A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American IndiansYarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
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A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians
Yarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
Indians of North America -- Funeral customs and rites
They have no regular period, so far as I know, for mourning, but
often continue it after the burial, though I do not know that they
often visit the grave. If they feel the loss very much, sometimes
they will mourn nearly every day for several weeks; especially is
this true when they meet an old friend who has not been seen since
the funeral, or when they see an article owned by the deceased which
they have not seen for a long time. The only other thing of which I
think, which bears on this subject, is an idea they have, that
before a person dies--it may be but a short time or it may be
several months--a spirit from the spirit land comes and carries off
the spirit of the individual to that place. There are those who
profess to discover when this is done, and if by any of their
incantations they can compel that spirit to return, the person will
not die, but if they are not able, then the person will become dead
at heart and in time die, though it may not be for six months or
even twelve. You will also find a little on this subject in a
pamphlet which I wrote on the Twana Indians and which has recently
been published by the Department of the Interior, under Prof. F. V.
Hayden, United States Geologist.
George Gibbs[81] gives a most interesting account of the burial
ceremonies of the Indians of Oregon and Washington Territory, which is
here reproduced in its entirety, although it contains examples of other
modes of burial besides that in canoes; but to separate the narrative
would destroy the thread of the story:
The common mode of disposing of the dead among the fishing tribes
was in canoes. These were generally drawn into the woods at some
prominent point a short distance from the village, and sometimes
placed between the forks of trees or raised from the ground on
posts. Upon the Columbia River the Tsinūk had in particular two very
noted cemeteries, a high isolated bluff about three miles below the
mouth of the Cowlitz, called Mount Coffin, and one some distance
above, called Coffin Rock. The former would appear not to have been
very ancient. Mr. Broughton, one of Vancouver’s lieutenants, who
explored the river, makes mention only of _several_ canoes at this
place; and Lewis and Clarke, who noticed the mount, do not speak of
them at all, but at the time of Captain Wilkes’s expedition it is
conjectured that there were at least 3,000. A fire caused by the
carelessness of one of his party destroyed the whole, to the great
indignation of the Indians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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