Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper / Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256

by Garrick Mallery

GRAVE-POSTS.

Figures 113 and 114 were procured from a native Alaskan, by Dr. Hoffman in 1882, and explained to him to be drawings made upon grave-posts.

Drawings similar to these are made on slabs of wood by devoted friends, or relatives, to present and perpetuate the good qualities of a deceased native. The occupation is usually referred to, as well as articles of importance of which the departed one was the possessor.

Fig. 113.—Grave-post. Alaska.

Figure 113 refers to a hunter, as land animals are shown as the chief pursuit. The following is the explanation of the characters:

1. The baidarka, or boat, holding two persons; the occupants are shown, as are also the paddles, which project below the horizontal body of the vessel.

2. A rack for drying skins and fish. A pole is added above it, from which are seen floating streamers of calico or cloth.

3. A fox.

4. A land otter.

5. The hunter’s summer habitations. These are temporary dwellings and usually constructed at a distance from home. This also indicates the profession of a skin-hunter, as the permanent lodges, indicated as winter houses, i. e., with round or dome-like roof, are located near the sea-shore, and summer houses are only needed when at some distance from home, where a considerable length of time is spent.

Fig. 114.—Grave-post. Alaska.

The following is the explanation of Figure 114. It is another design for a grave-post, but refers to a fisherman:

1. The double-seated baidarka, or skin canoe.

2. A bow used in shooting seal and other marine animals.

3. A seal.

4. A whale.

The summer lodge is absent in this, as the fisherman did not leave the sea-shore in the pursuit of game on land.

Figure 115 is a native drawing of a village and neighboring burial-ground, prepared by an Alaskan native in imitation of originals seen by him among the natives of the mainland of Alaska, especially the Aigalúqamut. Carvings are generally on walrus ivory; sometimes on wooden slats. In the figure, No. 7 is a representation of a grave-post in position, bearing an inscription similar in general character to those in the last two preceding figures.

Fig. 115.—Village and burial-grounds. Alaska.

The details are explained as follows:

No. 1, 2, 3, 4. Various styles of habitations, representing a settlement.

5. An elevated structure used for the storage of food.

6. A box with wrappings, containing the corpse of a child. The small lines, with ball attached, are ornamented appendages consisting of strips of cloth or skin, with charms, or, sometimes, tassels.

7. Grave-post, bearing rude illustrations of the weapons or implements used by a person during his life.

8. A grave scaffold, containing adult. Besides the ornamental appendages, as in the preceding, there is a “Shaman stick” erected over the box containing the corpse as a mark of good wishes of a sorrowing survivor. See object No. 1, in Figure 112.

The following extract from Schoolcraft (Hist. Indian Tribes of the United States, 1851, Vol. I, p. 356, Fig. 46) relates to the burial posts used by the Sioux and Chippewas. Plate LXXXIII is after the illustration given by this author in connection with the account quoted:

Among the Sioux and Western Chippewas, after the body has been wrapped in its best clothes and ornaments, it is then placed on a scafford, or in a tree, where it remains until the flesh is entirely decayed; after which the bones are buried, and the grave-posts fixed. At the head of the grave a tabular piece of cedar, or other wood, called the adjedatig, is set. This grave-board contains the symbolic or representative figure which records, if it be a warrior, his totem; that is to say, the symbol of his family, or surname, and such arithmetical or other devices as serve to denote how many times the deceased has been in war parties, and how many scalps he had taken from the enemy; two facts from which his reputation is essentially to be derived. It is seldom that more is attempted in the way of inscription. Often, however, distinguished chiefs have their war-flag, or, in modern days, a small ensign of American fabric, displayed on a standard at the head of their graves, which is left to fly over the deceased till it is wasted by the elements. Scalps of their enemies, feathers of the bald and black eagle, the swallow-tailed falcon, or some carnivorous bird, are also placed, in such instances, on the adjedatig, or suspended, with offerings of various kinds, on a separate staff. But the latter are super-additions of a religious character, and belong to the class of the ke-ke-wa-o-win-an-tig. The building of a funeral fire on recent graves, is also a rite which belongs to the consideration of their religious faith.

BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. LXXXIII

OJIBWA GRAVE-POSTS.

The following quotations and illustrations are taken from Dr. Ferdinand von Hochstetter’s New Zealand, before cited. That author says on page 437 et seq.:

The carved Maori-figures, which are met with on the road, are the memorials of chiefs, who, while journeying to the restorative baths of Rotorua, succumbed to their ills on the road. Some of the figures are decked out with pieces of clothing or kerchiefs; and the most remarkable feature in them is the close imitation of the tattooing of the deceased, by which the Maoris are able to recognize for whom the monument has been erected. Certain lines are peculiar to the tribe, others to the family, and again others to the individual. A close imitation of the tattooing of the face, therefore, is to the Maori the same as to us a photographic likeness; it does not require any description of name.

A representation of one of these carved posts is given in Figure 116.

Fig. 116.—New Zealand grave effigy.

Another carved post of like character is represented in Figure 117, concerning which the same author says, page 338:

Fig. 117.—New Zealand grave-post.

“Beside my tent, at Tahuahu, on the right bank of the Mangapu, there stood an odd half decomposed figure carved of wood; it was designated to me by the natives as a Tiki, marking the tomb of a chief.”

The same author states, page 423: “The dwellings of the chiefs at Ohinemutu are surrounded with inclosures of pole-fences; and the Whares and Wharepunis, some of them exhibiting very fine specimens of the Maori order of architecture, are ornamented with grotesque wood-carvings. The annexed wood-cut [here reproduced as Figure 118] is intended as an illustration of some of them. The gable figure, with the lizard having six feet and two heads, is very remarkable. The human figures are not idols, but are intended to represent departed sires of the present generation.”

Fig. 118.—New Zealand house posts.