A burial tree or burial scaffold is a tree or simple structure used for supporting

corpse A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stu ...

s or

coffin A coffin is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, either for burial or cremation. Sometimes referred to as a casket, any box in which the dead are buried is a coffin, and while a casket was originally regarded as a box for jewel ...

s. They were once common among the

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

nese, the

Naga people Nagas are various ethnic groups native to northeastern India and northwestern Myanmar. The groups have similar cultures and traditions, and form the majority of population in the Indian states of Nagaland and Manipur and Naga Self-Administered ...

, certain

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

, and some North American First Nations.

North America First Nations

Burial tree

A number of Native Americans used a burial tree as the last resting place for a dead relative, either as the general rule (along with a scaffold) or as an alternative to a grave.Wood, W. Raymond and Thomas D. Thiessen (1987): ''Early Fur Trade on the Northern Plains. Canadian Traders Among the Mandan and Hidatsa Indians, 1738-1818''. Norman and London.Bowers, Alfred W.(1991): ''Mandan Social and Ceremonial Organization''. Moscow. The corpse was wrapped up carefully in a

robe A robe is a loose-fitting outer garment. Unlike garments described as capes or cloaks, robes usually have sleeves. The English word ''robe'' derives from Middle English ''robe'' ("garment"), borrowed from Old French ''robe'' ("booty, spoils" ...

or blankets and either placed in a fork of the treeLowie, Robert H. (1983): ''The Crow Indians''. Lincoln and London. or tied to a heavy branch.Doyle, Susan B. (2000): ''Journeys to the Land of Gold. Emigrant Diaries from the Bozeman Trail, 1863-1866''. Helena. Both grown persons and small children were laid to rest in this way. A burial tree could carry more than one dead. Maximilian zu Wied saw burial trees with red painted trunk and branches among the Assiniboine Indians.Bushnell Jr., D. I. (1927): ''Burials of the Algonquian, Siouan and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi''. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 83. Washington. It seems any tree was proper. Cottonwood is mentioned by travelers on the great plains, as well as

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

and cedar.Unrau, William E. (1990): ''Tending the Talking Wire. A Buck Soldier's View of Indian Country, 1863-1866''. Salt Lake City. The dead could be placed from around six feet up in the tree to close to the top. Some of the belongings of the deceased were often placed near the corpse.

Scaffold

A burial scaffold was usually made of four upright poles or branches, forked at the top. This foundation carried a sort of bier, where the dead body was laid to rest out of reach of wolves. The preferred location was on a hill. Relatives would often place some of the belongings of the dead on the platform or around the scaffold. Indian burial ground

The poles reached "a mans height above ground" (six to eight feet).Templeton, George M.: ''Diaries, 1866-1868''. (Typescript). The Newberry Library, Chicago. An extraordinarily high scaffold carried the corpse of a

Sisseton Sioux The Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation ( dak, Sisíthuŋwaŋ Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ oyáte), formerly Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe/Dakota Nation, is a federally recognized tribe comprising two bands and two subdivisions of the ' ...

an estimated 18 feet above the ground. One scaffold described had poles painted black and red in horizontal stripes.Libby, Orin G. (1920): ''The Arikara Narrative''. Bismarck. An 1849 Nebraska traveler saw a scaffold made of lodge poles rested against each other at the top and with two biers halfway down. An

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

man would get his arms and other personal effects with him on the scaffold along with food, eating utensils and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

. This practice may have been used only as a temporary solution when death occurred far from the common burial ground with graves and markers. Birch bark served as an option to a body wrapping of skin among the Ojibwe.Densmore, Frances (1929): ''Chippewa Customs''. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 86. Washington. In the 18th century, the

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

placed the dead on a scaffold as a first step in a burial process. Months later, bone pickers stripped the flesh from the bones. The skeleton was then cleaned and piece by piece put in a sort of small coffin and lastly placed in the Indian city's special bone house.Bushnell Jr., D. I. (1920): ''Native Cemeteries and Forms of Burial East of the Mississippi''. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 71. Washington. The personal effects of an Indian woman were laid with her in an open pine box (likely made by a carpenter) situated on a scaffold put up near

Fort Laramie Fort Laramie (founded as Fort William and known for a while as Fort John) was a significant 19th-century trading-post, diplomatic site, and military installation located at the confluence of the Laramie and the North Platte rivers. They joined ...

in 1866. The heads and tails of her two ponies were fastened to respectively the eastern and the western poles. Among the

Crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifical ...

, the dead was wrapped in a robe and placed on the bier with the feet to the east. Much later, the bones could be collected and placed in a rock gap. The

Mandan The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still res ...

Indians positioned the dead body on the scaffold with the feet to the southeast, so the spirit was directed to the old Mandan country around Heart River,

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

. With the scaffold rotten and on the ground, the bones were wrapped in a hide and buried in the refuse at the Mandan village or in a riverbank. The skull would be placed among other clan skulls arranged in circles on the ground near the scaffolds. Newborns, who died unnamed, were not considered members of the society and hence placed in trees (or buried) away from the common burial ground outside the village.

Reasons for burials in trees and on scaffolds

During winter, the

Ponca The Ponca ( Páⁿka iyé: Páⁿka or Ppáⁿkka pronounced ) are a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Dhegihan branch of the Siouan language group. There are two federally recognized Ponca tribes: the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the Ponca ...

Indians would often substitute a grave with a scaffold because the ground was frozen.Howard, J.H (1965): ''The Ponca Tribe''. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 195. Washington. A Lakota summed up the reasons why a high scaffold outdid a grave, "(1) Animals or persons might walk over the graves; (2) the dead might lie in mud and water after rain or snow; (3) wolves might dig up the bodies and devour them."Dorsey, J.O (1894): ''A Study of Siouan Cults''. Smithsonian Institution. 11th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. 1889-'90. Washington. With the dead placed on a scaffold or in a tree, the relatives could easily talk to the deceased.Denig, E. T. (1930): ''The Assiniboine''. Smithsonian Institution. 46th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 1928-'29. Washington.

Gallery

File:Tombs of Assiniboin indians on trees 0063v.jpg, Tombs of Assiniboin Indians on trees 0063v. Maximilian zu Wied saw the bodies of Assiniboine Indians placed like this during his travel up Missouri River in 1833. Picture by

Karl Bodmer Johann Carl Bodmer (11 February 1809 – 30 October 1893) was a Swiss-French printmaker, etcher, lithographer, zinc engraver, draughtsman, painter, illustrator and hunter. Known as Karl Bodmer in literature and paintings, as a Swiss and French c ...

. File:Indian mode of burial.jpg, A tree burial and a scaffold - used by a number of Indians in North America

References

External links

{{commonscat-inline, Tree and platform burials Burial monuments and structures Inuit culture