A New Hochelagan Burying-ground Discovered at Westmount on the Western Spur of Mount Royal, Montreal, July-September, 1898 by W. D. (William Douw) Lighthall
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immediately interested, and especially in the possibility of their
being Hochelagans, and having particularly commenced some inquiries into the relations between the latter Indians and the Mohawks, I wrote, as Chairman of Health of Westmount, asking Chief Harrison to note the manner and attitude of burial and any objects found, and to enquire concerning previous excavations in the neighborhood and save the remains for scientific purposes. (They had been sent by him to the City Morgue.) The above information concerning the previous skeletons was then collected and I found that the witnesses concurred in agreeing that the attitude seems to have been in all cases with knees bent up. No objects seem to have been noticed in any of the excavations then made, though some may have been overlooked by the workmen, particularly as the soil of the locality is full of pieces of limestone and small boulders, closely resembling arrow heads, hammers and celts. Several bones which are not human have however been since found with these three skeletons, one possibly of a dog, another of a squirrel. They may be those of the funeral feast Sir William Dawson mentions in his work "Fossil Men," as usually to be looked for over the Hochelagan graves. Mr. Beauchamp, the New-York authority, writes concerning the Mohawks; "Burial customs varied greatly among the same people, but usually the knees are drawn up. The face might be turned either way in contiguous graves. I have seen many opened with no articles in them." By the kindness of Dr. Wyatt Johnston, Pathologist to the Provincial Board of Health, the three skeletons have been preserved and are now in the Chateau de Ramezay Historical Museum where they will doubtless be regarded with interest by scholars. The skulls have been fully identified as of the Indian type, and found to be those of two powerful males in the prime of life and one young woman. The skull |
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