Tribal Headhunters on Coney Island? Author Revisits Disturbing American Tale

Coney Island was made of tall tales. The birthplace of the hot dog and the roller coaster, it was the poor man’s paradise, offering sensation for a nickel. By the early twentieth century, it was America’s most popular sea-side resort.

Hunt was a Spanish-American War veteran and former lieutenant governor of Bontoc, where he had become a trusted friend of the Igorrotes. The United States took control of the Philippines from Spain as part of the terms of the 1898 Treaty of Paris ending the war between the two nations. The U.S. also received stewardship of Puerto Rico and Guam and

White people would sometimes “go native,” but native people almost never “went white.” For Junger, this suggests that there was something fundamentally humane about native culture, or something inhumane about white culture. In general, tribal living was more coherent, more egalitarian, and more relaxed than the rigid, hierarchical culture of white

To put this shocking story in context, the 19th and early 20th century were periods of expansion by Western powers who were eager to display just how advanced their civilization were compared to the rest of the world.