OG TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Prince Roland Bonaparte, St. Cloud, France; Prof. A. Ponia.. 

 lovsky, Sec. Imperial Russian Archseol. Soc, St. Petersburg; Dr. 

 Enrico Giglioli, V.-Pres., Anthropological Soc, Florence, Italy; 

 Prof. Johannes Ranke, Editor Correspondenz-Blatt, German An- 

 thropological Soc, and Sec. Anthropological Soc'., Munich. 



A paper entitled " Recent Indian Graves in Kansas," pre- 

 pared by Dr. Alton H. Tho.mpson, of Topeka, Kansas, was read 

 by Colonel Seely. 



ABSTRACT. 



The writer in 1879 assisted in the examination of four graves in 

 an old burial ground connected with the mission to the Potta- 

 wotomies, six miles west of Topeka. The ground appears to have 

 been the site of a former Indian village, believed by some to have 

 been occupied by Crows. Careful inquiry, however, makes the 

 identity of these people with that tribe very doubtful. Three of 

 the graves were accurately oriented, the fourth being much inclined, 

 as if made when the sun was at its northern limit. Besides the 

 bones the first grave yielded quite a number of metal ornaments, 

 consisting of disks of rolled silver with stamped perforations and 

 incised ornamentation, small silver buckles, and pieces of chains 

 like cheap brass watch-chains, all evidently of white manufacture. 

 The traders say that it was formerly common to receive designs 

 from the Indians, from which ornaments were made and furnished 

 to those who had ordered them. Sometimes they also procured 

 sheets of brass and silver, which they worked according to their 

 fancy. Silver coins, particularly the old Spanish dollars, were often 

 beaten out by the Indians into disks, and ornamented. 



The condition of the remains in the first grave indicated it to be 

 much more ancient than the others. No trace of clothing,or of any 

 enclosure for the body appeared. In the second, a fracture in the 

 skull showed that the person had probably met death by violence. 



The body had been enclosed in a hollow log or in bark. In this, 

 and in the third and fourth graves, leather leggins, blankets of white 

 manufacture, and a silk handkerchief were found, all much decom- 

 posed. 



The skulls were all of true Indian type. The writer proposes to 

 continue his researches in this interesting locality. 



