Native American Usage
A number of Native American tribes of the Eastern Woodlands culture area forced prisoners to run the gantlet. (See Captives in American Indian Wars.) The Jesuit Isaac Jogues was subject to this treatment while a prisoner of the Iroquois in 1641. He described the ordeal in a letter that appears in the book The Jesuit Martyrs of North America : "Before arriving (at the Iroquois Village) we met the young men of the country, in a line armed with sticks...", and he and his fellow Frenchmen were made to walk slowly past them "for the sake of giving time to anyone who struck us."
Other European-Americans captured by Indians and made to run the gantlet included John Stark, Daniel Boone, James Smith, Col. William Crawford, Simon Kenton, Lieutenant-Colonel John B. McClelland, and Susanna Willard Johnson.
Read more about this topic: Gauntlet (punishment)
Famous quotes containing the words native, american and/or usage:
“Those poor farmers who came up, that day, to defend their native soil, acted from the simplest of instincts. They did not know it was a deed of fame they were doing. These men did not babble of glory. They never dreamed their children would contend who had done the most. They supposed they had a right to their corn and their cattle, without paying tribute to any but their governors. And as they had no fear of man, they yet did have a fear of God.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We are frequently told that talents and genius are natural gifts; and so indeed they are, to the same extent that the productions of the garden and the field are natural gifts.”
—U. R., U.S. women’s magazine contributor. American Ladies Magazine, pp. 317-19 (June, 1829)
“...Often the accurate answer to a usage question begins, “It depends.” And what it depends on most often is where you are, who you are, who your listeners or readers are, and what your purpose in speaking or writing is.”
—Kenneth G. Wilson (b. 1923)