Native Cemeteries and Forms of Burial East of the Mississippi Collections

West of the Alleghenies Burial Customs

The burial customs of some western Algonquian tribes were, in many respects, quite similar to those of the New England Indians. It will be recalled that soon after the Mayflower touched at Cape Cod a party of the Pilgrims went ashore and during their explorations discovered several groups of graves, some of which “had like an Indian house made over them, but not matted.” They may when erected have been covered with mats. The similarity between this early reference and the description of certain Ojibway graves, two centuries and more later, is very interesting. Writing from “American Fur Company’s trading … Read more

Various Types of Iroquoian Burials

Many burials of special interest, either by reason of their rather unusual form or the material which they revealed, have been discovered in different parts of the present State of New York. These may be attributed to the people of the Five Nations, and seem to prove that all followed various methods of disposing of their dead. The quotations are made from Beauchamp, by whom the information was gathered from several sources. In Genesee County, the home of the Seneca, a cemetery encountered in a gravel bank some 6 miles southeast of Bergen ” has skeletons in a sitting posture, … Read more

Timucuan Burial Customs

Long before the Seminole reached central Florida the peninsula had been the home of other native tribes who have. left many mounds and other works to indicate the positions of their villages. The northern half of the peninsula, from the Ocilla River on the north to the vicinity of Tampa Bay on the south, and thence across to about Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic coast, was, when first visited by the Spaniards, the home of tribes belonging to the Timucuan family, of whom very little is known. They were encountered near the site of the present city of St. Augustine … Read more

Stone Lined Graves in Mississippi

It is a region possessing much natural beauty, ideally suited to a large native population, such as it undoubtedly sustained during the days before the coming of the French. Many similar groups of graves are scattered along the bluffs bordering the Mississippi and are less numerous inland. The salt springs of Jefferson County, Missouri, a little more than halfway between the mouth of the Saline on the south and the Missouri on the north, served to attract the Indians, as did the springs near the former stream, already mentioned. About a mile inland from the small village of Kimmswick, up … Read more

Stone Lined Graves – Tennessee

A mound in which were many intrusive stone graves, and therefore resembling the one examined on Swallow Bluff Island, stood on a high hill about 2 miles from Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee. It was about 20 feet in height and 400 feet in circumference. The mound was examined and “about four feet from the top, we came to a layer of graves extending across the entire mound. The graves were constructed in the same manner as those found in the cemeteries, that is, of two wide parallel slabs, about two and one-half feet long for sides, and with the bottom, … Read more

Stone Lined Graves – Jo Daviess County, Illinois

A very remarkable example of rectangular stone inclosure was discovered in a mound on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi, in the town of Dunleith Jo Daviess County, Illinois. This is the extreme northwest corner of the State, and the mound was one of a large group. Its height was about 10 feet, with a diameter of 65 feet. To quote the description of the interior: ” The first six feet from the top consisted of hard gray earth. This covered a vault built in part of stone and in part of round logs. When fully uncovered this was found to … Read more

Stone Lined Graves – Important Person

It must have been the tomb of an important person, the burial place of some great man, highly esteemed by his companions. The mound is, as shown in the plan, surrounded by a ditch and embankment. “The mound, which covers the entire area, save a narrow strip here and there, is 115 feet long and 96 feet wide at base, with a height of 23 feet. . . . The surrounding wall and ditch are interrupted only by the gateway at the east, which is about 30 feet wide. The ditch is 3 feet deep and varies in width from … Read more

Stone Lined Graves

Stone graves-that is, small excavations which were lined or partly lined with natural slabs of stone-have been encountered in great numbers in various parts of the Mississippi Valley. They are discovered scattered and separate; in other instances vast numbers are grouped together, thus forming extensive cemeteries. While the great majority were formed by lining properly prepared excavations, others were created by erecting one upon another, forming several tiers, and covering all with earth, so forming a mound. In and about the city of Nashville, on the banks of the Cumberland, in Davidson County, Tennessee, such burials have been revealed in … Read more

Seneca Ceremony, 1731

Throughout the greater part of the region once occupied by the Five Nations are- discovered their ancient cemeteries, often situated near the sites of their former villages. Some have been examined, and these usually reveal the human remains, now rapidly disappearing, lying in an extended position. Few accounts of the ceremonies which attended the death and burial of these people have been preserved, but one of the most interesting relates to the Seneca, as enacted during the month of June, 1731. True, the two persons who were buried at this Seneca village were not members of the tribe, but, nevertheless, … Read more

Seminole Burial Customs

The Seminole, the immigrants from the Creek towns who settled in Florida during the eighteenth century, were little influenced by the whites until very recent years. Living as they did in the midst of the great swamps of the southern part of the peninsula, with no roads penetrating the tangle of semitropical vegetation, and with even the location of their settlements unknown to the occupants of other parts of Florida, they were never visited, and seldom seen except when they chose to make journeys to the traders near the coast. Consequently the burial customs of the people, as witnessed 40 … Read more

Santee Burial Customs

Siouan tribes extended southward into the central portions of the present State of South Carolina, and the Santee were undoubtedly members of this linguistic family. One of their villages probably stood on the shore of Scott Lake, in the valley of the Santee about 10 miles southwest of Summerton, Clarendon County. Here, near the shore of the lake, is a conical mound of earth, and scattered over the surrounding area are many fragments of pottery and other traces of an Indian settlement, but the surface has been modified by the waters of the Santee during periods of flood, and consequently … Read more

Powhatan Confederacy Burial Customs

It is to be regretted that more is not known concerning the burial customs of the Algonquian tribes of Virginia, those who constituted the Powhatan confederacy, people with whom the Jamestown Colonists came in contact during the spring of 1607. Several accounts are preserved, but unfortunately all are lacking in detail. Capt. Smith included burial customs under the general caption of their Religion, and in 1612 wrote: ” But their chiefe God they worship is the Divell. Him they call Oke and serve him more of feare than love.. They say they have conference with him, and fashion themselves as … Read more

Ossuaries as a Form of Burial Custom

Many ossuaries have been encountered in the western counties of the State of New York, which, however, may be attributed to the influence of the Huron. These great pits often contain vast quantities of skeletal remains, together with numbers of objects of native origin which had been deposited as offerings to the dead, and material obtained from the early traders is sometimes found associated with the later burials. The ossuaries appear to have been rectangular in form, to have occupied rather prominent positions, and to have been carefully prepared. Such a communal burial place was discovered in May, 1909, about … Read more

New England Native American Burial Customs

Three centuries and more have elapsed since the Jesuit, Père Pierre Biard, of Grenoble, prepared an account of the manners and customs of several native tribes of New France, which then included within its bounds the eastern portions of the present State of Maine, and the adjoining provinces. He wrote more particularly of the “three tribes which are on good terms of friendship with us-the Montaguets, the Souriquois, and the Eteminquois.” By these names the early French knew the three tribes now better known as the Montagnais, Micmac, and Malecite, all belonging to the great Algonquian family, and who occupied … Read more

New England – An Ancient Cemetery

Similar deposits of the insoluble red oxide were associated with burials in an ancient cemetery discovered in 1913 in Warren, Bristol County, Rhode Island. This appears to have been a burying ground of the Wampanoag, within whose lands it was. When the site was destroyed some of the skeletons were exposed, together with a large number of objects of English, Dutch, and French origin, dating from the years between the first contact with the Europeans until the latter part of the seventeenth century. In some burials copper kettles were placed over the heads of the bodies. In such cases the … Read more

Native Cemeteries and Forms of Burial East of the Mississippi

Native burials and places of burial have been questioned my many people, David M. Bushnell, provides many answers to forms, places, and tribal customs. He does not include all the tribes but does offer an explanation on such tribes as Algonquian, Powhatan, Seneca, Huron, Natchez, Sioux, Cherokee, Creek, Seminole and Choctaw just to name a few.

Native American Cremation

More than a century before McKenney made his tour of the Lakes and stopped at Detroit, during the month of June, 1826, Charlevoix traversed much of the same on his way to the country of the Illinois, and thence down the Mississippi. At that time the Missisauga, a tribe closely related to the Chippewa, and of which they may be considered a subtribe or division, lived on the shores of Lake St. Clair and the vicinity, and here Charlevoix saw their scaffold burials. Referring to the several tribes with whom he had come in contact, he wrote: “When an Indian … Read more

Naticoke Burial Customs

The Nanticoke, who lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, were connected, linguistically, with the Delaware, and before the latter removed westward beyond the Alleghenies they were neighboring tribes. The Nanticoke were encountered by Capt. John Smith and his party of colonists from Jamestown in 1608, living on or near the river which continues to bear their tribal name. For many years they were enemies of the colonists, but remained in the region until about 1730, when the majority of the tribe began moving northward, stopping at the mouth of the Juniata, and elsewhere in the valley of the Susquehanna, … Read more

Natchez Burial Customs

When referring to the burial customs of the Natchez, that most interesting of the many tribes of the lower Mississippi Valley, the early writers by whom the tribe was visited seldom alluded to the rites which attended the final disposition of the remains of the less important members of the nation, but devoted themselves to describing the varied and sanguinary ceremonies enacted at the time of the death and burial of a Sun. Swanton has already brought together the various accounts and descriptions of these most unusual acts, and consequently they need not be repeated at the present time. Nevertheless … Read more

Menominee Burial Customs

The Menomini (Menominee Tribe), whose home when first encountered by Europeans during the early years of the seventeenth century was west of Lake Michigan, evidently possessed many customs quite similar to those of the Ojibway. Their dead were usually deposited in excavated graves, but they also had some form of scaffold burial. “The Menomini formerly disposed of their dead by inclosing the bodies in long pieces of birchbark or in slats of wood, and burying them in a shallow hole. When not in the neighborhood of birch or other trees, from which broad pieces of bark could be obtained, some … Read more