102 Sioiiw City Academy of Science and Letters. 



The burial hill gives evidence of having been several 

 feet higher than it is at present, and it may be that 

 these remains were buried much deeper than they are 

 now found. 



Those near the surface have been reached by the 

 frost and moisture and are in a very advanced state of 

 decay. Those that are deeper are better preserved, while 

 those that are the deepest are so old that they crumble 

 to dust upon being exposed to the air. 



From the positions of these bones in their graves it 

 would seem that they were placed there after the flesh 

 had been removed, as it would be impossible to place 

 the human form in the positions that some of these 

 remains are found. It is possible that these Indians, 

 like others in this vicinity, hung their dead in trees and 

 on scaffolds until the flesh had been removed by the 

 Great Spirit; or, as the white man calls it. Nature. 

 Then the bones would be gathered and dumped whole- 

 sale into a trench or grave dug for that purpose. 



The absence of weapons would seem to support this 

 theory. They were placed with the dead for the pur- 

 pose of use in the '^Happy Hunting Ground" and for the 

 spirit to use to protect the flesh from the wild beasts 

 until it had been gathered to the Great Spirit. After 

 that they were no longer needed, as the flesh did not 

 need protection, and as there was no longer any neces- 

 sity to obtain food to satisfy the flesh weapons were not 

 a part of this final interment. 



There are several other burial hills in this vicinity, 

 but the time did not permit the investigation of them. 



Thus lived and died those inhabitants of the Broken 

 Kettle country. 



