Death And Its Incidents

Reactions to death include the chief's introduction of a younger son, wearing black, and traditional mortuary practices such as burying artifacts with the corpse. Belief in immortality generally prevails among all tribes, but the choice of burial sites varies according to geography. Northern tribes choose dry, elevated sites; eastern and Mississippi Valley tribes prefer mounds, prairie dwellers scaffold their dead, the Chinook (northwest coast, Oregon) bind a living slave to a corpse, allow the slave to live for three days, then compel another slave to strangle the victim.