An Introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American IndiansYarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
History
An Introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians
Yarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
Indians of North America -- Funeral customs and rites
"The lodge poles inclose an oblong circle some 18 by 22 feet at the
base, converging to a point at least 30 feet high, covered with
buffalo-hides dressed without hair except a part of the tail switch,
which floats outside like, and mingled with human scalps. The
different skins are neatly fitted and sewed together with sinew, and
all painted in seven alternate horizontal stripes of brown and yellow,
decorated with various life-like war scenes. Over the small entrance
is a large bright cross, the upright being a large stuffed white wolf-
skin upon his war lance, and the cross-bar of bright scarlet flannel,
containing the quiver of bow and arrows, which nearly all warriors
still carry, even when armed with repeating rifles. As the cross is
not a pagan but a Christian (which Long Horse was not either by
profession or practice) emblem, it was probably placed there by the
influence of some of his white friends. I entered, finding Long Horse
buried Indian fashion, in full-war dress, paint and feathers, in a
rude coffin, upon a platform about breast high, decorated with
weapons, scalps, and ornaments. A large opening and wind-flap at top
favored ventilation, and though he had lain there in an open coffin a
full month, some of which was hot weather, there was but little
effluvia; in fact, I have seldom found much in a burial-teepee, and
when this mode of burial is thus performed it is less repulsive than
natural to suppose."
This account is furnished by Col. P. W. Norris, superintendent of
Yellowstone National Park, he having been an eye-witness of what he
relates in 1876.
The Blackfeet, Sioux, and Navajos also bury in lodges, and the Indians
of Bellingham Bay, according to Dr. J. F. Hammond, U. S. A., place
their dead in carved wooden sarcophagi, inclosing these with a
rectangular tent of some white material.
Bancroft [Footnote: Nat. Races of Pac. States, 1874, vol. 1, p. 780.]
states that certain of the Indians of Costa Rica, when a death
occurred, deposited the body in a small hut constructed of plaited
palm reeds. In this it is preserved for three years, food being
supplied, and on each anniversary of the death it is redressed and
attended to amid certain ceremonies. The writer has been recently
informed that a similar custom prevailed in Demerara. No authentic
accounts are known of analogous modes of burial among the peoples of
the Old World, although quite frequently the dead were interred
beneath the floors of their houses, a custom which has been followed
by the Mosquito Indians of Central America and one or two of our own
tribes.
BOX BURIAL.
Under this head may be placed those examples furnished by certain
tribes on the Northwest coast who used as receptacles for the dead
wonderfully carved, large wooden chests, these being supported upon a
low platform or resting on the ground. In shape they resemble a small
house with an angular roof, and each one has an opening through which
food may be passed to the corpse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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