YARROW.] LODGE BURIAL—SHOSHONES. 153 
It was, at the time, the opinion of our mountaineers, that these Indians must have 
fallen in an encounter with a party of Crows; but I subsequently learned that they 
had all died of the cholera, and that this young girl, being considered past recovery, 
had been arranged by her friends in the habiliments of the dead, inclosed in the lodge 
alive, and abandoned to her fate, so fearfully alarmed were the Indians by this to 
them novel and terrible disease. 
It might, perhaps, be said that this form of burial was exceptional, 
and due to the dread of again using the lodges which had served as the 
homes of those afflicted with the cholera, but it is thought such was not 
the case, as the writer has notes of the same kind of burial among the 
same tribe and of others, notably the Crows, the body of one of their 
chiefs (Long Horse) being disposed of as follows: 
The lodge poles inclose an oblong circle some 18 by 22 feet at the base, converging 
to a point at least 30 feet high, covered with buffalo-hides dressed without hair except 
a part of the tail switch, which floats outside like, and mingled with human scalps. 
The different skins are neatly fitted and sewed together with sinew, and all painted 
in seven alternate horizontal stripes of brown and yellow, decorated with various life- 
like war scenes. Over the small entrance is a large bright cross, the upright being a 
large stuffed white wolf-skin upon his war lance, and the cross-bar of bright scarlet 
flannel, containing the quiver of bow and arrows, which nearly all warriors still carry, 
even when armed with repeating rifles. As the cross is not a pagan but a Christian 
(which Long Horse was not either by profession or practice) emblem, it was probably 
placed there by the influence of some of his white friends. I entered, finding Long 
Horse buried Indian fashion, in full war dress, paint and feathers, in a rude coffin, 
upon a platform about breast high, decorated with weapons, scalps, and ornaments. 
A large opening and wind-flap at the top favored ventilation, and though he had lain 
there in an open coffin a full month, some of which was hot weather, there was but 
little effluvia; in fact, I have seldom found much in a burial-teepee, and when this 
mode of burial is thus performed it is less repulsive than natural to suppose. 
This account is furnished by Col. P. W. Norris, superintendent of 
Yellowstone National Park, he having been an eye-witness of what he 
relates in 1876; and although the account has been questioned, it is ad- 
mitted for the reason that this gentleman persists, after a reperusal of 
his article, that the facts are correct. 
General Stewart Van Vliet, U. S. A., informs the writer that among 
the Sioux of Wyoming and Nebraska when a person of consequence 
dies a small scaffold is erected inside his lodge and the body wrapped in 
skins deposited therein. Different utensils and weapons are placed by 
his side, and in front a horse is slaughtered ; the lodge is then closed up. 
Dr. W. J. Hoffman writes as follows regarding the burial lodges of 
the Shoshones of Nevada: 
The Shoshones of the upper portion of Nevada are not known to have at any time 
practiced cremation. In Independence Valley, under a deserted and demolished wickeup 
or “brush tent,” I found the dried-up corpse of a -boy, about twelve years of age. 
The body had been here for at least six weeks, according to information received, 
and presented a shriveled and hideous appearance. The dryness of the atmosphere 
prevented decomposition. The Indians in this region usually leave the body when 
life terminates, merely throwing over it such rubbish as may be at hand, or the re- 
mains of their primitive shelter tents, which are mostly composed of small branches, 
leaves, grass, &c. 
