482 



SAWUARA SCALPING 



[b. a. e. 



ping; doubtless other flaked implements, 

 such as knives and spearheads, served on 

 occasion for kindred purposes. Later 

 saws were thin pieces or strips of almost 

 any availal:)le material, beneath which 

 the sand was moved back and forth or 

 into the under surfaces of which thegrains 

 became imbedded, thus forming a kind 

 of rasp or tile. The dividing of masses 

 of the harder stones was of course a tedi- 

 ous process and required great patience, 

 but that the work was effective is shown 

 by many specimens. The cutting of por- 

 tions of jacle for use in the manufacture 

 of adzes and other implements bj^ the 

 natives of Alaska serves to illustrate this. 

 See Stuneivork. (w. h. h.) 



Sawuara. Given as a Karok settlement 

 of two houses on the e. bank of Klamath 

 r., not far below Orleans bar, n. w. Cal. 

 Sa-ron-ra.— MeKee (185L) in Sen. Ex. Doc. 4, 32d 

 Cong., spec, -sess., 194, 18r)3. Sa-vour-ras. — Ibid., 

 215. Sa-vow-ra. — Ibid., 161. Sa-wa-rahs. — Meyer, 

 Nach deiuSacramento, 282, 18.5.5, Shah-woo-rum, — 

 Gibbs, MS, Miscel,, B, A, E., 18.52, 



Sayenqueraghta ( ' Smoke Eevanishes, ' 

 also known as Old King and Old Smoke). 

 A Seneca chief during the Revolutionary 

 period. His place of residence was on 

 Smoke cr., 5 or 6 m. s, of Buffalo, N. Y. 

 He is tir.st mentioned by Zeisberger in 

 1750 (Conover, Sayenqueraghta, 2, 1885). 

 His name appears in the treaty of John- 

 son Hall, N, Y., Apr. 3, 1764; he also fig- 

 ured at the Easton treaty of 1758, and was 

 prominent in most of the conferences of 

 his tribe and of the Six Nations up to 

 1775. He was speaker in 1774, com- 

 manded the Seneca at Oriskany, and led 

 them at Wyoming. Mrs Campljell spoke 

 of him in 1779 as "Guyanguahto, or, as 

 he was commonly called, Grahta, the 

 Seneca King." His death occurred be- 

 fore 1788. Although wielding great influ- 

 ence over his tribe as head-chief, he was 

 not an elected or hereditary chief, but 

 held office at the dictation of the British 

 government and with the willing consent 

 of his people. (c. t. w. m. b. ) 



Sayokinck. A Chumashan village for- 

 merly on Arroyo Burro, near Santa Bar- 

 bara, Cal. 



Sayokenek. — Bancroft, Nat. Races, i, 459, 1874. 

 Sayokinck. — Taylor in Cal. Farmer, Apr. 24,1863. 



Sazeutina. A Nahane tribe inhabiting 

 the region between Dease and Black rs. , 

 Brit. Col. In 1887 they numbered 94. 

 Petitot considered them an outlying east- 

 ern offshoot of the Sekani. 

 Sa-ze-oo-ti-na. — Dawson in Rep. Geol. Surv. Can. 

 1887-8, 200b, 1889, Sicannees,— Dall in Geol. Surv. 

 Can., I, 33, 1870 (so called by traders^. The-kka- 

 'ne.— Petitot, Autoiir du lac des Esclaves, 362, 

 1891. Thikanies. — Hardisty in Smithson. Rep, 

 1866, 311, 1872. 



Scabbards. See Receptacles. 



Scalping. The common name for the 

 Indian practice of removing a portion of 

 the skin, with hair attached, from an 

 enemy's head, for trophy purposes. The 



word scalp is derived from an old Low 

 German word signifying a shell or sheath. 

 The equivalent word in the various In- 

 dian languages commonly refers either to 

 skin or hair. 



The practice is not exclusively an In- 

 dian one, having been noted among the 

 ancient Scythians as far back as the time 

 of Herodotus. Neither was it common 

 to all the American tribes, as so often 

 supposed. On the contrary, recent re- 

 searches by Friederici indicate that it was 

 confined originally in North America to 

 a limited area in the e. United States 

 and the lower St Lawrence region, about 

 equivalent to the territory held by the 

 Iroquoian and Muskhogean tribes and 

 their immediate neighljors. It was ab- 

 sent from New England and much of the 

 Atlantic Coast region, and was unknown 

 until comparatively recent limes through- 

 out the whole interior and the Plains 

 area. It was not found on the Pacific 

 coast, in the Canadian N. W., or in the 

 Arctic region, or anywhere s. of the 

 United States, with the exception of an 

 area in the Gran Chaco country of South 

 America. Throughout most of America 

 the earlier trophy was the head itself. 

 The spread of the scalping practice over 

 a great part of central and western United 

 States was a direct result of the encour- 

 agement in the shape of scalp bounties 

 offered by the colonial and more recent 

 governments, even down to within the 

 last fifty years, the scalp itself being su- 

 perior to the head as a trophy by reason 

 of its lighter weight and greater adapt- 

 ability to display and ornamentation. 



The operation of scalping was painful, 

 but by no means fatal. The impression 

 tliat it was fatal probably arises from the 

 fact that the scalp was usually taken from 

 the head of a slain enemy as a token of his 

 death, but among the Plains tribes the 

 attacking party frequently strove to over- 

 power his enemy and scalp him alive, to 

 inflict greater agony before killing him, 

 and frequently also a captured enemy was 

 scalped alive and released to go back thus 

 mutilated to his people as a direct defiance 

 and as an incitement to retaliation. The 

 portion taken was usually a small circular 

 patch of skin at the root of the scalplock 

 just back of the crown of the head. The 

 "scalplock" itself was the small hair 

 braid which hung from the back of the 

 head, as distinguished from the larger 

 side braids. It was usually decorated 

 with beads or other ornaments. When 

 opportunity offered the whole top skin 

 of the head, with the hair attached, was 

 removed, to be divided later into smaller 

 scalplocks for decorating war-shirts, leg- 

 gings, etc. The operation was performed 

 by making a quick knife stroke around 

 the head of the fallen enemy, followed by 



