Sioux Funeral Customs

Mortuary practices are of two types: scaffolding or in graves. When the former has occurred, the deceased is wrapped in the clothes worn at death, and covered with blankets, some of which are later removed. The bones are gathered in about one year and are mourned over for the last time. Graves are dug on high land and the body interred in any direction or position with all limbs drawn up, sometimes extended. Survivors follow traditional customs such as scarification, cutting their hair, blackening their faces.