MOOREHEAD— RED-PAINT PEOPLE 



With the exception of the Stevens cemetery at Warren, the Red- 

 paint People chose for their interments natural elevations of sand 

 or of fine or fairly coarse gravel, in which digging was easy. The 

 Stevens site, which contained about sixty graves or deposits, was 

 situated on a rather high hill overlooking Georges river. The exca- 

 vated portion of the cemetery occupied a space about 25 by 18 meters, 

 in which fifty-six graves were found. The Stevens cemetery was 

 different from the others, in that large bowlders, ranging from two 

 to three centimeters to as much as two-thirds of a meter in diameter, 

 were scattered through the gravel. The formation was distinctly 

 glacial, and there were layers of sand here and there, but at no point 

 did clear sand or small gravel extend to a depth of more than a few 

 meters. That the Red-paint People should have selected such a site, 

 when there were more favorable ones in the neighborhood, marks a 

 departure from their usual custom. 



This exception noted, it is well to consider the seventeen ceme- 

 teries which exhibit characteristics in common. The graves lie as 

 close together as is compatible with the proper interment of the 

 bodies. They vary from twenty centimeters to a meter and a half 

 in depth. In rare cases graves were superposed. 



The contents of graves are shown in plates 11 and ill. The Emerson 

 cemetery on Lake Alamoosook, is situated about 400 meters from the 

 scene of Mr Willoughby's exploration. The Emerson site was the 

 largest of the entire eighteen, and originally must have contained 

 more than two hundred graves. More than a month was spent in 

 exploration here, the area being trenched for more than one hundred 

 meters in various directions. Seventy-two graves were found within 

 a space of approximately 50 by 40 meters. Years ago the owner, Mr 

 Emerson, plowed deeply to secure specimens, hence practically all 

 the graves lying within thirty centimeters of the surface were 

 destroyed. Our party found the deeper graves undisturbed. Numer- 

 ous gouges, "plummets", adz-blades, and other objects were scattered 

 through the soil, owing to the disturbance referred to above. 



The slope in plate 1 is situated next to the fringe of timber. At 

 Passadumkeag, 50 kilometers north of Bangor, we found an undis- 

 turbed cemetery which afforded a splendid opportunity for study in 

 detail, and it was excavated almost entirely by means of hand trowels. 

 The graves, numbering seventeen, ranged from 30 to 50 cm. in depth, 

 and lay within the restricted area of 15 by 13 meters. The graves 

 were remarkable for their size and richness; that is, the average 

 number of objects per grave was about ten, and one of the graves 

 contained nineteen. Furthermore, the size of the gouges and per- 



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