BUSHNELL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 147 



dent the Algonqiiian tribes of New England deposited their dead 

 in pits, after the remains had been wrapped and tied, usually with 

 the legs drawn up and folded against the trunk. And it is evident 

 that some among them followed a strange custom of depositing a 

 large quantity of pulverized red oxide of iron in the pits with the 

 remains, and that the custom was followed long after the settlement 

 of Plymouth is indicated by the discovery made a few years ago in 

 Warren, Bristol County, Rhode Island. Quite similar were the pit 

 burials of the Iroquoian tribes west of the Hudson, although the 

 people of a restricted area, dominated by the Hurons and ancient 

 Neuters, had a very elaborate method of disposing of their dead 

 which culminated, about once in 10 years, in a great communal burial, 

 when the remains were collected and dei^osited in large pits, or os- 

 suaries, lined with rich furs, and which were later covered with bnish 

 and earth. 



The Algon(|uian tribes farther west followed various customs. Some 

 had a form of scaffold burial, others bound the bodies in skins or 

 mats, and, thus wrapped, suspended them among the branches of trees, 

 and it is evident these were the " lofty coffins " of an early French 

 narrative. And in some instances the bones were later gathered and 

 deposited in graves, thus probably explaining the occurrence of dis- 

 articulated skeletons in stone-lined graves, so many of which have 

 been discovered in graves not more than 2 feet in length, and these 

 small graves were thought by the early explorer to be the burial places 

 of a race of pygmies. Again some of these tribes resorted to cremation" 

 as a means of reducing the bulk of a body when it was desired to trans- 

 port the remains from the place of death to another locality, often 

 the home village of the deceased, for burial. Evidently the Algon- 

 quians seldom burned the bodies of their dead unless for some particu- 

 lar reason, as just mentioned, but among the ancient inhabitants of 

 southern Ohio, undoubtedly Siouan tribes, the art of cremation had 

 become highly developed, and the ashes were deposited in great struc- 

 tures, erected for that purpose, and probably dedicated to that use 

 alone. And it is apparent from discoveries made during the past 

 3^ears that offerings made to the cremated dead included the richest 

 possessions of the living. 



The Algonquian tribes of tidewater Virginia, those forming the 

 Powhatan confederacy so famed in the early days of the colony, had 

 two distinct ways of disposing of their dead. The bodies of the more 

 important members, the chief men and others, were prepared, dried, 

 and certain organs removed, then laid in the Temples^ one of which 

 stood in every village. Such was the structure described by the artist, 

 John "V^Hiite, a member of the English expedition of 1585. The other 

 members of the tribes were buried in j^its, thus resembling the general 

 custom of the northern Algonquians. 



