1877.] Aboriginal Funereal Customs in the United States. 201 
It is a matter of certainty that cremation was performed with- 
out urns; that is, bodies were burned in graves or stone tombs. 
At the junction of the two dry arroyos, the McElmo and the 
Hovenweep, a considerable community once existed. On the 
point of a high mesa, overlooking the water-courses for many 
miles to the north and south, a large burial ground was dis- 
covered, marked off by upright stones, the longest being always 
at the head of the grave. On opening several of these with pick 
and shovel, it was found that the solid bed-rock appeared at a 
depth of six inches to a foot and a half, so that it was impossible 
to have here buried any natural human bodies. It was found, on 
further investigation, that in each one was a quantity of black 
dust and some fine white powder. The majority of these graves 
were rectangular, but among the rest were two or three large cir- 
cular mounds, about twenty feet each in diameter, where had 
probably been laid the ashes of persons of note or greater wealth. 
In Southwestern Colorado, the valley northeast of Ute Mountain 
was covered with these square inclosures, among which could be 
traced the foundation mounds of very ancient abodes, which had 
been constructed, for the most part, of clay. Among these graves 
we spent an entire morning, but were rewarded by the discovery 
of nothing except layers of fine white dust and some small frag- 
ments of burnt wood. The graves were very old, and it seemed 
not strange that a thousand or more years had destroyed nearly 
all traces of their former contents. And so in the immediate 
neighborhood of every considerable pueblo, we found graves more 
or less numerous. 
From the Alta California I extract the following account as 
given by Mr. J. A. Parker, Superintendent of the Montezuma 
Canal Company of Southwestern Arizona. In speaking of the 
ancient ruins and human remains of Pueblo Viejo Valley, he 
Says, “ The human bones show unmistakable evidence of having 
been burned, and crumbled to pieces upon being handled. Sev- 
eral ollas (pronounced é-yahs) — jug-shaped, earthern vessels, 
now used by the Indians for holding water — were found, which 
contained ashes, small pieces of human bones, and fragments of 
charcoal, which would indicate that cremation was practiced by 
that extinct people.” : 
Prof. John L. LeConte describes the ceremony of cremation 
as performed by the Cocopa Indians of the Rio Gila, and wit- 
nessed by him in the year 1850: “ A short distance from the 
collection of thatched huts which composed the village a shallow 
