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
Bury the body in the ground in a standing position, the shoulders
nearly even with the ground. The grave is prepared by digging a hole
of sufficient depth and circumference to admit the body, the head
being cut off. In the grave are placed the bows and arrows,
bead-work, trappings, &c., belonging to the deceased; quantities of
food, consisting of dried fish, roots, herbs, &c., were placed with
the body also. The grave was then filled up, covering the headless
body; then a bundle of fagots was brought and placed on the grave by
the different members of the tribe, and on these fagots the head was
placed, the pile fired, and the head consumed to ashes; after this
was done the female relatives of the deceased, who had appeared as
mourners with their faces blackened with a preparation resembling
tar or paint, dipped their fingers in the ashes of the cremated head
and made three marks on their right cheek. This constituted the
mourning garb, the period of which lasted until this black substance
wore off from the face. In addition to this mourning, the blood
female relatives of the deceased (who, by the way, appeared to be a
man of distinction) had their hair cropped short. I noticed while
the head was burning that the old women of the tribe sat on the
ground, forming a large circle, inside of which another circle of
young girls were formed standing and swaying their bodies to and fro
and singing a mournful ditty. This was the only burial of a male
that I witnessed. The custom of burying females is very different,
their bodies being wrapped or bundled up in skins and laid away in
caves, with their valuables and in some cases food being placed with
them in their mouths. Occasionally money is left to pay for food in
the spirit land.
This account is furnished by Gen. Charles H. Tompkins, deputy
quartermaster-general, United States Army, who witnessed the burial
above related, and is the more interesting as it seems to be the only
well-authenticated case on record, although E. A. Barber[58] has
described what may possibly have been a case of cremation like the one
above noted:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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