american-holocaust

PESTILENCE AND GENOCIDE 133take up bodies that had been buried in the night to scalp them and take offornaments. I saw a squaw with her head smashed in before she was killed.Next morning, after they were dead and stiff, these men pulled out the bodiesof the squaws and pulled them open in an indecent manner. I heard mensay they had cut out the privates, but did not see it myself.I saw some Indians that had been scalped, and the ears were cut off of thebody of White Antelope [said Captain L. Wilson of the First Colorado Cavalry].One Indian who had been scalped had also his skull all smashed in,and I heard that the privates of White Antelope had been cut off to make atobacco bag out of. I heard some of the men say that the privates of one ofthe squaws had been cut out and put on a stick.The dead bodies of women and children were afterwards mutilated in themost horrible manner [testified David Louderback, a First Cavalry Private].I saw only eight. I could not stand it; they were cut up too much . . . theywere scalped and cut up in an awful manner .... White Antelope's nose,ears, and privates were cut off.All manner of depredations were inflicted on their persons [said JohnS. Smith,an interpreter], they were scalped, their brains knocked out; the men usedtheir knives, ripped open women, clubbed little children, knocked them inthe head with their guns, beat their brains out, mutilated their bodies inevery sense of the word . . . worse mutilated than any I ever saw before,the women all cut to pieces. . . . [C]hildren two or three months old; allages lying there, from sucking infants up to warriors.In going over the battle-ground the next day I did not see a body of man,woman, or child but was scalped, and in many instances their bodies weremutilated in the most horrible manner-men, women, and children's privatescut out, &c. [reported First Lieutenant James D. Cannon of the New MexicoVolunteers]. I heard one man say that he had cut out a woman's privateparts and had them for exhibition on a stick; I heard another man say thathe had cut the fingers off an Indian to get the rings on the hand. . . . I alsoheard of numerous instances in which men had cut out the private parts offemales and stretched them over the saddle-bows, and wore them over theirhats while riding in the ranks. . . . I heard one man say that he had cut asquaw's heart out, and he had it stuck up on a stick.Once the carnage was over, and the silence of death had descended onthe killing-field, Colonel Chivington sent messages to the press that he andhis men had just successfully concluded "one of the most bloody Indianbattles ever fought" in which "one of the most powerful villages in theCheyenne nation" was destroyed. There was exultation in the land."Cheyenne scalps are getting as thick here now as toads in Egypt," jokedthe Rocky Mountain News. "Everybody has got one and is anxious to getanother to send east." 128Outside of Colorado, however, not everyone was pleased. Congressionalinvestigations were ordered, and some among the investigators were