Handbook of Indians of Canada - ElectricCanadian.com

18
DEPARTMENT OP MARINE AND FISHERIES
one opening in the roof to let out the smoke
and one in the side for an entrance. The door
is made of a large piece of bark without either
bolt or lock, a stick leaning against the outside
being a sign that nobody is at home. The
light enters by small openings furnished with
sliding shutters." The covering was some-
times rushes or long reed grass. The houses
of the Illinois are described by Hennepin as
being "made with long arbors" and covered
with double mats of flat flags. Those of the
Chippewa and the Plains tribes were circular
or conical, a framework covered with bark
among the former, a frame of movable poles
covered with dressed skins among the latter.
The villages, especially along the Atlantic
coast, were frequently surrounded with stock-
ades of tall, stout stakes firmly set in the
ground. A number of the western Algonquian
towns are described by early explorers as forti-
fied or as surrounded with palisades.
In no other tribes N. of Mexico was picture
writing developed to the advanced stage that
it reached among the Delawares and the
Chippewa. The figures were scratched or
painted on pieces of bark or on slabs of wood.
Some of the tribes, especially the Ottawa,
were great traders, acting as chief middlemen
between the more distant Indians and the early
French settlements. Some of the interior
tribes of Illinois and Wisconsin made but
Uttle use of the canoe, travelling almost always
afoot; while others who lived along the upper
lakes and the Atlantic coast were expert canoemen.
The canoes of the upper lakes were of
birch-bark, strengthened on the inside with
ribs or kne^s. The more solid and substantial
boat of Virginia and the western rivers was
the dugout, made from the trunk of a large
tree. The manufacture of pottery, though the
product was small, except in one or two tribes,
was widespread. Judged by the number of
vessels found in the graves of the regions occu-
pied by the Shawnee, this tribe carried on the
manufacture to a greater extent than any other.
The usual method of burial was in graves, each
clan or gens having its own cemetery. The
mortuary ceremonies among the eastern and
central tribes were substantially as described
by Zeisberger. Immediately after death the
corpse was arrayed in the deceased's best
clothing and decked with the chief ornaments
worn in life, sometimes having the face and
shirt painted red, then laid on a mat or skin in
the middle of the hut, and the arms and per-
sonal effects were placed about it. After sun-
2 GEORGE v., A. 1912
set, and also before daybreak, the female relations
and friends assembled around the body
to mourn over it. The grave was dug generally
by old women; inside it was lined with
bark, and when the corpse was placed in it 4
sticks were laid across, and a covering of bark
was placed over these; then the grave was
filled with earth. An earlier custom was to
place in the grave the personal effects or those
indicative of the character and occupation of
the deceased, as well as food, cooking utensils,
etc. Usually the body was placed horizon-
tally, though among some of the western tribes,
as the Foxes, it was sometimes buried in a sit-
ting posture. It was the custom of probably
most of the tribes to light fires on the grave for
four nights after burial. The Illinois, Chippewa,
arid some of the extreme western tribes
frequently practised tree or scaffold burial.
The bodies of the chiefs of the Powhatan con-
federacy were sti'ipped of the flesh and the
skeletons were placed on scaffolds in a charnel
house. The Ottawa usually placed the body
for a short time on a scaffold near the grave
previous to burial. The Shawnee, and pos-
sibly one or more of the southern Ilhnois tribes,
were accustomed to bury their dead in boxshaped
sepulchres made of undressed stone
slabs. The Nanticoke, and some of the western
tribes, after temporary burial in the ground
or exposure on scaffolds, removed the flesh and
reinterred the skeletons.
The eastern Algonquian tribes probably
equalled the Iroquois in bravery, intelligence,
and physical powers, but lacked their con-
stancy, solidity of character, and capability of
organization, and do not appear to have appreciated
the power and influence they might
have wielded by combination. The alliances
between tribes were generally temporary and
without real cohesion. There seems, indeed,
to have been some element in their character
which rendered them incapable of combining
in large bodies, even against. a common enemy.
Some of their great chieftains, as Phihp, Pon-
tiac, and Tecumseh, attempted at different
periods to unite the kindred tribes in an effort
to resist the advance of the white race; but
each in turn found that a single great defeat
disheartened his followers and rendered all his
efforts fruitless, and the former two fell by the
hands of deserters from their own ranks. The
Virginia tribes, under the able guidance of
Powhatan and Opechancanough, formed an
exception to the general rule. They presented
a united front to the whites, and resisted for