Warfare in many Native North American traditions operated under a different set of rules than our standards. The rules were well established by tradition and understood by participants. They may seem overly violent to us, but the tradition of mutilation and torture of victims was an extenuation of warfare. It is important to note that not all North American Indians practiced torture of captives. For those who did, particularly in the East, events unfolded in a ritual manner with accepted rules of behavior that honored both the captor and the captive.

If a group raided another nation, females and children would most likely be adopted into the victor's group in a slave role. Female slave status varied, and could mean anything from assisting with normal household duties to being tasked with the particularly laborious chores. Their slave status was not inherited by their children, and several groups, like the Iroquois, raided other nations to augment their population in the wake of warfare and epidemic disease. Once captive children reached adulthood they could become full members of the band.

For males, the battle didn't end once you were taken prisoner. As a captive you were still a representative of your clan. You needed to display courage in the face of the enemy, and honorably represent your people under duress. A warrior's ability to withstand torture was an act of defiance, and could earn the respect of the captors. Victims were expected to sing a "mourning song"and to display both courage and disdain for their tormentors. Victims believed that maintaining their courage reflected on the character of their people. The tormentors believed they honored their victims by torturing them, though their hope was to break the victims' spirit so their performance would redound poorly on their people (Gallay 2003).

John Stewart, a Carolina colonist who traded with Native Americans in the Southeast in the early 18th century, witnessed and provided first hand accounts of torture of captives. Captives would eye their tormentors "with a scornful looks and a disdainful air", retelling their previous exploits against great warriors. The captive insulted his tormentors, calling them "less than women and boys" who captured him by "your tricks, not by your courage and manhood." The captive reported being grateful for if he did not "meet with your cowardly womanly tribe perhaps I had died at home with colick." The entire scene unfolded according to accepted rules of behavior, and if the captive failed to behave appropriately he would be killed.

As a final note, many of the nations we think of as particularly warlike, including the Comanche, used that violence as a means of deterring attack from more powerful neighbors. As recent migrants to the Southern Plains during the protohistoric, the Comanche needed to carve out territory in the midst of enemies. One way to accomplish that end was to terrorize other nations with the threat of violence.

It's not so much that the Comanche weren't brutal, it's that Gwynne just isn't the best historian (he's a journalist). The Comanche are fascinating and Pekka Hamalainen does a great job of recounting their history in her book The Comanche Empire. That's the one you should pick up. I too, started reading Empire of the Summer Moon but stopped after the first chapter.