To the American Indian

by Lucy Thompson

The Klamath Indians are very much prejudiced against one taking their own life. They look down on the act, and if one should take his own life, which we call o-motch-ser-mer-yer, there is no chance for them to be saved and they go down the broad road that leads to the old woman and she gives them over to the man in the boat and he takes them over and leaves them in the wilderness where they live in misery until the judgement day and then are destroyed forever, there being no salvation for them and the family will be looked down upon for many generations to come and held back in taking part in any of their social functions. The children will be shunned by their playmates. The Indian seldom commits suicide and will avoid self-destruction by wishing that some wild animal will take them while they sleep, and of such cases they tell some very weird and touching tales. There was a girl taken by a wild animal of which reference is made in another chapter. Another was a young man of good family belonging to the Pec-wan village and he wanted to marry a girl of the upper division. The young woman refused him and this nearly broke his heart, so he went back into the mountains all alone and there he busied himself by trapping and hunting until he had accumulated great riches of valuable furs and other things and was there for a number of years when he returned to his home. He never married and lived to be an old man and all the children called him grandpa. As he became old he also became blind but the children all loved him and any of them were always ready to lead him wherever he wanted to go, and he was always ready to give blessings to the newly married couples and to newly born babies. He always wanted to visit where there was a new born baby. This old man would sweep and keep clean the village, even down to the creek and river, feeling and sweeping the whole day long and when he was tired some of the children would lead him home, and he thus lived to a good old age. So this is the way it would go in accordance with their belief in the hereafter. A Klamath Indian would never commit suicide if there was any way to prevent it on account of the stigma it would place on the family.

The Klamath Indian grave is made about two and a half feet deep. They take redwood or Douglas spruce boards which they place in the oblong square as they never nail or fasten the boards together. Placing one wide board in the bottom and boards on each side with short ones fitted in across the ends, the coffin is made ready to receive the corpse.

At the time of death the body is washed with the branches of the wormwood dipped into a basket of water and brushed over the entire body, never allowing their hands to touch the body at any time if it can be avoided. After the body has been bathed in this manner it is clothed in the regular clothing and laid out for burial, wrapped in a blanket and placed on a wide plank where it is left for twenty-four hours. After it has been laid out friends and relatives gather around it in prayer, and the director of the funeral is given a large bunch of flag grasses, which he takes in his hand and holds over the blaze of the fire to ignite and with flaming grasses he stands over the body waving it back and forth sprinkling the falling ashes over the body. This is the final blessing given with solemn prayer, the same as anointing the body with holy water.

The Indians remove the corpse from the house (the reasons being explained in another chapter) by making an opening in the wall on the left hand side of the door by which they go out, as they never carry a corpse through the door. The personal belongings and bedding, also the dishes he has used during his illness are taken out through this opening upon the removal of the body and everything is burned in a large fire made outside of the house.

With great ceremony and mourning the corpse is carried out of the house on the same plank it was laid out on. At the grave they unroll the corpse from the blanket, the clothing being cut open down the front, the body washed again, this time without the removal of the clothing. This final bath is a solution of the Ho-mon-nah roots pounded fine as powder and then put into a basket of water. This shrub or plant is much different from the wormwood, and it is considered one of their best herbs for fumigation and disinfecting purposes. After the bath is completed the body is again wrapped in the blanket and laid carefully down in the grave. The funeral director, as before, burns a bunch of flag grasses over the body, allowing the ashes to fall over the remains. Articles they wish to place in the grave with the body are put into the grave and the plank that the body was carried out on is fitted into the top of the coffin as the top covering. Three or four persons take part as pall-bearers in taking the body to the grave. The body is laid with the head directly to the west as they say when the judgement day comes all the Indians will rise up out of their graves facing the rising sun, and those who are worthy will rise in glory to the splendors of glory to the Heavenly Father above.

In this grave things of little value are placed, things usually belonging to the deceased. When things of value are placed in the grave it is broken up which destroys the value of the article.

The coffin is covered over with earth, and after this being completed they take two stones about eighteen inches long by twelve inches wide, one is placed at the head and the other one at the foot of the grave. On the top of the stones directly in the middle of the grave they place another wide plank about six feet long and eighteen inches wide. Stakes are driven on each side of this plank in the middle and with a rope of Indian make they tie the board to the stakes so it can not be removed without some difficulty. After this has been completed some dry sand is sprinkled around the grave and covering it completely to the sides of the wide board, this is done so the Indians can immediately detect if any one has molested the grave. The reason why the Indians always have their grave-yards near the village or dwelling places is to keep the wild animals away from the grave. Sometimes the mourners place large baskets on the grave, sometimes two and often many more, there is no certain number to use. They are turned upside down, close up to the sides of the plank and on the ground around the grave. These baskets are made secure by driving a stake through the center of them and into the ground. On top of the plank they lay basket plates, also acorn baskets. Around the grave a picket fence is made by driving the pickets into the ground, a strong hazel withe is tied around them about twelve inches below the tops. At the middle of the head and the foot of the grave a strong post is driven into the ground that stands much higher than the tops of the pickets. To these posts a cross-beam is fastened or tied and on this a number of deer skins are hung. These skins are dressed whole with the hair left on and the body and head are stuffed with weeds. The head is elevated almost perpendicular with the body and the legs are left hanging straight down. Some of the clothes that have been worn by the deceased are also hung on this cross-beam which makes quite a display and would lead one to believe very strongly that many valuables were also placed in the grave.

During and after the burial is completed all the close relatives of the deceased weep and wail mournful songs, saying good-bye child, or calling out whatever relationship they were to the deceased. The mournful wail of an Indian mourner is so intensely sad that the surrounding sky and earth seem weeping with the sorrowful ones.

After the burial rites have been completed those who had taken part in the burial go into the family sweat-house where they wash their entire bodies from the basket of water containing the ho-mon-nah solution and sweat themselves in the sweat-house. After this they all go to the river taking the basket of solution with them and bathe with it in the river. Upon returning to the house they all change their clothes except the one who dug the grave and he puts on the same clothing and wears it for five days longer before he is free from the burial rites. His duty now is to kindle a fire which he keeps burning about a couple of hours each evening close by the foot of the grave. This fire is made between the hours when the first long shadows are cast and the twilight gathers into the darkness of the night. They say the flickering of the fire-light keeps them from seeing the O’quirlth, the spirit of the departed one, which is said to hover over the grave and around the home for five days after death. After five days have elapsed the spirit departs either to Heaven or to the wilderness, according to what kind of life the deceased has lived. The friends and relatives of the deceased will weep, wail and pray that his spirit will go the narrow road, to the old land, Cheek-cheek-alth, where it will find the ladder and climb to Werse-on-now (Heaven). Sometimes a bitter enemy of the deceased will pray and hope the departed spirit will go the road to Sye-elth where she hands him over to the man in the dead boat where he takes the spirit across the river and banishes it into the wilderness.

The light of the fire keeps the Indians from seeing the spirit when it leaves the grave as they never wish to behold spirits. However, they claim, in spite of their caution, the spirit is sometimes seen by the Indians. They say when it leaves the body it looks like a shadow image of the person passing off. They claim a photograph resembles the spirit of the dead and the old Indians never want to look at it as they never wish to be reminded of the spirit.