NO. 14 REMAINS OF CHIPPEWA SETTLEMENTS — MEANS I3 



RURIAL CUSTOMS 



When an Ojibwa died, his body was dressed in new and elaborate 

 garments. He was then wrapped in strips of birchbark and, together 

 with his best implements and weapons, was buried, his head to the 

 west, the land of the future. In later times wooden coffins came 

 into use. McKenney gives a picture which indicates that scaffold- 

 burial was used, possibly during winter when the ground was 

 frozen hard, for Ojibwa children. Though common in Dakota, it 

 was probably rare among the Ojibwa.^ 



PICTOGRAPHY 



The pictography of the Ojibwa was connected mostly with the 

 Midewiwin and its rites. Brinton, however, mentions adjidjiatig, 

 or grave-posts. HofTman has discussed at length the nature and 

 significance of the sacred bark records of the Midewiwin and figures 

 several specimens of them.- 



CONCLUDING REMARKS 



From the foregoing, it would seem that archeological exploration 

 of the oldest Chippewa burials on both Long and I.a Pointe islands 

 will probably result in the recovery of considerable skeletal material 

 which, in view of the extensive subsequent admixtures into the tribe 

 of white and other blood, would doubtless prove of great value to 

 science. Besides, there will doubtless be stone pipes, more or less 

 pottery, and some stone implements including possibly some cere- 

 monial forms, and there is a chance that some primitive tools of 

 native copper may also be found. More perishable articles have of 

 course by this time disappeared. In the burials dating from the 

 time when contact with the French was established, there is a bare 

 chance that a recovery may be made of medals, coins, or other 

 articles which would serve to corroborate certain dates. 



At all events, the La Pointe and surrounding sites must be 

 regarded as among the best dated and, from the standpoint of 

 anthropology, most valuable sites which await careful exploration 

 in the northern states. 



* Loudon, 1808-1811, Vol. 2, p. 296; Carver, 1781, pp. 39^-399; Jones, 1861, 

 pp. 98-101; McKenney, 1827; Bulletin 30, Vol. i, p. 946. 



'' Brinton, 1890, p. 228; Hoffman, 1891, p. 286; Carver, 1781, pp. 414-417; 

 Belcourt, 1872, p. 232 ; Willis, 1859. 



