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It's ironic that there were no Indians in Indianapolis, Indiana; at least, none that I recall growing up in the 1950s. The only Indians I saw were on our black-and-white television. With the exception of Tonto, Indians were presented in Westerns as brutal savages who loved nothing more than setting upon a harmless wagon train. Ominous smoke signals were set against the horizon and then, there they were: silhouettes of horseback savages ready to pounce. The wagons circled and the fight was on.
The fight was taken to our backyard where we played "cowboys and Indians." Chief Wild Eagle made his appearance on F Troop, and Indians, I discovered, weren’t so bad after all. Chief Wild Eagle, it turns out, was played by Frank de Kova, a native New Yorker of Italian descent. At least Jay Silverheels (Tonto) was a bona fide Mohawk.
We’ve all seen the newer movie version: noble Native Americans living in perfect harmony with the land, until gun-toting Europeans arrive to burn, pillage, and conquer. It’s a story that feels good to tell—especially when you’re the one telling it from the comfort of a classroom or a couch.
But the truth is messier. A lot messier.
North America wasn’t a peaceful Eden before Columbus. It was a continent of empires, blood feuds, and ritual violence that would make a modern war correspondent flinch. And when Europeans finally showed up, they didn’t bring war—they walked into one that was already raging.
This isn’t about excusing genocide or romanticizing conquest. It’s about seeing the full picture: two sophisticated, brutal systems smashing into each other for 300 years, with no heroes and no clean hands.
But the truth is messier. A lot messier.
North America wasn’t a peaceful Eden before Columbus. It was a continent of empires, blood feuds, and ritual violence that would make a modern war correspondent flinch. And when Europeans finally showed up, they didn’t bring war—they walked into one that was already raging.
This isn’t about excusing genocide or romanticizing conquest. It’s about seeing the full picture: two sophisticated, brutal systems smashing into each other for 300 years, with no heroes and no clean hands.
1. The Continent Was Already at War
Forget the buffalo hunts and corn dances. For many tribes—especially on the Plains—war was the culture.
A young man didn’t prove himself by building a house or harvesting crops. He earned his name by riding out at dawn, raiding a rival village, and coming back with a scalp. That lock of hair wasn’t just a trophy—it was currency. It got you a wife. Respect. A seat at the fire.[^1]
Raids weren’t rare. They were seasonal. Weekly, sometimes. And the rules were simple: kill, capture, or be killed.
Captives? It depended on the day. Some were adopted. Others were enslaved. And some—especially enemy warriors—were brought back for public torture that could last days. Burned slowly. Fingers cut off one by one. Made to run gauntlets while the entire village took swings.[^2]
To us, it’s horror. To them, it was ritual. A test of courage—for both the victim and the tribe.
And scalping? That wasn’t a European invention. Archaeologists have found mass graves—like Crow Creek in South Dakota, circa 1325—where nearly 500 people were slaughtered and scalped centuries before the first white settler arrived.[^3]
Entire nations were wiped out. The Iroquois “Beaver Wars” in the 1600s erased the Huron, Erie, and Neutral tribes from the map.[^4] The Sioux pushed west, displacing the Omaha and Arikara with the same ruthlessness we associate with European empires.[^5]
This wasn’t chaos. It was politics. It was survival. It was normal.
2. Two Codes, One Battlefield
When Europeans arrived, they brought their rules of war: uniforms, declarations, battles between soldiers. Civilians were supposed to be off-limits. Surrender meant mercy. Land was property—fenced, owned, inherited.[^6]
Native warfare? None of that applied.
No uniforms. No front lines. Just a dozen riders hitting a homestead at 4 a.m., burning it, and vanishing. Women and children weren’t just collateral—they were targets. Taking them broke the enemy’s heart.[^7]
To settlers, this looked like terrorism. To tribes, European tactics looked insane—why line up in the open? Why stop fighting in winter? Why sign a treaty and then act surprised when it’s broken?[^8]
Land wasn’t property. It was a river—you moved through it, hunted on it, but you didn’t own it. Fencing off a prairie was as absurd as claiming a cloud.[^9]
Warriors painted sacred symbols, wore charms, believed spirits could stop bullets. Sometimes it gave them fearless charges. Sometimes it got them killed.[^10]
At first, European armies tried to fight like they were in Flanders. It didn’t work. You can’t march in formation against ghosts.
So they adapted. They formed ranger units—small, fast, ruthless. The Texas Rangers started as one of these. They learned to track like Indians. Strike at night. Burn crops. Take scalps.[^11]
The tactics that once horrified them became their playbook.
When Europeans arrived, they brought their rules of war: uniforms, declarations, battles between soldiers. Civilians were supposed to be off-limits. Surrender meant mercy. Land was property—fenced, owned, inherited.[^6]
Native warfare? None of that applied.
No uniforms. No front lines. Just a dozen riders hitting a homestead at 4 a.m., burning it, and vanishing. Women and children weren’t just collateral—they were targets. Taking them broke the enemy’s heart.[^7]
To settlers, this looked like terrorism. To tribes, European tactics looked insane—why line up in the open? Why stop fighting in winter? Why sign a treaty and then act surprised when it’s broken?[^8]
Land wasn’t property. It was a river—you moved through it, hunted on it, but you didn’t own it. Fencing off a prairie was as absurd as claiming a cloud.[^9]
Warriors painted sacred symbols, wore charms, believed spirits could stop bullets. Sometimes it gave them fearless charges. Sometimes it got them killed.[^10]
At first, European armies tried to fight like they were in Flanders. It didn’t work. You can’t march in formation against ghosts.
So they adapted. They formed ranger units—small, fast, ruthless. The Texas Rangers started as one of these. They learned to track like Indians. Strike at night. Burn crops. Take scalps.[^11]
The tactics that once horrified them became their playbook.
3. The Comanche: Lords of the Plains
If you want to understand Native power, look at the Comanche.
By the late 1700s, 40,000 Comanche controlled a territory the size of France, Spain, and Germany combined. Historians call it an empire—not with palaces, but with tribute, terror, and total dominance.[^12]
They didn’t just fight. They owned the southern Plains.The secret? The horse.
The Spanish brought horses to America. Most tribes used them for transport. The Comanche turned them into weapons.[^13]
They trained from childhood to ride, shoot, and kill at full gallop—hanging off the side of the horse, using it as a shield, firing 20 arrows a minute with deadly accuracy.[^14]
In 1840, they launched the Great Raid—riding hundreds of miles into Mexico, burning towns, stealing thousands of horses, and dragging captives back north. Mexico’s northern frontier collapsed. Texas bled cattle by the tens of thousands.[^15]
Even other tribes paid protection money.
One U.S. general said fighting the Comanche would mean “complete ruin.”[^16]
They weren’t defeated by bravery or better tactics. They were starved out. American hide hunters—quietly backed by the Army—slaughtered 30 million bison in a decade. No buffalo, no food, no mobility.[^17]
In 1875, the last band surrendered.
If you want to understand Native power, look at the Comanche.
By the late 1700s, 40,000 Comanche controlled a territory the size of France, Spain, and Germany combined. Historians call it an empire—not with palaces, but with tribute, terror, and total dominance.[^12]
They didn’t just fight. They owned the southern Plains.The secret? The horse.
The Spanish brought horses to America. Most tribes used them for transport. The Comanche turned them into weapons.[^13]
They trained from childhood to ride, shoot, and kill at full gallop—hanging off the side of the horse, using it as a shield, firing 20 arrows a minute with deadly accuracy.[^14]
In 1840, they launched the Great Raid—riding hundreds of miles into Mexico, burning towns, stealing thousands of horses, and dragging captives back north. Mexico’s northern frontier collapsed. Texas bled cattle by the tens of thousands.[^15]
Even other tribes paid protection money.
One U.S. general said fighting the Comanche would mean “complete ruin.”[^16]
They weren’t defeated by bravery or better tactics. They were starved out. American hide hunters—quietly backed by the Army—slaughtered 30 million bison in a decade. No buffalo, no food, no mobility.[^17]
In 1875, the last band surrendered.
4. Blood on Both Sides
Let’s not pretend the settlers were saints.
1857: Mormon militia slaughters 120 unarmed emigrants at Mountain Meadows.[^18]
1871: Tucson citizens and Papago allies massacre 144 sleeping Apache—mostly women and children.[^19]
The U.S. signed over 500 treaties with Native nations. Broke every single one.[^20]
But Native warriors weren’t innocent either.
1836: Comanche raid Fort Parker—gang rape, murder, abduction.[^21]
1862: Dakota warriors kill 600 settlers in Minnesota, including babies.[^22]
Both sides broke treaties. Both targeted civilians. Both justified it with the same story: “They started it. We’re the victims.”
Let’s not pretend the settlers were saints.
1857: Mormon militia slaughters 120 unarmed emigrants at Mountain Meadows.[^18]
1871: Tucson citizens and Papago allies massacre 144 sleeping Apache—mostly women and children.[^19]
The U.S. signed over 500 treaties with Native nations. Broke every single one.[^20]
But Native warriors weren’t innocent either.
1836: Comanche raid Fort Parker—gang rape, murder, abduction.[^21]
1862: Dakota warriors kill 600 settlers in Minnesota, including babies.[^22]
Both sides broke treaties. Both targeted civilians. Both justified it with the same story: “They started it. We’re the victims.”
5. The Real Killer Wasn’t Bullets
Here’s the part no one wants to hear:
Most Native people didn’t die in battle.
They died of disease.
Smallpox. Measles. Flu.
Europeans had lived with these germs for centuries—near cities, near livestock. Survivors passed on resistance. Native Americans had none.[^23]
Estimates say 60–90% of all Native deaths were from disease. Not war. Not genocide by bullet.[^24]
There was one documented case of biological warfare—British officers giving smallpox blankets in 1763, unaware that the disease is spread by air, not contaminated cloth.[^25] But mostly? It was accidental. Unstoppable. Invisible.
Settlers didn’t see it as a weapon. They saw it as God’s will.
Here’s the part no one wants to hear:
Most Native people didn’t die in battle.
They died of disease.
Smallpox. Measles. Flu.
Europeans had lived with these germs for centuries—near cities, near livestock. Survivors passed on resistance. Native Americans had none.[^23]
Estimates say 60–90% of all Native deaths were from disease. Not war. Not genocide by bullet.[^24]
There was one documented case of biological warfare—British officers giving smallpox blankets in 1763, unaware that the disease is spread by air, not contaminated cloth.[^25] But mostly? It was accidental. Unstoppable. Invisible.
Settlers didn’t see it as a weapon. They saw it as God’s will.
The Takeaway
The American frontier wasn’t good guys vs. bad guys.
It was two warrior cultures—both brilliant, both brutal—fighting until one had better guns, more people, and deadlier germs.
Native Americans weren’t passive victims. They were conquerors, raiders, empire-builders. Some of the most feared militaries in North America weren’t European—they were Comanche, Sioux, Iroquois.
And Europeans weren’t just invaders. They were adapting to a war they didn’t start, using tactics they once condemned.
History doesn’t come from black-and-white televisions or children's imaginations. It doesn't come from screen plays bent to confirm the writer's biases.
History is what it is.
The American frontier wasn’t good guys vs. bad guys.
It was two warrior cultures—both brilliant, both brutal—fighting until one had better guns, more people, and deadlier germs.
Native Americans weren’t passive victims. They were conquerors, raiders, empire-builders. Some of the most feared militaries in North America weren’t European—they were Comanche, Sioux, Iroquois.
And Europeans weren’t just invaders. They were adapting to a war they didn’t start, using tactics they once condemned.
History doesn’t come from black-and-white televisions or children's imaginations. It doesn't come from screen plays bent to confirm the writer's biases.
History is what it is.
Want to go deeper?
Kenn writes about the uncomfortable truths we are expected to ignore. Follow for more.
[^1]: Keeley, L. H. (1996). War Before Civilization. Oxford University Press, p. 119.
[^2]: Axtell, J. (1981). The European and the Indian. Oxford University Press, pp. 198–202.
[^3]: Willey, P., & Emerson, T. E. (1993). “The Osteology and Archaeology of the Crow Creek Massacre.” Plains Anthropologist, 38(145), 227–269.
[^4]: Richter, D. K. (1992). The Ordeal of the Longhouse. UNC Press, pp. 50–74.
[^5]: White, R. (1978). “The Winning of the West: The Expansion of the Western Sioux.” Western Historical Quarterly, 9(3), 319–343.
[^6]: Parker, G. (1996). The Military Revolution (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press, pp. 115–118.
[^7]: Ferguson, R. B. (1995). Yanomami Warfare. School of American Research Press, pp. 88–90.
[^8]: Trigger, B. G. (1976). The Children of Aataentsic. McGill-Queen’s University Press, p. 827.
[^9]: Cronon, W. (1983). Changes in the Land. Hill & Wang, pp. 54–81.
[^10]: Fenton, W. N. (1978). “Northern Iroquoian Culture Patterns.” In Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 15). Smithsonian, pp. 296–321.
[^11]: Hämäläinen, P. (2008). The Comanche Empire. Yale University Press, pp. 240–245.
[^12]: Hämäläinen (2008), p. 3.
[^13]: Fehrenbach, T. R. (1974). Comanches: The Destruction of a People. Knopf, p. 211.
[^14]: Hämäläinen (2008), p. 68.
[^15]: Hämäläinen (2008), pp. 181–184.
[^16]: Quoted in Hämäläinen (2008), p. 292.
[^17]: Flores, D. (1991). “Bison Ecology and Bison Diplomacy.” Journal of American History, 78(2), 465–485.
[^18]: Bagley, W. (2002). Blood of the Prophets. University of Oklahoma Press.
[^19]: Jacoby, K. (2008). “The Broad Platform of Extermination.” Journal of Genocide Research, 10(2), 249–267.
[^20]: Prucha, F. P. (1994). American Indian Treaties. University of California Press, p. 421.
[^21]: Fehrenbach (1974), pp. 275–278.
[^22]: Carley, K. (1976). The Sioux Uprising of 1862. Minnesota Historical Society, p. 75.
[^23]: Dobyns, H. F. (1983). Their Number Become Thinned. University of Tennessee Press, pp. 8–26.
[^24]: Thornton, R. (1987). American Indian Holocaust and Survival. University of Oklahoma Press, p. 133.
[^25]: Fenn, E. A. (2001). Pox Americana. Hill & Wang, pp. 154–158.
[^2]: Axtell, J. (1981). The European and the Indian. Oxford University Press, pp. 198–202.
[^3]: Willey, P., & Emerson, T. E. (1993). “The Osteology and Archaeology of the Crow Creek Massacre.” Plains Anthropologist, 38(145), 227–269.
[^4]: Richter, D. K. (1992). The Ordeal of the Longhouse. UNC Press, pp. 50–74.
[^5]: White, R. (1978). “The Winning of the West: The Expansion of the Western Sioux.” Western Historical Quarterly, 9(3), 319–343.
[^6]: Parker, G. (1996). The Military Revolution (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press, pp. 115–118.
[^7]: Ferguson, R. B. (1995). Yanomami Warfare. School of American Research Press, pp. 88–90.
[^8]: Trigger, B. G. (1976). The Children of Aataentsic. McGill-Queen’s University Press, p. 827.
[^9]: Cronon, W. (1983). Changes in the Land. Hill & Wang, pp. 54–81.
[^10]: Fenton, W. N. (1978). “Northern Iroquoian Culture Patterns.” In Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 15). Smithsonian, pp. 296–321.
[^11]: Hämäläinen, P. (2008). The Comanche Empire. Yale University Press, pp. 240–245.
[^12]: Hämäläinen (2008), p. 3.
[^13]: Fehrenbach, T. R. (1974). Comanches: The Destruction of a People. Knopf, p. 211.
[^14]: Hämäläinen (2008), p. 68.
[^15]: Hämäläinen (2008), pp. 181–184.
[^16]: Quoted in Hämäläinen (2008), p. 292.
[^17]: Flores, D. (1991). “Bison Ecology and Bison Diplomacy.” Journal of American History, 78(2), 465–485.
[^18]: Bagley, W. (2002). Blood of the Prophets. University of Oklahoma Press.
[^19]: Jacoby, K. (2008). “The Broad Platform of Extermination.” Journal of Genocide Research, 10(2), 249–267.
[^20]: Prucha, F. P. (1994). American Indian Treaties. University of California Press, p. 421.
[^21]: Fehrenbach (1974), pp. 275–278.
[^22]: Carley, K. (1976). The Sioux Uprising of 1862. Minnesota Historical Society, p. 75.
[^23]: Dobyns, H. F. (1983). Their Number Become Thinned. University of Tennessee Press, pp. 8–26.
[^24]: Thornton, R. (1987). American Indian Holocaust and Survival. University of Oklahoma Press, p. 133.
[^25]: Fenn, E. A. (2001). Pox Americana. Hill & Wang, pp. 154–158.
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