Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1885 — Indian Graves to Order. [ARTICLE]

Indian Graves to Order.

So determined, indeed, are some of these fabricators of frauds, that the following incident is worthy of being published, to show the ingenuity they exercise in their peculiar calling. To discover an Indian grave is, of course, a red-letter day for the archaeologist. Now, Indian graves are manufactured to order, it would appear. At least the following recently occurred in New Jersey: A Philadelphia Flint Jack secured" a half-decayed skeleton from a potter’s field in the vicinity, and placed it in a shallow excavation on the wasting bank of a creek in New Jersey, where Indian relics were frequently found. With it he placed a steatite to-bacco-pipe of his own make, a steatite carving of an eagle’s head, and beads; [with these were thrown numbers of genuine arrow-heads and fragments of pottery. The earth was blackened with powdered charcoal. This “plant” was made in November, and in the following March, during the prevalence of high waters and local freshets, he announced to an enthusiastic collector that he knew the exact location of an Indian grave, and offered to take him thither for SSO, the money to be paid if the search proved successful, which of course it did. The cranium of that pauper passed through several craniologists’ hands, and was gravely remarked upon as of unusual interest, as it was a marked dolichocephalic skull, whereas the Delaware Indians were brachycephalic!—Dr. Chas. in'Popular Science Monthly.