Killing Women!

[stumblingbear]

"The idea of killing women to save them from the Indians was such a commonplace in the frontier army, so widely reinterpreted, that it begins to seem not only remarkable but obligatory. William Cody, beginning his career on the same Kansas plains as the Custer, related an episode in which he was chased by Indians and, while urging the the horse on with one hand, held a loaded gun to his wife's head with the other in case they were over taken.

At the constantly besieged Fort Phil Kearney, the commanding officer did not hesitate to prescribe emergency mercy killings for all women and children."

I can't speak for any other women who were alive during those savage times but, as for me though, thanks but no thanks to those crazy attitudes!

[whitebull]

Nov 30, 2013 12:06:32 GMT -5 stumblingbear said:

"The idea of killing women to save them from the Indians was such a commonplace in the frontier army, so widely reinterpreted, that it begins to seem not only remarkable but obligatory. William Cody, beginning his career on the same Kansas plains as the Custer, related an episode in which he was chased by Indians and, while urging the the horse on with one hand, held a loaded gun to his wife's head with the other in case they were over taken.

At the constantly besieged Fort Phil Kearney, the commanding officer did not hesitate to prescribe emergency mercy killings for all women and children."

Hell, Custer himself let his officers know how he felt about the whole situation when he told some of his officers about what happened to a young lady who was captured by the Kiowas, "a beautiful girl just ripening into womanhood" he said that the girl faced a "fate infinitely more dreadful than death itself."

Now getting raped must be a terrible, terrible thing to have happen to you. But, the last time I heard it was a hell of a lot better then being murdered!

[joewiggs]

It is extremely difficult to comprehend the extreme prejudice of White's against the native American during Custer's life time. A great deal of it was a result of Indian atrocities which was deemed despicably by white society yet, the Indian would suffer similar disputably acts which were considered to fall under the premise of manifest Destiny.

Ironically, the old adage "Lice make nits" that Chivington used to justified the slaughter of Indian women and children was also used by American society to justify the slaughter of Mormons;"Lice make nits."

Actually the mental de-humanization of the "foe" is a practice that has been going on for centuries;it makes it much easier to kill the enemy and commit atrocities against them without suffering mental collapses. hence, World War 11 Germans became "krauts" and the Japanese became "slant eyes."

such negative terminology produced a psychological nuance that dehumanize the opponent and make it easier and less conscionable to kill.

In Custer's era, this perverse philosophy went to such an extreme that forcible sex with a "Red heathen" was a justifiable cause to murder ones spouse or daughter. Pretty sick huh?