A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American IndiansYarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
History
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
And often had been seen, years ago, swinging from the bough of a
tree, or in a hammock stretched between two trees, the infant of the
Indian mother; or a few little log inclosures, where the bodies of
adults sat upright, with all their former apparel wrapped about
them, and their trinkets, tomahawks, &c., by their side, could be
seen at any time for many years by the few pale-faces visiting or
sojourning here.
A method of interment so closely allied to surface burial that it may be
considered under that head is the one employed by some of the Ojibways
and Swampy Crees of Canada. A small cavity is scooped out, the body
deposited therein, covered with a little dirt, the mound thus formed
being covered either with split planks, poles, or birch bark.
Prof. Henry Youle Hind, who was in charge of the Canadian Red River
exploring expedition of 1858, has been good enough to forward to the
Bureau of Ethnology two photographs representing the variety of grave,
which he found 15 or 20 miles from the present town of Winnipeg, and
they are represented in the woodcuts, Figures 8 and 9.
_CAIRN-BURIAL._
The next mode of interment to be considered is that of cairn or rock
burial, which has prevailed and is still common to a considerable extent
among the tribes living in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas.
In the summer of 1872 the writer visited one of these rock cemeteries in
Middle Utah, which had been used for a period not exceeding fifteen or
twenty years. It was situated at the bottom of a rock slide, upon the
side of an almost inaccessible mountain, in a position so carefully
chosen for concealment that it would have been almost impossible to find
it without a guide. Several of the graves were opened, and found to have
been constructed in the following manner: A number of bowlders had been
removed from the bed of the slide until a sufficient cavity had been
obtained; this was lined with skins, the corpse placed therein, with
weapons, ornaments, &c., and covered over with saplings of the mountain
aspen; on the top of these the removed bowlders were piled, forming a
huge cairn, which appeared large enough to have marked the last resting
place of an elephant. In the immediate vicinity of the graves were
scattered the osseous remains of a number of horses which had been
sacrificed, no doubt, during the funeral ceremonies. In one of the
graves, said to contain the body of a chief, in addition to a number of
articles useful and ornamental, were found parts of the skeleton of a
boy, and tradition states that a captive boy was buried alive at this
place.
From Dr. O. G. Given, physician to the Kiowa and Comanche Agency, Indian
Territory, the following description of burial ceremonies was received.
According to this gentleman the Kiowas call themselves _Kaw-a-wāh_, the
Comanches _Nerm_, and the Apaches _Tāh-zee_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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