﻿FIELD AND FOREST. 207 



Note on Indian Graves in Utah. 



Since the article on an "Exploration of Indian Graves in Utah" 

 appeared in the last number of your, magazine I- have stumbled across 

 an earlier report of Capt. Simpson's exploration in that Territory, in 

 which he alluded to the disposal of the dead and certain funeral cere- 

 monies, and as this paper is almost unobtainable, and has a direct 

 bearing on the subject, I feel tempted to annex it as a note to my 

 article. 



Extract from Capt. Simpson's Report and map of wagon road routes 

 in Utah Territory, Ex. Doe. No. 40, 35th Congress, 2nd Session. 

 "They, (the Gosh-Utes) as well as the Utes, frequently bury their dead 

 in springs, by attaching a stone to them and sometimes by pushing 

 and keeping them down by a stick. Mr. Bean accounts in this way 

 for the skulls which are found in Skull Valley, and which has given it 

 its name. It is somewhat difficult to credit this, but the guide, who 

 bears the character of a reliable man by all who know him, and has 

 never shown me that he is anything different, says he has actually seen 

 several buried in this way near Provo, where he resides. Those they 

 bury in this mode are not persons of any distinction. The chiefs they 

 bury under a pile of stones. Wacca, sometimes called Walker, a re- 

 nowned Ute, and chief of all the tribes called Utes, Pawans, Pieds, 

 and Goshoots, died early in 1855, and was buried on a high mountain 

 twelve miles south-east from Fillmore. Mr. Bean informs me that 

 four Pied prisoners (three children and one squaw) were buried with 

 him. Three of the prisoners were first killed and then thrown into 

 the grave ; the other was thrown in alive. Ten horses were also killed 

 and thrown into the pile ; also ten blankets and ten buckskins. 



His people lamented over him some twenty days, all the while cry- 

 ing and singing. Mr. Bean was sent by the superintendent Governor 

 Young, to comfort them and give them provisions. He represented 

 that it was with the greatest difficulty they got the horses up the moun- 

 tain." 



The spelling of the names is given just as Capt. Simpson wrote them 

 but at present there is a slight difference not enough however, to 

 obscure the real meaning with the exception of the word " Pawans " 

 which should be written Pah-vant. 



H. C. Yarrow. 



