l valor was
held in highest regard. It was not usual to take captives, except
occasionally of women and children, who were adopted into the tribe and
treated with kindness. There was no traffic in the labor or flesh of
prisoners. Such warfare, in fact, was scarcely more than a series of
duels or irregular skirmishes, engaged in by individuals and small
groups, and in many cases was but little rougher than a game of
university football. Some were killed because they were caught, or
proved weaker and less athletic than their opponents. It was one way of
disciplining a man and working off the superfluous energy that might
otherwise lead to domestic quarrels. If he met his equal or superior and
was slain, fighting bravely to the end, his friends might weep honorable
tears.

The only atrocity of this early warfare was the taking of a small scalp
lock by the leader, as a semi-religious trophy of the event; and as long
as it was preserved, the Sioux warriors wore mourning for their dead
enemy. Not all the tribes took scalps. It was only after the bounties
offered by the colonial governments, notably in Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania, for scalps of women and children as well as men, that the
practice became general, and led to further mutilations, often
stigmatized as "Indian," though in reality they have been practised by
so-called civilized nations down to a recent period. That one should do
murder for pay is not an Indian idea but one imposed upon the race by
white barbarians.

It was a custom of the Plains Indians to hold peaceful meetings in
summer, at which times they would vie with one another in friendliness
and generosity. Each family would single out a family of another tribe
as special guests of honor. Valuable horses and richly adorned garments
were freely given at the feasts and dances. During these intertribal
reunions the contests between the tribes were recalled and their events
rehearsed, the dead heroes on both sides receiving special tributes of
honor. Parents would entertain the participants in an engagement in
which their son had fallen, perhaps, the year before, giving lavish
hospitality and handsome presents in token that all was done in fair
fight, and there remained no ill feeling.

FIRST EFFECTS OF CIVILIZATION

Whatever may be said for this scheme of life, its weaknesses are very
apparent, and resulted in its early fall when confronted with the
complicated system of our so-called civilization.