There is no such thing as charnel houses or receptacles for the dead in all the district of the upper Missouri, neither are there any appearances of such things having been, each individual being buried or scaffolded separately at the most convenient place and as soon as possible after decease.
Incineration of bones is not practiced by any of them, neither do their traditions mention this custom to have ever existed among them; they have a horror of the idea.
Their symbols of mourning have been referred to, which are cutting short their hair, scarifying their legs, cutting off their fingers (Crow Indians), wearing an old tattered robe or skin on their back, the rest of the body being naked except the breech flap of the men, or body dress of the women, bare legged, bare footed, the face, hair, body, and robe smeared with white clay, often intermixed with their blood.
When the lock of hair of the deceased has been redeemed by the relative by high pay to him who took it, which is done in a year or two after demise, this relic is inclosed in a small sack and carried on the back of some of the female relatives. A piece of tobacco is wrapped with it, which is used on several occasions, as before mentioned. There are periodical visits to the grave, twice or thrice a year for the first year, and afterwards for several years whenever they happen to be in the vicinity, and on these occasions takes place the feast to the dead, so often referred to in these pages, which is one of their principal ceremonies. A repast is made of corn or pounded meat mixed with grease and sugar, sometimes a dog is cooked by some medicine man, and a crowd of people being assembled round the grave after lamenting the dead by howling, smoke, and pray to the spirit, leave a portion of the feast for it, and the rest is eaten by those who attend the ceremony. One of their prayers at these times is recorded in a former page, together with the reason of these observances. Fires are kindled near the grave or under the scaffold, but do not appear to be of further use than to light the pipe by while smoking to the dead, and are suffered to expire at their leisure.
No gravestones or posts are planted to mark the place, or any inscriptions or devices painted or carved by any of these tribes, denoting the age of the deceased or any other thing.
As has been frequently stated, there are no large mounds perceived on the upper Missouri, the work of Indians, as have been discovered in some of the western States, but were it an object or custom to bury the dead in that manner we believe there is energy and power sufficient among any of these tribes to accomplish a work of the kind, even with the rude tools they have, in a loose soil, free of rock, and in the summer season. These mounds have most probably been national or public depositories for the dead of Indians in stationary huts; and as great superstition is attached to all funeral rites, it is not improbable they were excavated in a length of time by the united efforts of the nation. Being a work in which both women and children could join, and which could be executed with the most primitive tools, they no doubt worked at it in favorable seasons, stimulated to exertion by the directions and commands of the divining men. These marks of antiquity only prove the nation to have been numerous, stationary, and unanimous in the undertaking. The materials disinterred from these receptacles must show beyond doubt the state of arts and advancement of the tribe at the time the interment was made, supposing the articles thus exhibited to be of their own manufacture and not traded from Europeans. Bones reburied are not accompanied with a new deposit of instruments.
Those articles first enveloped with the body, if found, are reinterred with it, which, having been the property of the deceased, are valuable, but to none other. It is only when the corpses fall from scaffolds or the bones of the dead by some means have become exposed that a second burial takes place; otherwise no Indians disturb the repose of the dead.
Orphans and the Aged
The care of orphan children and the aged devolves upon the nearest relatives of their deceased parents, but neither the chiefs nor any other persons not of kin pay them the least attention, unless they are adopted into their families. The aged and infirm are supported by their sons and other relatives until they become helpless and a burden, and are then left in some encampment to perish. There are no very old people without some relatives. The fact of their being old presumes that some of their lineal descendants are living, and it is with these they reside; but should there be no kin whatever acknowledged they would only the sooner die, as neither chiefs, hunters, nor any others would take the least interest in them, much less furnish them with provisions or be troubled by packing them along in traveling. Should an aged person of this description die in camp the body would be wrapped in the skins composing its bed and stuck on a tree by some of the men, without the least symptom of mourning. The life of the aged of both sexes, even with their own children, is one of drudgery and misery, and when entirely helpless they are in a manner obliged to get rid of them in some way, as their manner of traveling and conveniences of lodging are not adapted to the infirm.
A very near and correct view of their means and disposition warrants the opinion that it is more through extreme necessity than hardness of heart that they resort to the inhuman alternative above mentioned. Age without power is never venerated even by sedentary Indians, though these can and do treat the infirm better than the roving tribes, because, being better prepared with commodious lodges and not obliged to travel, the burden of useless and aged persons is not so much felt. They are therefore tolerated for their talents in story telling and other qualifications, exciting more their laughter than their abuse or neglect. But it is always a hard fate. The others will say they have had their day, their youth, and their prime, have enjoyed much and should now die and remove the burden of their care. They all know and expect this to be their own fate if life be prolonged, and hence we find the influence of chiefs, once renowned, declining with age or debility. Their gallant acts and services are forgotten or laughed at, later incidents of the same nature replacing theirs in the memory of their friends; they are neglected, ridiculed, imposed upon, and, being helpless, submit.