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 next mode of burial to be remarked is that of deposit in canoes,
either supported on posts, on the ground, or swung from trees, and is
common only to the tribes inhabiting the northwest coast. From a
number of examples, the following, relating to the Clallams and
furnished by the Rev. M. Eells, missionary to the Skokomish Agency,
Washington Territory, is selected:
"The deceased was a woman about thirty or thirty-five years of age,
dead of consumption. She died in the morning, and in the afternoon I
went to the house to attend the funeral. She had then been placed in a
Hudson's Bay Company's box for a coffin, which was about 3 1/2 feet
long, 1 3/4 wide, and 1 1/2 high. She was very poor when she died,
owing to her disease, or she could not have been put in this box. A
fire was burning near by, where a large number of her things had been
consumed, and the rest were in three boxes near the coffin. Her mother
sang the mourning song, sometimes with others, and often saying. 'My
daughter, my daughter, why did you die?' and similar words. The burial
did not take place until the next day, and I was invited to go. It was
an aerial burial, in a canoe. The canoe was about 25 feet long. The
posts, of old Indian hewed boards, were about a foot wide. Holes were
cut in these, in which boards were placed, on which the canoe rested.
One thing I noticed while this was done which was new to me, but the
significance of which I did not learn. As fast as the holes were cut
in the posts green leaves were gathered and placed over the holes
until the posts were put in the ground. The coffin-box and the three
others containing her things were placed in the canoe and a roof of
boards made over the central part, which was entirely covered with
white cloth. The head part and the foot part of her bedstead were then
nailed on to the posts, which front the water, and a dress nailed on
each of these. After pronouncing the benediction, all left the hill
and went to the beach except her father, mother, and brother, who
remained ten or fifteen minutes, pounding on the canoe and mourning.
They then came down and made a present to those persons who were
there--a gun to me, a blanket to each of two or three others, and a
dollar and a half to each of the rest, there being about fifteen
persons present. Three or four of them then made short speeches, and
we came home.
"The reason why she was buried thus is said to be because she is a
prominent woman in the tribe. In about nine months it is expected that
there will be a '_pot-latch_' or distribution of money near this
place, and as each tribe shall come they will send a delegation of two
or three men, who will carry a present and leave it at the grave; soon
after that shall be done she will be buried in the ground. Shortly
after her death both her father and mother cut off their hair as a
sign of their grief."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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