What's up with Scalping?

If you've ever had questions about scalping, hopefully this video answers some of them. Feel free to leave a comment, and thanks for watching!

Timestamps/Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:13 What Exactly Is Scalping?
01:30 How Did Scalping Originate?
04:29 Who Would Get Scalped?
05:08 Why Was Scalping So Popular?
07:46 What Effect Did Europeans Have On Scalping?

[RobMacKendrick]

Another technique was for a warrior to swoop into an enemy village and buy up all the tickets for an event, and then sell them back at greatly inflated prices on the night of the show to people who hadn't been able to get a seat.

[danirey]

Amazing how creative humans are when it comes to hurting each other

[MuskratOutdoors]

Something else that isn't mentioned is the "scare factor" that scalping had over people. Nobody wants to get killed, but being mutilated after is terrifying to a lot of people. This was fast to do, and struck terror in your enemy.

[momsberettas]

"Video games and guns cause violence"
humanity before guns and video games:

[mikepalmer]

It does not matter what color people are or what part of the world they are from. People will do barbaric things to each other.

[MrAdeuhtyr]

My dad, born in 1950, told me about one of his teachers, who had lived through being scalped. That’s all, as a kid that was very jarring.

[cleonRIP]

The novel, Blood Meridian goes into great detail about the groups of people throughout Texas and Mexico that scalped for the government, for money, trade even just for fun. It's a really tough read at times, and it's written by the author who wrote No Country for Old Men. Highly recommend it

[jahmah]

As a species we have been woeful, we certainly didn't become the apex by being lovely cudly friendly animals. Thanks for informative video.

[KainoaBlackeagle]

Great video! As a native person, it's well known that we had become very embarrassed of scalping and would always say, "That's a practice the French brought here."

But one of my elders and tribal historians told me that we've been doing it long before visitor ships came here. It's time to reclaim it and own it.

It was a savage time in world history; lawless.
I think this is also where the term bounty head came into the American lexicon, as it referred to rewards for killed and scalped natives.

Thank you.

[williamwalter]

One of my direct ancestors was a Palantine settler in the Mohawk Valley in the 1700s.. While in her teens she was shot and scalped while assumed dead .. she survived and lived into her 80s

[hachimanjiro]

Interestingly when the Samurai took heads during battle as proof of a kill as it became a problem to carry too many they would cut the top lip (in a kind of "face" scalping) the reason for this was to prove the kill was from a man ( the moustache being proof) and not a cheat by using a woman or even a child

[BridgeTheGap]

0:38 That’s my grandpas grampa!
Thank you for giving him recognition! I see photos of him on the media and in academic books constantly, but rarely with his name. I’m very thankful!

[youareabsolutelyright]

Came for scalps, stayed for scalps. Very entertaining video!

[CYCLONE]

Thank you for clearing up that misconception about the origin of scalping. I had to debate this very subject with some of my students because some were told the whites started it. It already existed here. The whites just made it more prolific by paying bounties for scalps. It got to a point where people dug up dead bodies to steal them off corpses for the bounties.

[brucewilson]

Thank you! I'm a 68 year old American man, a Native of Iowa. I have pondered scalping for decades. You did a great job and answered my questions. Bravo.

[Daron]

That really explains why some tribes warriors had only a scalp lock. It was a flex on other tribes saying “If you want my scalp, then you have to get really close to get it and it ain’t gonna be easy for you.”

[jacobhenry]

I grew up on the Navajo reservation and I never heard of scalping as our tribe's practice, so it definitely was weird when I heard about it through my history class. However, it definitely helped put it into perspective when you talked about its role in ceremonies and in religious narratives. One of things I found weird though was conflicting views on scalping, not from Native American tribes but mainly for the American population. I found it weird some glorified the practice and mythologized the warrior spirit, and some (understandably) were disgusted but went the extra mile to condemn the native tribes and all of North American tribes as barbaric.

One thing I'm glad you talk about was the massive commercialization of scalp taking. Vine Delora talked about bounties that California put up for each Native scalp and it would cause white settlers to raid Native tribes that didn't even participate in the practice and kind of drove home the point of the hypocrisy from settlers.

[ViraL_FootprinT.ex.e]

Not sure why this was recommended to me, but it had me glued to my screen for the whole thing.

[WyomingTraveler]

That was a really great video. As an amateur historian, and YouTube creator focusing primarily on western history, I found your video to be accurate and objective. You did not demonize or castigate anybody. You just presented the historical facts. Your storytelling and cinematography were exceptional. I look forward to the next video.

[trendkill]

As an Apache I read and heard before Europeans came West, Apaches had a bounty of $50 for their scalps by the Mexican Government. Then later the US should go on to spend 2 million to stamp Apache attacks solely, not sure if they also offered this bounty for Apache scalps.

This led to people wiping out non-Apache tribes for scalps and also Mexican villages to turn in as Apache scalps.
That’s my knowledge of how the Apache at least came across the practice, but I know Plains tribes have had the practice of taking scalps as trophies to sew onto their shirts before the Europeans came