BDSHNBLL] E"ATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 43 



of their early posts or settlements, and probably many burials which 

 have erroneously been attributed to the Indians could be traced to 

 these sources. It has already been shown that at the establishment of 

 the American Fur Co., standing at Fond du Lac in 1826, were two 

 small cemeteries, one for the whites and the other for the Indians. 

 This may have been the custom at many posts, but now, were these 

 graves examined, it would probably be quite difficult to distinguish 

 between the two. 



An ancient French cemetery evidently stood not far from the banks 

 of the Illinois, probably within the limits of the present city of Peoria. 

 It was mentioned just 70 years ago in a description of the valley of 

 the Illinois, and when referring to the native occupants of the rich and 

 fertile region : 



" This little paradise was until recently possessed by the Peoria 

 Indians, a small tribe, which has since receded; and tradition says 

 there was once a considerable settlement of the French on the spot. I 

 was informed there is an extensive old burial place, not of Indian 

 origin, somewhere on or near the terrace, and noticed that not a few 

 of the names and physiognomies in this quarter were evidently 

 French." (Paulding, (1), p. 17.) 



If discovered at the present time these remains would be in a con- 

 dition which w^ould make it difficult to distinguish them from those 

 of Indians, unless associated objects of European origin w^ould serve 

 to identify them. And down the valley of the Illinois has been dis- 

 covered a native Indian cemetery dating from about the same period 

 as the old French cemetery at Peoria. It was evidently one of much 

 interest. " Upon the banks of the river at Naples are the burying- 

 grounds of the modern Indian, in which have been found many 

 stone implements intermingled with civilized manufactures, such as 

 beads, knives, crosses of silver, and other articles indicating traffic 

 with the French during, probably, the latter part of the 17th and 

 the first half of the 18th centuries. . . . The pottery exhumed 

 from this ancient cemetery shows that it was the connnon burial- 

 place of the race that built at least a part of the mounds." (Hender- 

 son, (l),p. 719.) 



However, Indians were sometimes buried in the small French 

 Catholic cemeteries, and it may be recalled that when Pontiac was 

 murdered, in the year 1769, near the village of the Cahokia, on the 

 eastern bank of the Mississippi, his body was claimed by the French, 

 carried across the river in a canoe, and placed in the cemetery belong- 

 ing to the church. This stood on the summit of the ridge, then 

 probably surrounded by the virgin forest; now^ the site is covered by 

 buildings, on the southeast corner of Fifth and Walnut Streets, in the 

 city of St. Louis. But all traces of this ancient burying ground have 

 long since disappeared. 



