The question might be raised as to whether or not the “scalping” of the Lamanite leader, Zerahemnah, might have led to the scalping tradition of the American Indian. (Alma 44:12-14.) However, recent evidence would seem to indicate the American Indian did not have a scalping tradition until after the coming of the white man—that is, until the seventeenth century A.D. Apparently it was the white man who started the scalping custom, when some of the early colonists offered money for the scalps or hair of dead Indians. In order to get even with the evil white men who killed Indians just for their scalps (in much the same way as they would kill a buffalo for its hide), the Indians started to kill and scalp the whites in return.