Native American Encyclopedia Bonepickers To Comanchero
Rourke’s Native American History Culture ENCYCLOPEDIA Volume 2 Bonepickers to Comanchero By Julie K Lundgren Project Consultant Scott Lyons Ph Rourke Publishing LLC Vero Beach Florida 32964 D
4 bonepickers Bonepickers played a role in Choctaw funeral practices When a tribe member died the Choctaw placed the wrapped body on a raised platform After several weeks a bonepicker arrived to clean the bones place them in a box and set fire to the other remains and the platform The bonepicker finished the ritual by bringing the box to the village bone house When enough boxes were collected the people made a burial mound for them It may be that this part of the ritual came from their possible early ancestors the Mound Builders of the southeastern United States Though bonepickers were unique to the Choctaw culture Plains Indians did use funeral platforms in their burial practices Bonneville Benjamin 1796-1878 served as an expedition leader trailblazer and spy for the U S Army in the West In 1832 Bonneville and 110 men began their journey to the northern Rocky Mountains He used his role as a trapper to gather information about the land and tribes he met He mapped his route parts of which became the Oregon Trail He provided information on the British and their fur trading partnerships with tribes His reports helped guide western settlement Later in New Mexico Territory he led the first U S Army soldiers to fight against Apache tribes Bonnin Gertrude Simmons 1876-1938 an author speaker and teacher helped write the first Native American grand opera The Sun Dance She wrote books and short stories about Native American legends under the name Zitkala-Sa meaning Red Bird As a young woman she taught at Carlisle School Her life experience as the daughter of a Yankton Nakota Sioux mother and nonnative father helped her build cultural bridges between Native Americans and mainstream America Booger masks worn by Cherokee men in the Booger Dance represents enemies fears or evil spirits By making fun of them the Booger Dance makes these enemies seem less powerful In the past the Cherokee made the mask faces from large gourds hornet nests or wood then decorated them with smaller gourds seedpods carved wood or bones The Booger Dances usually occur in fall or winter
Bosque Redondo 5 Meet Daniel Boone Boone Daniel 1734-1820 explored and helped settle lands in today’s Kentucky called kentake by native peoples meaning meadowland Using a native trail he made hunting trips through the Appalachian Mountains to Kentucky in Cherokee and Shawnee territories In time other pioneers used the trail and named it Wilderness Road In 1773 Boone and his family started the settlement of Boonesboro Kentucky When the Shawnee captured Boone in 1778 they adopted him and he lived with them for several months He also helped defend other settlers against attacks by native peoples Interesting Fact Adoption of captured enemies commonly occurred in many tribes Survival often depended on having enough tribal members to do the necessary work of the community It served as a way for them to replace tribe members who had died Tribes adopted not just settlers but members of other tribes too Bosque Redondo became home to nearly 9,000 Navajo in 1864 at the end of the Navajo War The U S Army marched Navajo survivors to Bosque Redondo Reservation in southeastern New Mexico from their homeland 300 miles 480 kilometers to the northwest Over 200 people died on the difficult march called the Long Walk of the Navajo Bosque Redondo had bad water poor soil few animals for hunting and suffered Kiowa and Comanche raids The soldiers at nearby Fort Sumner mistreated the Navajo and smallpox and other diseases killed thousands A new treaty in 1868 allowed the Navajo to return to their homeland The United States forced the Navajo people to abandon their homeland and walk 300 miles 480 kilometers to a reservation See also Trail of Tears
