"Savage"

According to Dictionary.com, a "savage" is "uncivilized; barbarous" and "savagery" is "an uncivilized or barbaric state or condition; barbarity".

This passage was read from an online history textbook from 1887. The three pages briefly analyzed Indians' appearance and way of life. Their descriptions were obviously outdated, as they were portrayed in a negative, primitive light. It is unsettling that educators gave this information to students in 1887.
When the word "savages" was entered into the online textbook's search tool, it referred to Indians every single time, as if they were barbaric and uncivilized. The term was mostly used in the context of some sort of conflict. Either the "savages" were killing Englishmen, being attacked, being conquered, or defeating or massacring an enemy.

If I was an American student studying this text as impartial truth, I would view Native Americans as extremely violent people. I would think them unintelligent after reading that instead of books, they wrote "rude figures" on tree bark or stones. The descriptions of their methods of torture by burning alive is terrifying. Additionally, I would believe that they were ugly and unfashionable, since it describes Indians as having "small, deep-set, and snaky" eyes and wearing marks painted with "hideous devices." Overall, this book portrays them as destructive and unsophisticated. I would like to think modern text is more flattering.