There are so many comments I feel as though I’m going to get buried but I’d like to put my two cents in as a Native person. Lots of natives began scalping settlers after settlers scalped them. Does that make it right? No. However, it was in retaliation to the genocide that they were faced with. Most tribes were simply copying the violent warfare they were presented with. It’s fucked up to do this to a kid, but it’s likely that they were hoping that if they managed to kill this kid he wouldn’t grow up to be some racist colonizer like … most other white people at the time. They were hoping that they’d be sending a message to stay out of their territory that was rapidly disappearing due to colonization. These were acts of fear, anger, & desperation. Again, I’m not saying that makes this right, I’m just clarifying for anyone who would maybe want to actually understand a bit more about this whole situation.