Spinden states that cemeteries are readily located by the heaps of "river-worn or rock-slide boulders" piled over the graves in the Nez Perce country.[415] They are usually on the first bench above the river bottom and are found near the traditional village sites, from which they can be seen. The more common method of disposing of the dead there, was by burial in the ground, especially on stony hillsides, and covering the graves with stones to keep off the wild animals. This seems to have been the prevailing method throughout the whole Columbia region of which this is a part.[416] Rock-slide graves were sometimes made in basaltic cliffs in the Nez Perce region. One of these is known to have been used in recent times from the presence of a Lewis and Clark medal,[417] and graves marked by pieces of upright cedar and covered by large piles of stone are reported by Spinden on the east bank of the Snake River, beside the mouth of the Grande Ronde.[418] [415] Spinden, p. 181. [416] Lewis, p. 190; Lewis and Clark. IV, pp. 366-7, 371, V, p. 99; Ross, (a), pp. 320-321; Cox, p. 105; Douglas, p. 339; Gibbs, (a), p. 405. [417] Spinden, p. 181. [418] Spinden, pp. 181 and 252. Indian graves filled up with stones are numerous in the vicinity of the several remains (pp. 29, 54 and 82) near Mr. Turner's home, according to Mr. J. S. Cotton. Mr. Turner told him that all the graves that had been excavated contained bones in a greatly decayed condition, which suggested to him that they were very old. These graves, like the other remains of the vicinity previously mentioned, have been in the same condition since about 1874. The terraces mentioned on p. 13 (Fig. 1, Plate VII)[419] may have been made to facilitate reaching rock-slide graves in the same slide; while the pits which were found in the slides (Fig. 2, Plate VII)[420] walled up on the outer sides like balconies, with the rocks that apparently came both from the pits and the disturbed slide above them, have been considered as rifled graves or graves from which the burials had been removed (p. 13). [419] See Museum negative no. 44520, 7-10, from the southwest, about a mile above the mouth of the Naches River, (p. 13). [420] See Museum negative no. 44519, 7-9. The same slide from the southwest (p. 13).