Show ancient burial customs of the ute ina ancis is explained by scientist BY DB DR ALBERT B REGAN in the old times the utes of the uintah basin lived in tepees which were ere covered with elk hide buffa lo 10 hide being used when it became available the ouray utes had such tepees as the tepee rinea rings and fire places of the old camp sites about ouray and on the heights west of duchesne river and to the northeast on the indian sch school ool th ached dwelling were used by all ane tribe during the summer such edifices and tepees vere the dwellings or th most part even to the close of the last cen tur tuo and some of each are still occasionally used the regulation tepee not being covered w with ith canvass the thatched dwelling was outlined by p pow pta ta set in the ground in a more or less or circular order patterning the plan poin ni what ahat after the tepee cir cle the these posts were mere usually crotched and on them were placed the roof support teams A center writer post also served as a support of th roof it was vas higher than the other so chrt the cimpl comported ted roof plan of oi poles and brush ras vas roughly conical in shape over this Ls and rushes were ere piled as a thatch sometimes the cone shap ed bearance pe arance was vms due to a conical p jig nr of the thatch the framework in there cases being of a flatfish flattish nature this style of house had hadj 1 8 some ome advantages over the tile tepee asi I 1 it t could be made much larger InI in size and of various ario us shapes it even be expanded solely into a spacious epa clous open summer arbor it if wished if it the aide walls were of brush and poles which were interwoven and tied to the tile support pasts skins thatch and later canvass were mere added t to keep out the wind and make the residence comfortable in the winter months loe log hull huts and white man mans tents are usually the winter abodes at the present time the eummer summer camp in many instances still be belne being the thatched dwelling much as formerly except it Is more ot of an open arbor affair now often modified considerably in construction st action due to the utts 1 s contact with the whites and their us using riff white mans man a things MOll TUAm CUSTOMS OF THE OURAY when a ule ute dies there Is quite a it bit of walling about the place bl but nothing like that of some of southwestern indians say for instance that of alo tl apache apaches on such occasions in the old times and occasional occasion alJy even now the hair ol 01 tho the mourners mournen is cut especially that of the old women of the family at the present time a body is I 1 usually kept till the day following death before it Is burnt but the writer has been advised that in times past it was burled buried as soon as pos r ible after death before burial the carme Is v u pushed ard tl en dressed in the best beit apparel that th relatives can afford it if the family hasi has continued on pare two TAO ANCIENT CUSTOMS OF UTE INDIANS I 1 BV DR continued from page one money to its te credit in the local ag ency office a suitable coffin Is I 1 ob talked or a homemade one la is made at the goern government ment carpenter hop chop otherwise it I 1 is wrapped in blankets and thus interred in fur lal hil the corpse Is usually orientated jn in a north south line face up with head to the north but this Is not always alays the case formerly and am nd even now the lie intimate person at 1 I effects are burled buried with the dc do ceased while before the coming of the white man mail the house where the person died wae as always burned and all his personal things that were ere not burled buried with ith him were destroyed or killed including his tits doc dog and his tits horse after the advent of that beast and this Is still till done in some care though these practices have now inow mostly died out eatables and water are then placed on the grave in proper prow re cep tables if the house is not burn ed it Is aa abandoned and its win dowe down and doors removed while it ever serves as a house for man cain win it may often serve as a helter for the stock of the region this destroying of the personal tf ef IKU of the deceased lor for the scarceness scarce of ancient thine things in the ute lands for every thing he possessed was perish able ato and was as either destroyed destroy td by ire or by mold in the grave this then accounts for the ute lands be ing ruch a poor field fidd for the ar theolo glat from the graves seen it would appear that in burying the dead in the ancient times there was no gm moral eral orientation of the body or position witton the body alto as placed in im the thine thing apparently ft as a to tu inter by chucking it in any place v here if it could be di disposed sped of with the least effort and this was carried out cut with ath the handiest things that were convenient miss 1 densmore De namore and others have stated that cave burial and burials in rock fissures were vere formerly practiced bv by the utes and that it is cald said that ouray the ute uto chief WAS burled afar far as could be ascertained in a rock floure or cave as vi aa as chief ignacio of the southern utes De denmore nomore northern ute music bul letan 75 dur bur american fahn p 1 SO 9 washington 1923 1023 also see yar row if 0 A further to the mortuary customs of the north worth american indians first slept bur amer ephr pp and washington lost it has hits also been locally reported that they still burled buried or chucked ther their dead in crevices and caves coves along the mesa fronts even after ther were moved to ouray such are reported to have been made in cee me chinks even along the mesa front west of the du chesne river two miles west of or th school they further axser teA that part put of a body with hand ext ded Is still ex posed 1 rk one of tho chinks in that neighborhood they now have two to burial burl places near ouray mie east of oreen green river about three allta east aas of the government school the oher other on an top of the tertiary meza about the same distance north of it on the burial places are bones of horses am sta doga dogs and other domes tc animals which the old indians nay say were klajn at the death of their owners clothing and other article are cither either hanging about the gravs or had been placed directly on them as a had been varl cri ous us kinds of food and water ater rb u such as corn and other valued things used to be from trees and leaning flicks about them and one grave nas ilas had an elaborate enclosure about it which had been roofed a having been bem placed on the roof not the me writer was further ad that at the time of the burl buri al 1 I their this thin frame was also varl vari curia comred with streaming odd lengths of bright colored goods |