Tree burial- technically titled “aerial sculpture proper”- is a method of burial that was extremely common with northwest Indians. This method transitioned into scaffold and platform burial in different regions. The Sioux, Ute, and Navajo Indians used platforms, but platform and tree burial is not just common in the Americas. Variations can be seen internationally. The Australian aboriginals used trees, and a tribe from India known as the Parsis made towers where the dead were kept so the birds could pick them clean of flesh.

Though it seems random, there were methods to this madness of “burying” bodies higher in the sky. The Indians actually believed that after death, the souls of the dead lingered in the air and watched over the tribe until it was time for their soul to move on to the afterlife. This is one of the reasons that the bodies were raised higher- through trees. They believed this made the time that the soul left the body go faster.

Some Indians thought that there was a spiritual race that was literally and figuratively “higher” than that of their own. These Indians raised dead bodies on platforms to make them “closer” to this race.

The final reason that the dead were “buried” in trees was to protect the deceased from wild animals such as wolves and other predators.

The Indians also provided objects that they believed the dead would need in the afterlife. Buckets of food and water were hung on poles on the scaffolds. Toys were left with dead children, while weapons and clothing were buried with adults.

Most tree and scaffold burials had the same basic specifications. Normally, the scaffolds were eight feet high, ten feet long, and five feet wide. But even though there are guidelines, they tend to vary widely.

Most of the time, the body was placed in a wooden box. But for some platform burials, the bodies were mummified and then placed in canoes. The canoe was then raised on poles and placed on the platform. For other platform burials, the body was wrapped in watertight cloth, sewn, and lifted onto the platform. Logs were sometimes split in two and then hollowed out to fit a body inside before it was placed on the scaffold.

The burial was also affected by the social status, gender, and age in some tribes. Chiefs usually were placed higher in the tree, while squaws and children were placed in lower trees and sometimes even bushes.

Even today, tree burial has an influence on the world around it. Or rather, the world has an influence on tree burial. Through all the years of bodies hanging in trees, modern humans have disrupted the trees for anthropological missions. But the Native American Graves Protection and Repartriation Act of 1990 solved this problem. It stated that anyone who was being paid to excavate artifacts had to return anything they discovered to its tribe if the tribe wanted it.

Today’s accepted method of burial is even believed to have come from the Indians- after placing the body on scaffolding, the Dakota and Chippewa tribes took down important figures- such as chiefs- and buried them in the ground. They placed a totem-like structure at the foot of the body- it was called an ajedati. It bore an inscription of the person’s life accomplishments and has become the known predecessor of today’s gravestones. It is believed that we adopted this method of burial from the ajedati.

Tree and scaffold burial was an ancient form of laying the dead to rest that the Native Americans embraced. They believed in its notions and honor the past of it today. Throughout the country- and the world- it speaks the variety of tradition through death to the curious scholar and imprints the memory of our Native American ancestors.

Works Cited

Craven, Margaret. I Heard the Owl Call My Name. Laurel Press, 1980.

Dykes, Trevor. Indian graves. 2006. (15 May 2009).

Greenberg, Annie. Indian Burial Customs Vary Widely. 2008. < http://www.reznetnews.org/article/indian-burial-customs-vary-widely-23930> (8 May 2009).

Fixico, Donald L, Alan L. Kolata, and Sharlotte Neely. “Indian, American.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 1995 ed.

Fulton, Robert. “Funeral Customs.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 1995 ed.

Lewis, Claudia. Indian Families of the Northwest Coast: The Impact of Change. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.

Spence, Lewis. North American Indians: Myths and Legends. New York: Avenel Books, 1986.

Through Indian Eyes. Pleasantville, New York: The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc, 1995.

Tree and Scaffold Burial. 2005. (8 May 2009).