BUSHNELL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL. 17 



(amongst them to a great value) in a solemne remembrance of his 

 Sonne and in a kind of humble, Expiation to the Gods, who, (as 

 they believe) had taken his sonne from him." (Williams, (1), pp. 

 161-162.) 



For this great Narraganaet chief, Canonicus, to have destroyed his 

 dwelling, with all its contents, at the time of the death and burial of 

 his son was contrary to the usual customs of the Algonquian tribes, 

 although such was the habit of several tribes of the South. 



There is reason to suppose the burial customs of the many tribes 

 who occupied New England did not differ to any great degree, and 

 all may have had similar periods of mourning and enacted the same 

 ceremonies to express their grief. Among the Housatonic or River 

 Indians, later to be known as the Stockbridge Indians, the period of 

 mourning was about one year. Thus it was described in the year 

 1736: 



" The Keutikaw is a Dance which finishes the Mourning for the 

 Dead^ and is celebrated about twelve Months after the Decease, when 

 the Guests invited make Presents to the Relations of the Deceas'd, 

 to make up their Loss and to end their Mourning. The Manner of 

 doing it is this : The Presents prepar'd are deliver'd to a Speaker 

 appointed for the Purpose ; who, laying them upon the Shoulders of 

 some elderly Person, makes a Speech shewing the Design of their 

 present Meeting, and the Presents prepar'd. Then he takes them and 

 distributes them to the Mourners^ adding some Words of Consolation, 

 and desiring them to forget their Sorrow, and accept of those Pres- 

 ents to make up their loss. After this they eat together and make 

 Merry." (Hopkins, (1), p. 38.) 



This paragraph was taken from Sergeant's journal and bore the 

 date January, 1736. It evidently recorded the customs of the Housa- 

 tonic Indians at the time of the arrival of the missionary, and may 

 have been the ancient custom of the Algonquian tribes of the region. 

 Human remains have been discovered at various points in the valley 

 of the Housatonic within the bounds of the lands once occupied by 

 the tribe whose name the river perpetuates, and tradition locates one 

 or more cemeteries west of the stream near the foot of the mountains, 

 but no large group of burials is known to have ever been encountered. 



Cairns, heaps of stones usually on some high and prominent point, 

 are found throughout the southern mountains, but seldom have they 

 been mentioned in the older settled parts of the north One, however, 

 stood in the country of the Plousatonic Indians. As early as 1720 

 some English traders saw a large heap of stones on the " east side of 

 Westenhook or Housatonic River, so called, on the southerly end of 

 the mountain called Monument Mountain, between Stockbridge and 

 Great Barrington." This circumstance gave rise to the name which 



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