Captain Traver’s impaled skull was identified by his gold teeth. The Tuhoe tribes were a fierce warlike people whose proud boast “'Tuhoe moumou taonga, moumou tangata ki te Po” (“Tuhoe, the destroyer of earth’s treasures and the master of mankind unto death”) resulted in the bones of their warriors finding a resting place on many battlefields, while their heavily forested and rugged mountainous fastness in the Urewera saved them from them from disastrous invasion for centuries. However, after they sheltered Te Kooti and his Ringatu followers, the Tuhoe experienced the full vengance of the Crown in 1869 - their crops were burnt, their stock killed and their villages destroyed. Even worse, much of their land was later confiscated. As part of this scorched earth policy government troops attacked the strongly fortified pa of Tatahoata, at Ruatahua, May 1869. During the engagement, Capt...