The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-01-09
IEDIAN BURLAIS.
Recalled by a Find On Lake Superior.
New York Evening Post.

The skeleton of an Indian girl in a
birch bark canoe, afloat on lake Su-
perior, suggested to the people OF
Grand Marals, Mich, when they
found it recently, that it was the re-
mains OF some strange burial GUS
tom. There was color in the brief
dispatch sent out: "The bones of
the girl rested on rich
blanket, and on the wrists heavy
silver bracelets The dead lady of
Shallot must have been an Indian
Princess, consigned by reverent
followers to a sepulcre in the great
lake. The act must have had some
peculiar religious religious signifi-
eance.
So the current of speculation
drifted:'$ The Imagination Of the
northern Indian poets belt might be
excused, for clothing bones Of the
skeleton with beautiful dusky flesh
and thessneasg;rtse frame work of the
tale with a constructive fancy. But
it would be difficult to find verihca>
tion for the belief that any tribe of
Indians should put their dead beau-
ty into richly furnished easpe and
set her adrift. No people ever
guarded their dead more jealousy.
than the Indians: Tie :ideaxof sep
aration from the: relies of<thes de-
parted beferss:it was judged tnatths
iourneyto the other land had been
completed Is rep5GlsivNee: to them, and
it is their desire to keep record of
the plaee-oi final disposition. Only
by doing this among other things,
have the tribal and clan histories
been made econtinuousand veracious.
I'm the details of sepulture however,
ehe customs of the tribes have been
as various as. the in,aginations OF
superstitious peoples could suggest.
From the old Mandan platform bur
ial to the 1roquois interment in a
crouching posture, the practice diff
;fcred as the local Interpretation of
potents and the local conception of
the happy grounds differed. !
1t is. probably true that a 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 devel- |
oprnent Of the people that sepul-
chered their dead SO elaborately
NAV be discovered. AS Prof. Cy-
rus Thomas of the Smithsonian
Institution wrote, in the annual re-
port twenty-five years ago, "lhe
gift to, or property of, their dead
deposited in these sepulchres illus
trate their arts and customs, and
cast some rays of light into their
homes and daily life and the
regard for their dead indicated by
the remaining evidences of their
modes of burial and sepulchral rites
affords some glirnpses of their re-
lig.ious beliefs and superstltions'
The symbolism of the geographical
form of the larger mounds is open
to Interpretation; the wrapping OF
the bodies, their posture, and the
material of the sarcophagi, too,
point to distinct tribal differences; j
and the extent and length of tribal
occupancy of certain territory are
to be guessed with rough precision
from the old cemetery researches.
The nui1lberless burial mounds
found throughout Ohio, Indiana
Iowa and Wisconsin all indicate a
care In the Anal disposition Of the
Indian dead that is far from agree
ing with the theory OF the Michi-
gan dispatch. In majority of them
a number Of skeletons are found
seldom but one is found inferred
alone. Many OF these mounds are
veritab1e cemeteries, containing
scores Of skeletons. Frequently