Books: An introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians
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H. C. Yarrow >> An introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians
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W. L. Hardisty [Footnote: Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1866, p. 319] gives
a curious example of log-burial in trees, relating to the Loucheux of
British America:
"They inclose the body in a neatly-hollowed piece of wood, and secure
it to two or more trees, about six feet from the ground. A log about
eight feet long is first split in two, and each of the parts carefully
hollowed out to the required size. The body is then inclosed and the
two pieces well lashed together, preparatory to being finally secured,
as before stated, to the trees"
With regard to the use of scaffolds as places of deposit for the dead,
the following theories by Dr. W. Gardner, U.S.A., are given:
"If we come to inquire why the American aborigines placed the dead
bodies of their relatives and friends in trees, or upon scaffolds
resembling trees, instead of burying them in the ground, or burning
them and preserving their ashes in urns, I think we can answer the
inquiry by recollecting that most if not all the tribes of American
Indians, as well as other nations of a higher civilization, believed
that the human soul, spirit or immortal part, was of the form and
nature of a bird, and as these are essentially arboreal in their
habits, it is quite in keeping to suppose that the _soul-bird_
would have readier access to its former home or dwelling-place if it
was placed upon a tree or scaffold than if it was buried in the earth;
moreover, from this lofty eyrie the souls of the dead could rest
secure from the attacks of wolves or other profane beasts, and guard
like sentinels the homes and hunting-grounds of their loved ones."
This statement is given because of a corroborative note in the
writer's possession, but he is not prepared to admit it as correct
without farther investigation.
PARTIAL SCAFFOLD BURIAL AND OSSUARIES
Under this heading may be placed the burials which consisted in first
depositing the bodies on scaffolds, where they were allowed to remain
for a variable length of time, after which the bones were cleaned and
deposited either in the earth or in special structures called by
writers "bone-houses." Roman [Footnote: Hist. of Florida, 1775, p.
89.] relates the following concerning the Choctaws:
"The following treatment of the dead is very strange ... As soon as
the deceased is departed, a stage is erected (as in the annexed plate
is represented) and the corpse is laid on it and covered with a bear
skin; if he be a man of note, it is decorated, and the poles painted
red with vermillion and bear's oil; if a child, it is put upon stakes
set across; at this stage the relations come and weep, asking many
questions of the corpse, such as, why he left them? did not his wife
serve him well? was he not contented with his children? had he not
corn enough? did not his land produce sufficient of everything? was he
afraid of his enemies? etc. and this accompanied by loud howlings; the
women will be there constantly, and sometimes with the corrupted air
and heat of the sun faint so as to oblige the bystanders to carry them
home; the men will also come and mourn in the same manner, but in the
night or at other unseasonable times, when they are least likely to be
discovered.
"The stage is fenced round with poles; it remains thus a certain time
but not a fixed space; this is sometimes extended to three or four
months, but seldom more than half that time. A certain set of
venerable old Gentlemen who wear very long nails as a distinguishing
badge on the thumb, fore and middle finger of each hand, constantly
travel through the nation (when i was there, i was told there were but
five of this respectable order) that one of them may acquaint those
concerned, of the expiration of this period, which is according to
their own fancy; the day being come, the friends and relations
assemble near the stage, a fire is made, and the respectable operator,
after the body is taken down, with his nails tears the remaining flesh
off the bones, and throws it with the entrails into the fire, where it
is consumed; then he scrapes the bones and burns the scrapings
likewise; the head being painted red with vermillion is with the rest
of the bones put into a neatly made chest (which for a Chief is also
made red) and deposited in the loft of a hut built for that purpose,
and called bone house; each town has one of these; after remaining
here one year or thereabouts, if he be a man of any note, they take
the chest down, and in an assembly of relations and friends they weep
once more over him, refresh the colour of the head, paint the box, and
then deposit him to lasting oblivion.
"An enemy nor one who commits suicide is buried under the earth as one
to be directly forgotten and unworthy the above ceremonial obsequies
and mourning."
Jones [Footnote: Antiquities of the Southern Indiana, 1873, p. 105.]
quotes one of the older writers, as follows, regarding the
_Natchez_ tribe:
"Among the Natchez the dead were either inhumed or placed in tombs.
These tombs were located within or very near their temples. They
rested upon four forked sticks fixed fast in the ground, and were
raised some three feet above the earth. About eight feet long and a
foot and a half wide, they were prepared for the reception of a single
corpse. After the body was placed upon it, a basket-work of twigs was
woven around and covered with mud, an opening being left at the head,
through which food was presented to the deceased. When the flesh had
all rotted away, the bones were taken out, placed in a box made of
canes, and then deposited in the temple. The common dead were mourned
and lamented for a period of three days. Those who fell in battle were
honored with a more protracted and grievous lamentation."
Bartram [Footnote: Bartram's Travel, 1791, p. 516.] gives a somewhat
different account from Roman of burial among the Choctaws of Carolina:
"The Choctaws pay their last duties and respect to the deceased in a
very different manner. As soon as a person is dead, they erect a
scaffold 18 or 20 feet high in a grove adjacent to the town, where
they lay the corps, lightly covered with a mantle; here it is suffered
to remain, visited and protected by the friends and relations, until
the flesh becomes putrid, so as easily to part from the bones; then
undertakers, who make it their business, carefully strip the flesh
from the bones, wash and cleanse them, and when dry and purified by
the air, having provided a curiously-wrought chest or coffin,
fabricated of bones and splints, they place all the bones therein,
which is deposited in the bone-house, a building erected for that
purpose in every town; and when this house is full a general solemn
funeral takes place; when the nearest kindred or friends of the
deceased, on a day appointed, repair to the bone-house, take up the
respective coffins, and, following one another in order of seniority,
the nearest relations and connections attending their respective
corps, and the multitude following after them, all as one family, with
united voice of alternate allelujah and lamentation, slowly proceeding
on to the place of general interment, when they place the coffins in
order, forming a pyramid; [Footnote: Some ingenious men whom I have
conversed with have given it as their opinion that all those pyramidal
artificial hills, usually called Indian mounds, were raised on this
occasion, and are generally sepulchres. However, I am of different
opinion.] and, lastly, cover all over with earth, which raises a
conical hill or mount; when they return to town in order of solemn
procession, concluding the day with a festival, which is called the
feast of the dead."
Morgan [Footnote: League of the Iroquois 1851, p. 171] also alludes to
this mode of burial:
"The body of the deceased was exposed upon a hark scaffolding erected
upon poles or secured upon the limbs of trees, where it was left to
waste to a skeleton. After this had been effected by the process of
decomposition in the open air, the bones were removed either to the
former house of the deceased, or to a small bark-house by its side,
prepared for their reception. In this manner the skeletons of the
whole family were preserved from generation to generation by the
filial or parental affection of the living After the lapse of a number
of years, or in a season of public insecurity, or on the eve of
abandoning a settlement, it was customary to collect these skeletons
from the whole community around and consign them to a common resting
place.
"To this custom, which is not confined to the Iroquois, is doubtless
to be ascribed the barrows and bone-mounds which have been found in
such numbers in various parts of the country. On opening these mounds
the skeletons are usually found arranged in horizontal layers, a
conical pyramid, those in each layer radiating from a common center.
In other cases they are found placed promiscuously."
D. G. Brinton [Footnote: Myths of the New World, 1868. p. 256.]
likewise gives an account of the interment of collected bones:
"East of the Mississippi nearly every nation was accustomed at stated
periods--usually once in eight or ten years--to collect and clean the
osseous remains of those of its number who had died in the intervening
time, and inter them in one common sepulcher, lined with choice furs,
and marked with a mound of wood, stone, or earth. Such is the origin
of those immense tumuli filled with the mortal remains of nations and
generations, which the antiquary, with irreverent curiosity, so
frequently chances upon in all portions of our territory. Throughout
Central America the same usage obtained in various localities, as
early writers and existing monuments abundantly testify. Instead of
interring the bones, were they those of some distinguished chieftain,
they were deposited in the temples or the council-houses, usually in
small chests of canes or splints. Such were the charnel-houses which
the historians of De Soto's expedition so often mention, and these are
the 'arks' Adair and other authors who have sought to trace the
descent of the Indians from the Jews have likened to that which the
ancient Israelites bore with them in their migrations.
"A widow among the Tahkalis was obliged to carry the bones of her
deceased husband wherever she went for four years, preserving them in
such a casket, handsomely decorated with feathers (Rich. Arc. Exp, p.
260). The Caribs of the mainland adopted the custom for all, without
exception. About a year after death the bones were cleaned, bleached,
painted, wrapped in odorous balsams, placed in a wicker basket, and
kept suspended from the door of their dwelling (Gumilla Hist. del
Orinoco I., pp. 199, 202, 204). When the quantity of these heirlooms
became burdensome they were removed to some inaccessible cavern and
stowed away with reverential care."
George Catlin [Footnote: Hist. N. A. Indians, 1844, I, p. 90.]
describes what he calls the "Golgothas" of the Mandans:
"There are several of these golgothas, or circles of twenty or thirty
feet in diameter, and in the center of each ring or circle is a little
mound of three feet high, on which uniformly rest two buffalo skulls
(a male and female), and in the center of the little mound is erected
'a medicine pole,' of about twenty feet high, supporting many curious
articles of mystery and superstition, which they suppose have the
power of guarding and protecting this sacred arrangement.
"Here, then, to this strange place do these people again resort to
evince their further affections for the dead, not in groans and
lamentations, however, for several years have cured the anguish, but
fond affection and endearments are here renewed, and conversations are
here held and cherished with the dead. Each one of these skulls is
placed upon a bunch of wild sage, which has been pulled and placed
under it. The wife knows, by some mark or resemblance, the skull of
her husband or her child which lies in this group, and there seldom
passes a day that she does not visit it with a dish of the best-cooked
food that her wigwam affords, which she sets before the skull at
night, and returns for the dish in the morning. As soon as it is
discovered that the sage on which the skull rests is beginning to
decay, the woman cuts a fresh bunch and places the skull carefully
upon it, removing that which was under it.
"Independent of the above-named duties, which draw the women to this
spot, they visit it from inclination, and linger upon it to hold
converse and company with the dead. There is scarcely an hour in a
pleasant day but more or less of these women may be seen sitting or
lying by the skull of their child or husband, talking to it in the
most pleasant and endearing language that they can use (as they were
wont to do in former days), and seemingly getting an answer back."
From these accounts it may be seen that the peculiar customs which
have been described by the authors cited were not confined to any
special tribe or area of country, although they do not appear to have
prevailed among the Indians of the northwest coast, so far as known.
SUPERTERRENE AND AERIAL BURIAL IN CANOES.
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."
George Gibbs [Footnote: Cont. N. A. Ethnol. 1877, I, p. 200.] gives a
most interesting account of the burial ceremonies of the Indians of
Oregon and Washington Territory, which is here reproduced in its
entirety, although it contains examples of other modes of burial
besides that in canoes; but to separate the narrative would destroy
the thread of the story:
"The common mode of disposing of the dead among the fishing tribes was
in canoes. These were generally drawn into the woods at some prominent
point a short distance from the village, and sometimes placed between
the forks of trees or raised from the ground on posts. Upon the
Columbia River the Tsinuk had in particular two very noted cemeteries,
a high isolated bluff about three miles below the mouth of the
Cowlitz, called Mount Coffin, and one some distance above, called
Coffin Rock. The former would appear not to have been very ancient.
Mr. Broughton, one of Vancouver's lieutenants, who explored the river,
makes mention only of _several_ canoes at this place; and Lewis
and Clarke, who noticed the mount, do not speak of them at all, but at
the time of Captain Wilkes's expedition it is conjectured that there
were at least 3,000. A fire caused by the carelessness of one of his
party destroyed the whole, to the great indignation of the Indians.
"Captain Belcher, of the British ship Sulphur, who visited the river
in 1839, remarks: 'In the year 1836 [1826] the small-pox made great
ravages, and it was followed a few years since by the ague.
Consequently Corpse Island and Coffin Mount, as well as the adjacent
shores, were studded not only with canoes, but at the period of our
visit the skulls and skeletons were strewed about in all directions.'
This method generally prevailed on the neighboring coasts, as at Shoal
Water Bay, etc. Farther up the Columbia, as at the Cascades, a
different form was adopted, which is thus described by Captain Clarke:
"About half a mile below this house, in a very thick part of the
woods, is an ancient Indian burial-place; it consists of eight vaults,
made of pine or cedar boards, closely connected, about eight feet
square and six in height, the top securely covered with wide boards,
sloping a little, so as to convey off the rain. The direction of all
these is east and west, the door being on the eastern side, and
partially stopped with wide boards, decorated with rude pictures of
men and other animals. On entering we found in some of them four dead
bodies, carefully wrapped in skins, tied with cords of grass and bark,
lying on a mat in a direction east and west, the other vaults
contained only bones, which in some of them were piled to a height of
four feet; on the tops of the vaults and on poles attached to them
hung brass kettles and frying-pans with holes in their bottoms,
baskets, bowls, sea-shells, skins, pieces of cloth, hair bags of
trinkets, and small bones, the offerings of friendship or affection,
which have been saved by a pious veneration from the ferocity of war
or the more dangerous temptation of individual gain. The whole of the
walls as well as the door were decorated with strange figures cut and
painted on them, and besides these were several wooden images of men,
some of them so old and decayed as to have almost lost their shape,
which were all placed against the sides of the vault. These images, as
well as those in the houses we have lately seen, do not appear to be
at all the objects of adoration in this place; they were most probably
intended as resemblances of those whose decease they indicate; and
when we observe them in houses they occupy the most conspicuous part,
but are treated more like ornaments than objects of worship. Near the
vaults which are still standing are the remains of others on the
ground, completely rotted and covered with moss; and as they are
formed of the most durable pine and cedar timber, there is every
appearance that for a very long series of years this retired spot has
been the depository for the Indians near this place."
"Another depository of this kind upon an island in the river a few
miles above gave it the name of Sepulcher Island. The _Watlala_,
a tribe of the Upper Tsinuk, whose burial place is here described, are
now nearly extinct; but a number of the sepulchers still remain in
different states of preservation. The position of the body, as noticed
by Clarke, is, I believe, of universal observance, the head being
always placed to the west. The reason assigned to me is that the road
to the _me-mel-us-illa-hee_, the country of the dead, is toward
the west, and if they place them otherwise they would be confused.
East of the Cascade Mountains the tribes whose habits are equestrian,
and who use canoes only for ferriage or transportation purposes, bury
their dead, usually heaping over them piles of stones, either to mark
the spot or to prevent the bodies from being exhumed by the prairie
wolf. Among the Yakamas we saw many of their graves placed in
conspicuous points of the basaltic walls which line the lower valleys,
and designated by a clump of poles planted over them, from which
fluttered various articles of dress. Formerly these prairie tribes
killed horses over the graves--a custom now falling into disuse in
consequence of the teachings of the whites.
"Upon Puget Sound all the forms obtain in different localities. Among
the Makah of Cape Flattery the graves are covered with a sort of box,
rudely constructed of boards, and else where on the Sound the same
method is adopted in some cases, while in others the bodies are placed
on elevated scaffolds. As a general thing, however, the Indians upon
the water placed the dead in canoes, while those at a distance from it
buried them. Most of the graves are surrounded with strips of cloth,
blankets, and other articles of property. Mr. Cameron, an English
gentleman residing at Esquimalt Harbor, Vancouver Island, informed me
that on his place there were graves having at each corner a large
stone, the interior space filled with rubbish. The origin of these was
unknown to the present Indians.
"The distinctions of rank or wealth in all cases were very marked;
persons of no consideration and slaves being buried with very little
care or respect. Vancouver, whose attention was particularly attracted
to their methods of disposing of the dead, mentions that at Port
Discovery he saw baskets suspended to the trees containing the
skeletons of young children, and, what is not easily explained, small
square boxes, containing, apparently, food. I do not think that any of
these tribes place articles of food with the dead, nor have I been
able to learn from living Indians that they formerly followed that
practice. What he took for such I do not understand. He also mentions
seeing in the same place a cleared space recently burned over, in
which the skulls and bones of a number lay among the ashes. The
practice of burning the dead exists in parts of California and among
the Tshimsyan of Fort Simpson. It is also pursued by the "Carriers" of
New California, but no intermediate tribes, to my knowledge, follow
it. Certainly those of the Sound do not at present.
"It is clear from Vancouver's narrative that some great epidemic had
recently passed through the country, as manifested by the quantity of
human remains uncared for and exposed at the time of his visit, and
very probably the Indians, being afraid, had burned a house, in which
the inhabitants had perished with the dead in it. This is frequently
done. They almost invariably remove from an place where sickness has
prevailed, generally destroying the house also.
"At Penn Cove Mr. Whidbey, one of Vancouver's officers, noticed
several sepulchers formed exactly like a sentry-box. Some of them were
open, and contained the skeletons, of many young children tied up in
baskets. The smaller bones of adults were likewise noticed, but not
one of the limb bones was found; which gave rise to an opinion that
these, by the living inhabitants of the neighborhood, were
appropriated to useful purposes, such as pointing their arrows,
spears, or other weapons.
"It is hardly necessary to say that such a practice is altogether
foreign to Indian character. The bones of the adults had probably been
removed and buried elsewhere. The corpses of children are variously
disposed of; sometimes by suspending them, at others by placing in the
hollows of trees, A cemetery devoted to infants is, however, an
unusual occurrence. In cases of chiefs or men of note much pomp was
used in the accompaniments of the rite. The canoes were of great size
and value--the war or state canoes of the deceased. Frequently one was
inverted over that holding the body, and in one instance, near
Shoalwater Bay, the corpse was deposited in a small canoe, which again
was placed in a larger one and covered with a third. Among the
_Tsinuk_ and _Tsihalis_ the _tamahno-us_ board of the owner was
placed near him. The Puget Sound Indians do not make these
_tamahno-us_ hoards, but they sometimes constructed effigies of
their chiefs, resembling the person as nearly as possible, dressed in
his usual costume, and wearing the articles of which he was fond. One
of these, representing the Skagit chief Sneestum, stood very
conspicuously upon a high bank on the eastern side of Whidbey Island
The figures observed by Captain Clarke at the Cascades were either of
this description or else the carved, posts which had ornamented the
interior of the houses of the deceased, and were connected with the
superstition of the _tamahno-us_. The most valuable articles of
property were put into or hung up around the grave, being first
carefully rendered unserviceable, and the living family were literally
stripped to do honor to the dead. No little self-denial must have been
practiced in parting with articles so precious, but those interested
frequently had the least to say on the subject. The graves of women
were distinguished by a cup, a Kamas stick, or other implement of
their occupation, and by articles of dress.
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