Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-03-31
INDIAN BURIALS.
Recalled by a Find on Lake Su-
perior.

KecalleQ by a rlnd on Lake gu
perior.
The skeleton OF an Indian girl in a
birch-bark canoe, afioat on Lake SUI
perior, suggested to the people of Grand
Marais, Mich, when they found it re-
Gently, that it was evidence OF some
strange tribal burial custom. There was
color in the brief dispatch sent out: THE
bones of the girl rested on rich blanket,
and on the wrists were heavy silver
bracelets" This dead Lady of Shallot
must have been an Indian princess, con-
signed by reverent followers to sculpture
in the great lake. The act must have
had some peculiarly intimate religious
significance.
So the current of speculation drifted
The imaginations of the northern Indian
poets belt might be excused for clothing
the bones of the skeleton with beautiful
dusky flesh, and the meager framework
of the tale with a constructive fancy.
But it would be difficult to find verifica
ton for the belief that any tribe of In
dams should put their dead beauty into
richly furnished canoe and set her
adrift. No people ever guarded their
dead more jealousy than the Indians.
The idea of separation from the relies of
the departed before it was judged that
the journey to the other land had been
completed is repulsive to them, and it
is their desire to keep a record of the
place Of final disposition. Only by doing
this, among other things, have the tribal
and clan histories been made continuous
and veracious. In the details of sepul-
ture, however the customs of the tribes
have been as various as the lmaginatlonS
of superstitious peoples could suggest
From the old Mandan platform burial to
the Iroquois interment in crOuching
fhn nruptipn 1iffnrnH n u fba Ipnal
nterpreta tons of portents and the local
conception Of the happy grounds diff
fered.
1t is probably true that n student Of
Indian customs could reconstruct from
the evidence furnished by the burial
mounds of the middle west and SOUTH as
accurate picture of the old society as
from any other source. For example,
the habits, beliefs and state of artistic
development of the people that sepul-
chered their dead so deliberately may be
discovered. As Prof. Cyrus Thomas of
the Smithsonian institution wrote, in the
annual report twenty-five years ago,
The gifts 10, or property of, their dead
deposited in these sepulchers Illustrate
their arts and customs, and cast some
rays of light into their homes and daily
life, and the regard for their dead in
dicated by the remaining evidences of
their modes of burial and sepulchral
rites affords some glimpses of their re-
ligious beliefs and superstitions." The
symbolism of the geographical form of
the larger mounds is open to inteGpreta-
ton: the wrapping Of the bodies, their
posture, and the material of the sar-
cophagi, too, point to distinct tribal diff.
ferences; ana the extent and length of
tribal occupancy of certain territory are
to be guessed with rough precision from
the old cemetery researches.
The numberless burial mounds found
throughout Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa
and Wisconsin all indicate care in the
final disposition of the Indian dead that
is far from agreeing with the theory OF
| the Michigan dispatch. In Il majority
of them number of skeletons are found
seldom but one is found Inferred alone
Many of these mounds are veritablt
cemeteries, containing scores of skele
| tons. Frequently they are made up OF
great collections of bones. thrown to
gether without arrangement as if tn,
burial had been undertaken years after
death and widely scattered interment
This might happen in Il period of con
tinuous wars when it was impossible t.
follow out the tribal burial customs, ant
the bringing together of the bones haC
to be done by a later generation tina
was unacquainted with the history Of
the dead. Nothing in case like thi.
could be done except to gather wha
remained of these scattered bones anC
| IpiOtpP fhpm New York EypOino Post