Burial of Crazy Horse

[conz]

Jul 21, 2009 16:41:48 GMT -6 wolfgang911 said:

well if dewey beard can't identify crazy horse what are we doing here, history sucks!

LOL...on THAT, we can wholeheartedly agree. <g>

Clair

[HinTamaheca]

Some examples of Plains burial customs:

[wolfgang911]

the coffins in the trees look weird, that was definitely not the way to do it, and only around the agency where this wood was available
the old scaffolds were a cool way of burying though
your quiver, your horse, your best moccasins, out on the plains in the fresh air, that's the way you do it to go those eternal hunting grounds

[conz]

Great pics, Hin...hadn't seen such good ones before.

Did some Indian tribes desecrate such structures and bodies when they found them? I know that many would not touch such sacred places, but I think I've read that some did it out of spite.

Clair

[zekesgirl]

You are a gold mine of information Hintamaheca, thank you so much for sharing with us!

[HinTamaheca]

Jul 22, 2009 15:19:34 GMT -6 @conz said:

Great pics, Hin...hadn't seen such good ones before.

Did some Indian tribes desecrate such structures and bodies when they found them? I know that many would not touch such sacred places, but I think I've read that some did it out of spite.

Clair

I would imagine that there may have been a few isolated instances of desecration, but it was certainly not the norm. Most tribes on the Plains, in the buffalo days, would have stayed clear of burial sites. Not out of resepect so much, but more out of the fear of any possible ghosts that could be present.

[conz]

I agree...I think I mostly see Warriors desecrating burial sites when they are scouting for the Army...as if the Soldiers somehow protect them from the "ghosts." I've read accounts of them stripping the dead, taking items, burning or playing with items...that sort of thing. All in the nature of making fun of the enemy, and showing them disrespect.

The Soldiers often did this too, although I've also read of some officers preventing it.

Then there were sometimes "scientists," or professors/archeologists, that used to scavage these sites for museum study and perservation.

Clair

[Dark Cloud]

Nonsense. How many adults you saw a few times at the age of five or six and never again could you - seven decades later, or whenever - accurately identify unsupported by photos of those adults in the interim corrupted by people telling you who it was? Even assuming the adults pointing to the photo were right?

Now, imagine doing it without the seven decades of photos.

It's no slam against Indians or Dewey Beard. He was old, and everyone wanted to have a photo of Crazy Horse, who'd become a cult icon. It's human.

Processed wood boards, coffins, and all may or may not indicate 'traditional burial practice.' In reality, it sort of looks like the intent was to protect the corpse for some months while you went elsewhere after which the elements and fauna win and nobody would know whose skull your pony crushed a few years later. They're nomads, and so like nomads everywhere.

[wolfgang911]

he was 20 at LBH and not 5

still don't get it why they put coffins in trees
seems like burying ashes deep in the ground to me

[HinTamaheca]

The following may be of some interest:

Yarrow, Dr. H.C.
Introduction to the Study of Mortuary Customs Among the North American Indians. Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, First Annual Report. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 1880.

Go to:

www.webroots.org/library/usanativ/mcotnaa0.html

www.webroots.org/library/usanativ/mcotnaa1.html

www.webroots.org/library/usanativ/mcotnaa2.html

[Dark Cloud]

Particularly like the insistence the Indians knew of and practiced Masonic ritual. Taut thought, that.

Those are interesting articles, yet wherever the people, those stuck in a permanent city or village have different attitudes (and hypocritically so) than nomads. Like the Persians putting their dead out to be eaten by dogs. Only bad people weren't accepted as a meal and so - sigh - had to be disposed of to avoid stink. So inconvenient. Can't meld that with Islamic practice or Zoroaster, but the authors were there.

The dead stink, depress, and are a health issue back then in ways we don't appreciate today.

Regarding Dewey Beard, suspect my confusion is with Black Elk. Stand corrected. But the complaint stands: how good is anyone's recollection seventy years on. Faces 'blend.'

[newn]

Wasn't one of the above sold as CH scaffold?