.MTM1OA.MTE1MTEz

387

When it assumed that life cannot last long. he is hustled out of the teepee to die out side It is "bad medecine." to allow one to die in the lodge. should [?death?] occur the lodge is destroyed even though a new one. every thing must be destroyed.. The Ute. tribes in certain portions of the country lay the body away in excavations dug in the wall of a rock. or cañon. Colonel Dodge says that the Dakota as a sign of mourning cover the body of the deceased with a green blanket. The "Crows" we knew cover the [?] with white. When at the Stitterton Agency. we saw a chief "Thin Belley." wrapped in a white sheet. and asked why it was so. the reply was that he was in mourning for his son who had recently died.

  In former times it was a dangerous thing for a white man to be in the camp when and [sic] indian died. as they attributed the death to the bad influence of the white man and his life was the penalty.
  The mourning of an indian is noisy. and violent. at the same time so far as we can Judge sincere.  The mourners at Stitterton Agency. repaired to the grave and knelt down upon the ground and gave vent to the most prolonged and excessive lamentation. at times prostrating the body with the forehead to the ground then rising and all the time uttering a dismal howl.  This form of expression of grief is confined to the women.  The men never express their grief audibly but sit in stoical apparent indifference.  waiting till the time may come for [?] the death.  The theory being that the death is caused by the subtle influence of an enemy and the soul is in unrest. till the death of the body is [?].  There is [?]  time when the mourning ceases.
  It is told us that when "Ouray." died. Seventeen horses. sere killed and burned on a pyre of drift wood. that the soul might not have to go on foot to the Land of rest.
  Heaven to the indian mind is a place of rest from all pain and suffering. and in which the pursuits of this life are continued only in an exhaulted [sic] degree.  The hunt is continued. the weapons [?] be had. and as the cold may be experienced the means of producing fire. must occupy the spirit hence all these things are buried with the corpse.