Human Sacrifice by Indians.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 31 March 1891, Page 3

Human Sacrifice by Indians.

A shocking discovery is described by the Edmonton Bulletin, published in Alberta, [the westernmost of our North West territories. It seems that an Indian named Bluehorn went off last June on a hunting expedition to the Beaver Hills, near Fort Saskatchewan, taking with him his son, 8 years old. One day the boy was Bent to the camp by his father, but did not arrive there, and nothing was heard of him. His skeleton has at last been found suspended between two trees, the arms stretched out, and one wrist being tied to each tree by a rope. It is supposed that the boy had been caught by some Indians in the locality and offered up as a sacrifice to secure good luck in hunting, as they are in the habit of exposing pieces of cloth or trinkets to obtain supernatural favours. A •entence from the " Histoire de la Nouvelle France," by the Jesuit! Father Oharlevoix, shows that this custom prevailed among the Indians met with by the early French explorers in Lower Canada. " Strings of wampum, tobacco, ears of corn, the skins and often the whole carcase of animals, are seen along difficult or dangerous roads, or rocks, and on the shores of rapids, as so many offerings to the presiding spirit of the locality. Of animals, dogs are the most common victims ; they are often suspended alive upon trees * jby their hinder feet, where they are left to die in a state of madness.