flatboat headed down the Ohio River, recalled:
…we was all Tied I think as a Badge of Captivity rather than for use for some was Pinioned with a single Rope yarn out of a Rope and I with a piece of Bark not thicker than a Goose quill which I could [have] readily snapped with one fingure and our arms nearly as much at liberty as if not tied at all.
This is why I love this history so; it is rich and fertile ground and there is always more to learn and understand.
Ugly Hombre says
https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/blog/fort-pitt-museum-bound-by-tradition-prisoner-restraints-in-the-captive-experience/
“Indian war captains and the men under their charge were loath to let their guard down, lest the traumatized prisoners attempt to flee”
No chit! lol
“Fitch’s company surrendered to a small war party led by several experienced war leaders. Noting that “[t]he Indians was very civil to us and behaved with the greatest coolness and deliberation,”
Damn does not sound like a slave raid- more like a “Dinner party”
“Not forgetting the comfort of their prisoner, who they had grown fond of, the warriors supplied Biggs with a deerskin to sleep on and blanket to cover himself during each of the nine nights, in which he was bound”.
Sounds like a nice vacation trip to “Outbound”.
Me thinks… it was not,
https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Joseph-Francois-Lafitau.png
“Captives tied for sleeping. While certainly uncomfortable, the elaborate restraints were designed to immobilize, rather than torture, the prisoners. From Joseph-François Lafitau, “Moeurs des Sauvages Amériquains,” 1724.”
Boy howdy- lol
JimC says
There is an interesting dichotomy in the phenomenon of captivity in the Eastern Woodland cultures (being captured by the Comanche was a whole nuther bag of trouble and deserved the designation of “a fate worse than death”).
One one hand was barbaric cruelty: Those who could not keep up were tomahawked, and babies who wouldn’t stop crying had their brains bashed out against trees. Some captives were tortured to death — especially if they were believed to be connected to some bad act. There is remarkably little record of rape or sexual slavery in the Eastern Woodlands (or among the Apache) — again, a different story on the Plains.
On the other hand, captives had value — they could be ransomed to the French (later the British). And many were adopted to take the place of dead relatives. Many of these did not wish to return to the settlements and their original families.
Simon Kenton, in his captivity among the Shawnees in 1778, experienced the gamut of treatment, from brutal beatings and near-burning to unexpected kindness. Recall that John Stark — a warrior who did his fair share of fighting agains Abenaki and other native warriors — said that he “…had experienced more genuine kindness from the savages of St. Francis than he ever knew prisoners of war to receive from more civilized nations.”
Ugly Hombre says
No doubt there was some kindness shown by some Warrior’s, but I would not have wanted to bet my life on it. There are plenty of primary records relating the reverse burnt at the stake etc. Hard to find good sources on line now a lot has disappeared but after some digging you can still find it- quite a few books are available telling about the facts- on both sides. I have some in the hovel library. You probably have a few as well.
“The rejected captives were then led away to the torture, and to death. It is not
necessary to describe this horrible practice of our primitive inhabitants. It is
sufficient to say that it was a test of courage. When the Indian went out upon the
warpath, he prepared his mind for this very contingency, resolving to show the
enemy, if captured, that his courage was equal to any trial, and above the power
of death itself. The exhibition of heroism and fortitude by the red man under
sufferings of martyrdom almost surpass belief. They considered the character of
their nation in their keeping, and the glory of the face as involved and illustrated- in the manner of their death”
https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1174&context=dissertations_mu
I just thought the Heinz blog went over the top making it sound like a good deal to be taken captive by the Indians it sure as hell was not.
ymmv
JimC says
Yeah, I’d agree that it was a bit soft. The best history accepts paradox without trying to resolve it. I ran into problems with that in the Texas Rangers work. William Prescott Webb set a standard with his great 1930s book, but he was at pains to portray the Rangers in a heroic light and explain away atrocities as the work of a few bad apples. Doug Swanson’s recent Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers tends to view the Rangers as rotten to the core with a few notable exceptions. It’s frustrating, because both books have merit, but are marred by their agendas.
I don’t subscribe to the belief that the truth always lies “somewhere in the middle” — I think that’s kind of lazy thinking. My operative paradigm is the one I laid out at the beginning of this project back in 2011:
Listened to a great interview with Greg Barker, the director of Ghosts of Beirut, Showtime’s excellent limited series on Imad Mughniyeh, and the CIA/Mossad operation that took him out in 2007. He did a really good job of understanding and portraying Mughniyeh’s motivations and the way he saw himself and his work, without excusing the vast amount of carnage and mayhem he strewed across the ME for 25 years. It’s a tough line to walk as a journalist/artist, and it requires a deep belief in truth, which is something that post-modern culture has eroded in way too many people.
Lior Raz was a creator on Ghosts — and man, I have a lot of respect for that dude.
I’m watching it for the second time. Highly recommended.
Ugly Hombre says
Thanks- I will check Ghosts out. Looks very interesting. With the current Hamas Islamic Jihad
hostage situation on going in Israel- I have been remembering the horror that happened to Bill Buckley in Beirut. Glad they finally got Mughniyeh in the end.
Russ Lucas says
I thought some people here may enjoy this. I spent hours using the search. https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/search?page=1&edan_q=pipe%20tomahawks Hope you find it interesting .
JimC says
Thank you!