When I was a senior in high-] school, I attended a sociology survey class at a nearby university. The professor was covering the American Indian wars and stressed how barbaric the US military and civilians were towards the indigenous tribes. While I've always been very symptomatic towards their demise (I cried when I read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" at 11 years old), I didn't think he was treating the subject with nuance. I raised my hand and said something like "Both sides committed acts of barbarism on each others' population. For example, what about the Native American practice of scalping?" He got dark red in face and proceeded to verbally dress me down, saying that the French fur traders were the ones to introduce the practice of scalping. I just shrunk into my seat and didn't question him. Nearly 10 years later, something reminded me of it...