Indigenous Burials: Learning about Life and Death From Our Ancestors.
There are many debates, arguments and questions that occur in today's society on such topics as afterlife, reincarnation, religious doctrine, dimensions and proper burial of our earthly remains.
To help with some of these questions, I am going to explore indigenous burial rituals in today's blog.
One of the first indigenous rituals that I came across is the Aboriginal burials in Australia. There were many different ways that the Aboriginal people buried their dead. For the most part they were buried in the ground with some of their possessions such as tools or personal ornaments. The grave would be covered by a special hut or earth mound and earthworks or cutting bark on surrounding trees marked the location.
The Cherokee mostly buried their dead in shallow graves in the ground. Bodies would lay in the fetal position due to the belief that one should rest in death in the earth as they once rested in their mothers. Excavations of burial mounds have found pottery, metal and bone ornaments, shells and ceramics buried with the bodies. They believed that if you died before sunrise then you should be buried before sundown and if you died before sundown then you should be buried before sunrise.
The Inuit people buried their dead based on their geographical area. The Asiatic Inuits would burn their dead. East Greenlanders would send them off to sea. The greater part of the rest of the Inuit people would bury their dead under a heap of stone. After a person dies their body would be kept overnight in their home wrapped in animal skin.
Indigenous American peoples had different burial rituals specific to tribes and locations. Many tribes including the Odawa believed in cremation. They believed that burning the deceased would help them enter the afterlife. They believed the smoke would send the body upward in their journey.
Some tribes, including the Haida and Tlingit, would use a mortuary pole. This is an uncommon totem pole that kept the ashes of tribe members after they were cremated.
The Sioux, Ute, and Navajo tribes used a scaffold type platform or tree to bring their dead closer to the sky. Animals would consume the body bringing the life cycle full circle.
Other tribes would do an earth burial. Viewing the earth as their mother, they felt that when someone dies an earth burial is the best way to bring connection back with the planet and free the soul.
We can learn much about our earth, our Universe and our lives by studying the ways of our Ancestors. We can not only learn about how to live and survive on the earth, we can also learn how to die and depart from the earth as well.
This blog is just scratching the surface on indigenous burials. In future blogs I will dig deeper into the belief in the afterlife of various indigenous cultures as well as look at the funeral and mourning customs as well.
Indigenous Burials. We can learn about life and death from our ancestors.
Blessings!
By Michael Walters
The Ancestor's Fire
Writing the voices of the unheard
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