Show AD r 01 4 10 1 q j 4 7 X 0 4 ateer T by EDITHA L WATSON WATSO N 1 little town of I 1 ignacto Ign go aclo on the uto reservation in M southern colorado Is astir T MJ j it I 1 Is s slay may 21 24 the neniver sary of tho the burial of ouray a den beneath ca th a simple aeme cement t headstone made b by y the hands of 0 tho the in alatis themselves thenis eh cs lies their last groat great chief ever since his alg body was removed to th this Is grave la in 1025 1925 utes from 1 nil 1 11 the bands in colorado and utah have e gathered yearly to honor him with memo rial rites it is hard to tell whether this Is a custom patterned after the white mans memorial Memo ilal day or not it Is true that only six days das later we who read these lines will pay tribute to our abad there will be parades and speeches and flowers and flags will the resting places of our soldier and sailor departed while elsewhere in the cemeteries wreaths wre atlis and bouquets will symbol he our tender recollections of kinsfolk kinfolk and close friends there are few feu communities in our country which have no sort of ives on this day from coast to coast the th e american people give special thought ought t h to those who hav have e entered upon the great adventure cut but it if the ghosts of those other folk who lived here before us look back and see us ua they understand ft what hat we are doing tor for once long ago the red skinned people held their day of remembrance too it was not always on the same date dale across nil all the country sometimes it was twice a year sometimes many years elapsed between the days dais set bet apart for the dead according to the tribes which observed the custom but none the tha less the indians Indian 3 before us in their own awn way which was sometimes very much like ours honored their beloved dead the pueblos call them those who have gone before to their minds the next world Is very much like this but t the he departed are arc closer to those above and may intercede for the living they come back also not in tho the luminous roles robes and with the trumpets end and slates of teanee spirits but in the persons persona of certain living tribesmen who when they have donned the grotesque masks of their ancestor rites seem beem to acquire something of the power of those whom they are representing they come back also in the quiet hours when their children are immersed in thought and give advice and counsel it Is only fitting then that the HOPI should hold ceremonies in their honor when their representations walk through the villages and hear the sup of their living children it Is a queer sort of memorial day true but it Is conducted with real reverence rev aronce and love and who can ast ask more what a beautiful faith this Is which does not admit of death separating the living and the dead and which holds these symbolic family reunions in tolien token of that faith even with this belief however it Is impossible for loving hearts not to grieve at tho the loss of dear ones thus we hear hopi walling on the anniversary of a death and it if there lias has been an epidemic which took a number of the tribe an official anniversary Is fit ned fixed and observed with morrow borrow year after year so bo too tho the new rire fire ceremony sees the ahe zuni matron dressed as if to meet beloved friends weeping softly to her iteld na as she casts casta food into the fire on her hearth this food Is for the ancestors and for those who died in the past year but it if we could see into her heart we would surely find some lif beloved loved one enshrined there of whom she he thinks especially as she makes her offering the arst first anniversary of a death was the aba one most widely observed then the widow could put off her mourning and the bereaved family could take up everyday every day life again the official time of 0 sorrow borrow was passed at the end of this year cut but who he be he indian or white can say to the mourner do not weep longer do riot not grieve further the sorrow of death makes a lasting impression on the heart which cannot be erased atalic at the end of a year anniversaries combas naturally us as the seasons themselves rail fall cornea comes and those who are left ft wiled behind remember i that at the gre green eadel com u frosts their loyed lovd onel onea were morry merry k thus the 7 I 1 I 1 4 V 1 I N jt etoal Q AIR 0 arx ala afee abin finy bl by apt cyse J 7 raab nan tunica guardians of the cemeteries reminded those who had corn and beans that the time had come to io offer them and the people gladly gathered parts of their harvest and placed them on the graves if as the indians believed the tha next world I 1 Is so much like tills this why should not tile the departed spirits return on these anniversaries to partake of the spiritual essence of tho the food and mingle a little while with those beloved ones who had not yet joined them pero pere sebasteen Sebast len basics who wrote an account of the illinois tribe long ngo ago spoke of their holding lances dances that were a token of their sadness at the alie death of 0 the most important men of their tribe it Is by these dances that they profess to honor the deceased and to wipe away the tears of his relatives during these dances it was nas thought the spirits of the departed ones came and danced also enjoying themselves as they had once done in the flesh here we find again the great unlikeness of thought between white man and indian standing between the graves placing flowers on them listening to the prayers and speeches which seek to recall the dead to us we would shudder hudder fc nt at the idea that they stood by us adin admiring tring the lowers flowers and hearing with appreciation their eulogies I 1 yet the found only pleasure in this thought as it if some dearly loved loed ones had returned from ii a journey to be among them and the fact that t they I 1 aey were invisible did not make them thein fearsome or loss less welcome to the feast in their honor indian burial mounds were not for gotten by their tribesmen even though they moved moed far from the place where their people were interred noless no less a person than thomas jefferson speaking of a mound near related that a party passing about thirty years ngo ago through the part of the country where this burrow barrow is i went through the woods directly to it with out any instructions or inquiry and having staid about it some time with expressions were construed to bo be those of sorrow they returned to the high road the onelda oneida often visited a mound near springs N r Y saying that it was the burial place of one of their chief men the old chron leclerg ickers omitted to state these visits were performs with any memorial ceremonies but judging from what we have hava learned of other tribes we believe that there must have been something of the sort A strange sioux memorial custom was that of keeping the ghost A lock of hair from the head of the deceased person was made into a roll with cloth and various articles of value this ivas waa kept for a year or so and other presents collected when the friends of the dead person assembled to hold ceremonies at this ume time the gifts together with small pieces of the lock of hair were distributed this thin ceremony was sometimes repeated another memorial observance which corresponds slightly to our custom of erecting headstones over the dead was that described by adaar as follows to perpetuate the memory of any remarkable warriors killed la in the woods I 1 must in here ob observe serve that everi every indian traveler as aa he passes that way throws a stone on tho the place in tho woods we often see innumerable heaps of small stones in those places where ne according cording to tradition some of their disgruntled people ware were either killed or burled each heap Is increased ho he goes on to say as rt a lasting monument in their horion no discussion of indian memorial observances would be complete without a description of the strange cus cua toms of the mandan Ma nilan and some other tribes these people did not inter their dead but placed them on scuff scaffolds olds or in trees in time the bones of the deceased were nil all that was left and these perhaps fell on the ground as the scaffolds or platforms and old gave way the relatives gathered and burled the bones all but the skulls and these they placed in a circle in the plain says fattier de smet speaking of the As sini boin with the faces turned toward the center they preserve those these with care the indians call the cemetery the village of the dead they visit it at certain seasons of the year to converse affectionately with their deceased relatives lathea re and friends many travelers of uie the early dai have hae observed and commented oti oa these circles of skulls und and we are given pictures of them in many of the old volumes it Is only natural that such a strange custom should be misunderstood some of those early observers did not realize what real affection prompted the preservation of these relics of the dead and hence we read the scornful note that several skulls were kicking about on the ground catlan observed this same custom among the alandar Mand fin and goes on to tell us that each skull was place OP a bunch of wild sage which wat wa renewed new ed as 0 often as necessary there Is scarcely an hour in a pleasant day but more or less of these women may be seen sitting or laying by the skull of their child or husband talking to it in the most pleasant and endearing language that they can use as they were wont to do in former days and seemingly getting an answer bade 11 this custom may seem a revolting one to us but to the indians it was a natural and common observance indeed to the white men who knew these people well their strange ideas grow less lesa fantastic and catlin remarked ns as he noted the mandan women visiting with the skulls of their loved ones there Is IB something exceedingly cee interesting and impressive in these scenes indeed they recall to us the famous vault under the capuchin convent where the bones of monks who have died are used to make patterns on the walls and the skulls stand in rows travelers have remarked that the monks who showed them these strange designs appeared to know many of the skulls and could relate their names and something ot of their histories it was noteworthy also that they had no horror of the vault but looked forward serenely to their own time of departing when their skulls also would help to decorate the walls and some rome latey brother of the order would name them and it nd tell their stories so it Is with the indians not all of them of course regarded regard e d death I 1 without dread but surely those of whom we have been reading ng did not recoil at the unavoidable step true to their beliefs they went out brae abne ly the happy hunting grounds GrOUDIS of Ot the ilaine people beckoned the underworld der world of the pueblos waited for their return and they believed with firm conviction that they would know about the memorial ceremonies and be able to share with the beloved hv ing in tile the rites riles wh whether ether we agree with them or not it was a pleasant sort of faith and although our own beliefs have gone in it a fur far different direction from theirs still we unite once a year to recall the virtues and to lunor lianor the th j memorie lea 1 of those who have bw li be 0 fore ore Q by western N W 1 ID C TWO anlon |