Torture stake
The torture stake was a stake used by some Native American tribes in the northeastern United States , to which captured enemies of the tribe were tied, who were then subjected to a degrading to deadly torture. In fact, its use is only documented in a few tribes, including the Iroquois , Kiowa , Lenni Lenape and Comanches . Even so, the torture stake is one of the most common stereotypes in popular culture about Indians per se. There is also a mix of totem poles , which were used by tribes on the northwest coast of the North American continent and served completely different purposes.
The procedure was not necessarily fatal; There are reports that people who survived the torture were released. It was also not used if the person concerned had previously survived a kind of running the gauntlet in which he had to pass an alley made up of two rows of Indians who beat him. The aim was to break the prisoner's will.
The public torture of captured enemies on the torture stake was a traditional ritual of the above-mentioned Indian tribes. Captured enemies were exposed to excruciating pain for hours, sometimes days. The greater the respect the Indians showed their enemy, the more ruthless the ordeal. The victim, on the other hand, mocked his tormentors and was as unimpressed as possible by the torment. The British Indian Ministry in Detroit used its influence on the Indians during the American Revolutionary War to initially successfully prevent the killing and torture of captured opponents, but after the Gnadenhütten massacre , the traditional practice was reintroduced as a reprisal.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Paul O'Neil: The Way West. 2nd printing. Time-Life Books, Amsterdam 1980 ( Time-Life Books - The Wild West ), p. 72.