During the summer and fall of 1885, Dr. H. C. Yarrow, acting assistant
surgeon U.S. Army, examined points in Arizona and Utah. In the vicinity
of Springerville, Apache County, Arizona, in company with Mr. E. W.
Nelson, he visited a number of ancient pueblos and discovered that the
people formerly occupying the towns had followed the custom of burying
their dead immediately outside the walls of their habitations, marking
the places of sepulcher with circles of stones. The graves were four or
five feet in depth, and various household utensils had been deposited
with the dead. Mr. Nelson, who had made a careful search for these
cemeteries, informed him of the locality of hundreds. Unfortunately for
anthropometric science, most of the bones are too much decayed to be of
practical value. The places of burial selected at these pueblos are
similar to the burial places discovered in 1874 near the large ruined
pueblo of Abiquiu, in the valley of the Chama, New Mexico.
Dr. Yarrow also visited the Moki pueblos in Arizona, and obtained from
one of the principal men a clear and succinct account of their burial
customs. While there he witnessed the famous snake dance, which occurs
every two years, and is supposed to have the effect of producing rain.
From his knowledge of the reptilian fauna of the country he was able to
identify the species of serpents used in the dance, and from personal
examination satisfied himself that the fangs had not been extracted from
the poisonous varieties. He thinks, however, that the reptiles are
somewhat tamed by handling during the four days that they are kept in
the estufas and possibly are made to eject the greater part of the venom
contained in the sacs at the roots of the teeth, by being teased and
forced to strike at different objects held near them. He does not think
that a vegetable decoction in which they are washed has a stupefying
effect, as has been supposed by some. He also obtained from a Moki high
priest a full account of the ceremonies attending the dance. Through the
assistance of Mr. Thomas V. Keam, of Keam Canyon, Arizona, and Mr. A. M.
Stephen, he was able to procure from a noted Navajo wise man an exact
account of the burial customs of his people, as well as valuable
information regarding their medical practices, especially such as relate
to obstetrics.
From Arizona Dr. Yarrow proceeded to Utah, and made an examination of an
old rock cemetery near Farmington, finding it similar to the one he
discovered in 1872 near the town of Fillmore. The bodies had been
carried far up the side of the mountain; cavities had been prepared in a
rock slide, and the bodies placed therein. Branches of cottonwood were
then laid over and large boulders piled on top. In several of these
graves the skeletons were in a fair state of preservation, and were
removed, as well as the articles found with them.
Through the kindness of Mr. William Young, of Grantsville, a skeleton of
a Gosiute, in excellent preservation, was obtained, and has been
presented to the Army Medical Museum. It may be stated that the
examination of the rock cemetery at Farmington showed that the
inhabitants of the eastern slope of the Wahsatch Range, in Great Salt
Lake Valley, followed the mode of rock sepulture from this, the most
northern point visited, to below Parowan, a distance of at least two
hundred miles southward, and it seems that these people occupied the
valley long subsequent to those living near the water courses who
constructed the small mounds on top of which were the rude adobe
dwellings, and in some instances used these huts for burial purposes.