This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: farwellwalter Surnames: Chippewa, Pottawatami, Ottowa, Todd, Waubonsie Classification: cemetery Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.iowa.counties.fremont/7419/mb.ashx Message Board Post: PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND. Volume 2, page 203.-- "In the month of June of this year (1855), I availed myself of the leisure of the long vacation to make a trip into the wild West, and accomplished a voyage through the whole extent of the Upper Canadian lakes, from Georgian Bay to Fond du Lac and the River St. Louis, at the extreme west point of Lake Superior. In this trip I had opportunities of observing the Red Indian in his native state, as well as of making observations which I had long desired to be able to do, on the half-breed Indians..... ".....In various districts of North America ancient sepulchral deposits of a peculiar kind are met with, containing heaps of human bones promiscuously mingled together. About the year 1837, one of these Indian ossuaries was accidentally discovered in the township of Beverley, Canada West. An elevated ridge, running from north to south, was covered by an old growth of full-grown beech trees, standing somewhat widely apart; and across this, and consequently running from east to west, a series of trenches were ucovered consisting almost entirely of human bones. These lay in immense numbers, of both sexes and of all ages, promiscuously heaped together, and interpersed with many Indian relics, which furnished the chief temptation to their exploration. These depositories of human bones are referred to by Dr. Schoolcraft in his "History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indians," as especially characteristic of the ancient period of occupancy of the upper lake regions, and are desc! ribed by him as consisting of "sepulchral trenches or ossuaries, in which the bones of entire villages would seem to have been carefully deposited, after the bodies had been previously scaffolded, or otherwise disposed of, till the fleshy parts were entirely dissipated, and nothing left but the osteological frame." In commenting on this Indian sepulchral rite, he further observes: " A custom of this kind may be supposed to intervene, in the history of nations, between that of burning the body,--which is still practised, we are told, among the Tacullies of British Oregon or New Caledonia,--and that of immediate interment, so generally practised. "On this question, however, I have obtained information leading to a different inference. On inquiring of Mr. Paul Kane, a Canadian artist, whose practical knowledge of Indian rites and customs is derived from the experience of years spent in travelling among the northern tribes as far as the shores of the Pacific, he informs me that in the above remarks the American ethnologist confounds the sepulchral rites of entirely distincty classes of Indian tribes. Among the Chippewas, Pottowatamays, the Menamonies, the Ottowas, and the Indians of the Six Nations, the practice prevailed of interring their dead in large sepulchral depositories. The bodies among the tribes still retaining this custom, are objects of sacred regard and reverential care during the intervening period between the first funeral rites and the final feast at the grave, which frequently extends over many months; but after the final honours and sacrifices have been offered to the deceased, he is believed to hav! e reached the spirit hunting-grounds, and then all care ceases, and the bones and offerings to the manes of the dead are sooner or later promiscuously gathered into the common ossuary. This custom fully accounts for the immense trenches filled with human bones intermingled with Indian relics. One of those opened at Beverley, and careflly explored, was found to measure forty feet in length with a breadth of eight feet; and throughout this entire area it consisted, to a depth of six feet, of a solid mass of human crania and bones.... "...other practices...constitute an entirely distinct and final sepulchral rite....who deposit the corpse on a scaffold or raised platform above ground.....These Indian biers are regarded as the final resting places of the dead....."--By DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., Hon. M.S.A, Scot. N.B.: Wasn't it Reverend Todd who claimed the burials of Pottawatomie at Indiantown were in graves, in the ground? I am thinking about Waubonsie, who it was claimed was buried on a scaffold in a large tree?--W.F. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.