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Superterrent and 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.
"Slaves were killed in proportion to the rank and
wealth of the deceased. In some instances they were starved to death, or
even tied to the dead body and left to perish thus horribly. At present
this practice has been almost entirely given up, but till within a very
few years it was not uncommon. A case which occurred in 1850 has been
already mentioned. Still later, in 1853, Toke, a Tsinuk chief living at
Shoalwater Bay, undertook to kill a slave girl belonging to his
daughter, who, in dying, had requested that this might be done. The
woman fled, and was found by some citizens in the woods half starved.
Her master attempted to reclaim her, but was soundly thrashed and warned
against another attempt.
"It was usual in the case of chiefs to renew or repair
for a considerable length of time the materials and ornaments of the
burial- place. With the common class of persons family pride or domestic
affection was satisfied with the gathering together of the bones after
the flesh had decayed and wrapping them in a new mat. The violation of
the grave was always regarded as an offense of the first magnitude and
provoked severe revenge. Captain Belcher remarks, 'Great secrecy is
observed in all their burial ceremonies, partly from fear of Europeans,
and as among themselves they will instantly punish by death any
violation of the tomb or wage war if perpetrated by another tribe, so
they are inveterate and tenaceously bent on revenge should they discover
that any act of the kind has been perpetrated by a white man. It is on
record that part of the crew of a vessel on her return to this port (the
Columbia) suffered because a person who belonged to her (but not then in
her) was known to have taken a skull, which, from the process of
flattening, had become an object of curiosity.' He adds, however, that
at the period of his visit to the river 'the skulls and skeletons were
scattered about in all directions; and as I was on most of their
positions unnoticed by the natives, I suspect the feeling does not
extend much beyond their relatives, and then only till decay has
destroyed body, goods, and chattels. The chiefs, no doubt, are watched,
as their canoes are repainted, decorated, and greater care taken by
placing them in sequestered spots.'
"The motive for sacrificing or destroying property on
occasion of death will be referred to in treating of their religious
ideas. Wailing for the dead is continued for a long time, and seems to
be rather a ceremonial performance than an act of spontaneous grief. The
duty, of course, belongs to the woman, and the early morning is usually
chosen for the purpose. They go out alone to some place a little distant
from the lodge or camp, and in a loud, sobbing voice repeat a sort of
stereotyped formula, as, for instance, a mother, on the loss of her
child, "Ah seahb shed-da bud-dah ah ta bud! ad-de- dah," Ah chief!' 'My
child dead, alas!' When in dreams they see any of their deceased friends
this lamentation is renewed."
With most of the Northwest Indians it was quite common,
as mentioned by Mr. Gibbs, to kill or bury with the dead a living slave,
who, failing to die within three days was strangled by another slave,
but the custom has also prevailed among other tribes and peoples, in
many cases the individuals offering themselves as voluntary sacrifices.
Bancroft states "that in Panama, Nata, and some other districts, when a
cacique died those of his concubines that loved him enough, those that
he loved ardently and so appointed, as well as certain servants, killed
themselves and were interred with him. This they did in order that they
might wait upon him in the land of spirits." It is well known to all
readers of history to what an extreme this revolting practice has
prevailed in Mexico, South America, and Africa.
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Introduction to the Study of Mortuary Customs
Among the North American Indians
Native American Nations
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