Myths and Legends of the Great Plains

WHY THE TETONS BURY ON SCAFFOLDS

Reading edition

Teton

In the olden days, the people buried some men on a hill. Then they removed their camp to another place. Many winters afterwards, a man visited the hill; but there were no graves there. So he told the people.

Then many men came and dug far down into the hill. By and by a man said, “There is a road here.”

There they found a road, a tunnel, large enough for men to walk, stooping. Other roads there were. They followed the first road and they came to a place where a strange animal had dragged the bodies of those who were buried in the hill.

Therefore the people refused to bury their dead in the ground. They bury them on scaffolds where the animals cannot reach them.[M]

FOOTNOTE:

Indian Scaffold Cemetery on the Missouri river

Illustration from Myths and Legends of the Great Plains

(From Schoolcraft)

Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

An Omaha Village, Showing Earth Lodge and Conical Tepees

Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Notes in this chapter

Note 1 · At the present day, the Teton gives three reasons for not burying in the ground: animals or persons might walk over the graves; the dead mig