Many Woodlands war parties went out not for land or plunder but to answer a death. Among the Iroquois especially, a grieving family could ask for a captive to take the place of a lost relative, and raiders brought home prisoners as well as scalps. In the spring of 1758 a party of Shawnee warriors and Frenchmen raided a farm on the Pennsylvania frontier and carried off the Jemison family. Most of the family was killed on the march to Fort Duquesne. Young Mary was given to two Seneca sisters, who adopted her in place of a brother killed in the war. Renamed Dehgewanus, she chose to stay with the Seneca for the rest of her long life.

This warrior lunges forward in a wide stance, his curved war club raised high to strike and his musket held upright in his other hand. The club's ball head and the line of brass tacks down its handle are clearly modelled. He has black paint across his eyes and a red feather ornament at the back of his head. Tattooed lines cover his chest and arms, and strings of beads hang at his neck. Below are a red breechcloth banded in white, green leggings with red garters, and moccasins. For a frontier raid, group him with the other close-quarters fighters: Native Warrior Fighting with War Club and Knife, Native Warrior Swinging Gunstock War Club and Native American Warrior Running Barefoot.

W. Britain model 16087. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted groundwork base. Boxed.