Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Trophies: 1883

You could shoot a buffalo:


Or take the belongings of an Apache killed in a stampede you started:
"A pair of moccasins, taken from the saddle, fell to me ; they were unworn, and soft as a castor glove. I have them yet, and keep them because they were beaded by the warrior's love, the daughter of an arrow-maker who lives in a painted tepee off over the Sierras, by the loud-singing, but lonely, Gila."

--From Sport with gun and rod--

The article tries to make it sound like the Apache was up to no good, but I see no reason for the author to wax poetically about stuff he stole from a dead man.

1 comment:

Trooper York said...

It was common to take from the dead in the wilderness. The taking of scalps which is so often attributed to Native Americans actually originated with the Spanish who paid for them as proof that the "enemhy tribes" had been killed. Of course the enterprising would just kill and scalp anyone to get the bounty.