Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1914 — Indian Burial Methods. [ARTICLE]

Indian Burial Methods.

The Indian method of burial was to fasten a corpse upon cross-sticks supported on poles in the ground or In the bought of the tree-tops. Here the air and the elements silently disposed of the lifeless clay, until In a year or so but little remained to bear evidence of a tomb —perhaps some broken sticks in the top and a few scattered beads or human bones beneath the burial place. I cannot conceive of anything more pitifully gruesome than an Indian, burial ground of this type. I have seen them In the fall of the year when the winds were shaking and swaying the platforms and wringing the leafless trees, flaunting the burial rags like signals of distress from the dead, and vhlstllng through and over the whitening bones and neglected remains of those who had many a time withstood the tempest and storm when the breath of life stirred within them.