[The following takes place not long preceding the bleak incident in United States history, known as the Trail of Tears.]
It was certainly true, as Jackson indicated, that the Civilized Tribes had been subjected to some extraordinary treatment. In one period of conflict in Alabama, and in reply to the Indians’ own earlier cruelty, dead Creek warriors had been skinned to make bridle reins for US cavalry, while other corpses had been stripped from the hips down for boot leather.
On another occasion, soldiers had burnt down a house containing forty-six warriors, then eaten potatoes from its cellar basted in human fat. What was doubly significant about these actions, however, was that they had been perpetrated by troops under Jackson’s command.
Source:
Cocker, Mark. “The Tiger of the Human Species.” Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold: Europe's Conquest of Indigenous Peoples. Grove Press, 2001. 197-98. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
D. R. Wrone and Nelson, Who’s the Savage?
Greenwich, Conn., 1973 pp. 232-3.
R. S. Wright, Stolen Continents, p. 47.
Further Reading:
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