BUSHNELL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 73 



The finding of a piece of mica in this burial at once suggests the 

 mound may have been the work of the Tuscarora. The mica " cut 

 in the form of a heart " was probably carried by them from Carolina 

 when they went northward in the early years of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, and became the sixth nation of the league. A short distance 

 beyond, in the adjoining county of Otsego, is an island in the Sus- 

 quehanna near the mouth of Charlotte River, and a mound stands on 

 the island which is known locally as the grave of the chief Kaga- 

 tinga, probably a village chief not known in history. In the extreme 

 northern part of the same county, near Richfield Springs, was a 

 mound often visited by the Oneida, and said by them to have been 

 the burial place of one of their chief men. This will tend to recall 

 the visits made by parties of Indians to the burial mounds in pied- 

 mont Virginia, a region once claimed and occupied by Siouan tribes. 



From the few references just given it is quite evident the Iroquois 

 followed a form of mound burial even after the coming of the 

 French, and it is also clearly established that such burials were more 

 frequent in the western than in the eastern part of their country. 

 Mounds similar to those mentioned have been encountered in every 

 county west of a line running north and south through Oneida Lake, 

 but are far less numerous to the eastward. 



OSSUARIES 



Many ossuaries have been encountered in the western counties of 

 the State of New York, which, however, may be attributed to the 

 influence of the Huron. These great pits often contain vast quanti- 

 ties of skeletal remains, together with numbers of objects of native 

 origin which had been deposited as offerings to the dead, and mate- 

 rial obtained from the early traders is sometimes found associated 

 with the later burials. The ossuaries appear to have been rectangular 

 in form, to have occupied rather prominent positions, and to have 

 been carefully prepared. Such a communal burial place was dis- 

 covered in May, 1909, about 1 mile southwest of Gasport, Niagara 

 County, but unfortunately no detailed record of its contents was 

 preserved. A part of the excavation is shown in plate 10, 6. 



HURON CEREMONY, 1636 



In contemplating the origin of the preceding burial it is of 

 interest to read the description of a similar burial, as witnessed 

 and recorded by the Jesuit Pere Le Jeune, in the year 1636. But the 

 father had much to say about the manners and customs of the people 

 among whom he labored — the Huron — whose villages were in the 

 vicinity of Lake Simcoe. He told of the manner in which the- family 



