The scalpers don’t remove the scalp but take the child with the scalp to receive federal bounty. The Native American child’s hair is cut against the custom of his/her people (which is considered nothing more than savage superstition). The haircut is the first step of deIndianizing the child.
The program is simple. The great Republican state of South Dakota sends its Social Services scalpers onto Indian reservations to kidnap Indian children. Of course, the Indians are helpless against the white man.
Once the S.S. has grabbed a living scalp and incarcerates it in a beneficent facility, South Dakota begins to collect the bounty from the Feds. In the old days the only good Indian was a dead Indian, but today a living Indian is worth more, so the S.S. leaves the scalp on the child’s head. That's progress.
If the S.S. can find foster parents, it receives a larger bounty from the Gov. Best of all is if the pelt (as the Indian child is sometimes called) qualifies for a special needs bonus. For example, if it begins to show strange behavior after not seeing a relative for a year or more.
The state of South Dakota benefits because one way or another Federal scalp money is spent in the state. The S.S. officials say that the South Dakota Indian Bounty Program has been a big money maker for the Long Knives.
South Dakota achieves another victory over the savage.
Remembering Wounded Knee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc7fZonjD1M&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT0sny_eeS4
NPR’s report:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/25/141662357/incentives-and-cultural-bias-fuel-foster-system
