Neutral Attawandaron... Bones in the Longhouse
The mourning for the dead among the Neutral Attawandarons fascinated the French priests of 1620’s.
They commented on how the Neutrals would keep the body or bones as long as possible. If winter, the body was often kept in view within the longhouse until decomposition almost made them insupportable. Then the bodies were placed on drying racks outside. When most of the flesh was gone, the larger bones and skull were scraped clean and polished... kept on display in the longhouse until the “Feast of the Dead”.
The mourning was done by the women on a daily bases. They would blacken their faces. Corpses were often tattooed, adorned with feathers and favored trinkets. Any food dropped on the floor of the longhouse was always left for the dead.
For some there was a resurrection ceremony. If a prominent warrior was killed in battle, the personality of the dead one was assigned to another by a council. They would choose someone of similar age and character. At this resurrection ceremony all the people would stand except the selected one. The “Master of Ceremonies” would feign pulling the dead person from the ground and placing the spirit into the body of the selected living person. Then, the newly acclaimed “indwelled” would arise and be welcomed.
Implements like these old potato diggers unearthed more then just potatoes.
The graves were called Ossuaries and were 10 to 15 ft in diameter and about 5-6ft deep. Around the walls of the pit a scaffold system supported a cedar bark lining and an interior lining of beaver or bear pelts. The floor was packed with an ash-clay slurry that hardened. Many ossuaries were double layered, with a second ash-clay slurry about 12-15” deep poured on top of the first bone burial. The graves were communal, some bodies were wrapped in a fetal position called bundles. In other cases the large bones and skulls of many were mixed together.
How often the Feast of the Dead was celebrated is not known. A minimum of one year is mentioned. Discovered ossuaries have contained over 100 people. Objects found in the ossuaries have been bone combs, wooden spoons, stone tools, flint, food, pottery, smoking pipes, red ochre and the bones wrapped in rich furs. In later graves there were European copper pots, beads, iron axes and other metal pieces.
It was believed that when the Feast of the dead was held, the dead joined the Feast when the sun disappeared. As the living feasted on visible food and celebrated… the dead at the same time were able to join to eat and celebrate… this was the finale of being “One” before going beyond.
One Huron “Feast of the Dead” was witnessed, which gives an idea of what a Neutral ceremony might be like. Five villages joined together with an attendance of 2,000 people. Twelve hundred gifts were offered as a testimony of the living’s grief. The bones were placed in a shroud of 48 robes with each robe being made of 10 beaver skins. Once the shroud was placed in the ossuary… Indian corn was thrown on top and then earth. Guards were posted to protect the new ossuaries from scavengers.
There are other bones that have been discovered around Neutral longhouses. Bones that were charred or boiled belonging to the enemy of the Neutral, victims of cannibalism.
There is a saying in our valley, “where there is sumac there is an Indian buried” is just a tale. Because where we walk… and on Who we walk… is unknown!
