I don't recall exactly, except that the bonepickers were then invited as the guest of honor at a big feast, where some of the decaying flesh still clung to their long fingernails. This struck the European observers as not exactly wholesome. It was one of the practices targeted immediately for extermination by missionaries. I am also sending this over to the other list. I think you are on that one also, aren't you? George Ann >From: JohnnyMikeCraven@aol.com >Reply-To: CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST-L@rootsweb.com >To: CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: Re: [CHOCTAW-SE] Hopiah >Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 01:37:24 EDT > >In a message dated 7/23/2002 10:16:29 AM Central Daylight Time, >wood_owl@hotmail.com writes: > > > > > > >In a message dated 7/22/2002 10:21:09 AM Central Daylight Time, > > >wood_owl@hotmail.com writes: > > > > > > > > > > After a prescribed length of mourning (prescribed by > > > > the medicince man or Ikbi), the bones were taken down and scraped >clean > > >by > > > > the bone picker who had especially long nails for this purpose. The > > >cleaned > > > > bones were then bundled and placed in a common bone house > >George Ann, > > I guess this question will be repugnant to some on the list but I >think it needs to be asked. > > What did the bone pickers do with the "pickings?" > > John Craven > New Orleans > > >==== CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST Mailing List ==== >Try Markie and Fay's CHOCTAW-SOUTHEAST pages at >http://freepages.cultures.rootsweb.com/~choctaw/index.html for CHOCTAW >Muster Rolls, Orphans lists, censuses, land records, etc. > _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com