BUSHNELL] N^ATIVE CEMETERIES AND FOEMS OF BURIAL 71 



grow on the Grave, and frequently visit it with Lamentations." 

 (Golden, (l),p. 16.) 



The circular mound of earth over the grave was likewise men- 

 tioned a century earlier, having been seen at the Oneida village 

 which stood east of the present Munnsville, Madison Gounty, New 

 York. " Before we reached the castle we saw three graves, just like 

 our graves in length and height; usually their graves are round. 

 These graves were surrounded with palisades that they had split from 

 trees, and they were closed up so nicely that it was a wonder to see. 

 They were painted with red and white and black paint ; but the 

 chief's grave had an entrance, and at the top of that was a big wooden 

 bird, and all around were painted dogs and deer and snakes, and 

 other beasts." (Van Curler, (1), p. 92.) 



Within recent years a cemetery has been discovered about 2 miles 

 northeast of Munnsville, and just south of it has been located a site 

 protected by a stockade. This may have been the position of the 

 great Oneida town, but the nature of the burials is not known. 

 Whether the two preceding accounts referred to graves of sufficient 

 magnitude to be classed as mounds, or whether they nlluded merely 

 to a small mass of earth raised over an individual pit burial, is diffi- 

 cult to determine; nevertheless burial mounds do occur throughout 

 the country of the Iroquois, but they are neither numerous nor large. 



In Erie County, near the bank of Buffalo Greek, formerly stood a 

 rather irregular embankment, semicircular in form, and touching 

 the steep bank at both ends. The inclosed area was about 4 acres. 

 This was one of the favorite sites of the Senecas, and within the in- 

 closure was one of their largest cemeteries. Here is the grave of 

 "the haughty and unbending Red Jacket, who died exulting that 

 the Great Spirit had made him an Indian ! . . . Tradition fixes 

 upon this spot as the scene of the final and most blood}' conflict be- 

 tween the Iroquois and the ' Gah-kwas ' or Eries. . . . The okl 

 mission-house and church stand in close proximity to this mark. 

 . . . Red Jacket's house stood above a third of a mile to the south- 

 ward upon the same elevation; and the abandoned council -house ia 

 still standing, perhaps a mile distant, in the direction of Buffalo. A 

 little distant beyond, in the same direction and near the public road, is 

 a small mound, called Dah-do-sot^ artificial hill, by the Indians, who, 

 it is said, were accustomed to regard it with much veneration, sup- 

 posing that it covered the victims slain in some bloody conflict in 



the olden times It was originally between five and six feet 



in height by thirty-five or forty feet base, and composed of the ad- 

 jacent loam." It was partially examined, and only a few bits of 

 charcoal, some half-formed arrowheads, etc., were found. (Squier, 

 (1), pp. 51-53.) 



