They have no regular period, so far as I know, for mourning, but
often continue it after the burial, though I do not know that they
often visit the grave. If they feel the loss very much, sometimes
they will mourn nearly every day for several weeks; especially is
this true when they meet an old friend who has not been seen since
the funeral, or when they see an article owned by the deceased which
they have not seen for a long time. The only other thing of which I
think, which bears on this subject, is an idea they have, that
before a person dies--it may be but a short time or it may be
several months--a spirit from the spirit land comes and carries off
the spirit of the individual to that place. There are those who
profess to discover when this is done, and if by any of their
incantations they can compel that spirit to return, the person will
not die, but if they are not able, then the person will become dead
at heart and in time die, though it may not be for six months or
even twelve. You will also find a little on this subject in a
pamphlet which I wrote on the Twana Indians and which has recently
been published by the Department of the Interior, under Prof. F. V.
Hayden, United States Geologist.
George Gibbs[81] 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 Tsinūk 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, &c. 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 cedar boards, closely connected, about 8 feet
square and 6 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 4 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 Inland. The _Watlala_, a
tribe of the Upper Tsinūk, 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 _mé-mel-ūs-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 elsewhere 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 buried a house, in
which the inhabitants had perished with the dead in it. This is
frequently done. They almost invariably remove from any 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.
[Illustration: FIG. 29.--Canoe Burial.]
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 _Tsinūk_ and _Tsìhalis_ the _tamahno-ūs_
board of the owner was placed near him. The Puget Sound Indians do
not make these _tamahno-ūs_ boards, 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-ūs_. 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 cap, 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 Tsinūk 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 it 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, “_A 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.