"Some of their burial customs and funeral rites would seem to indicate their ideas of the future state. The Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Kansas, and kindred tribes, besides many others, or perhaps most others of the frontier, have been accustomed to inter the most valuable property of the deceased and many necessaries with them. "Their whole property was buried with them," says an intelligent Cherokee, in some manuscript notes concerning his ancestors, I have in my possession: and I have been assured by creditable natives, that, within their recollection they have seen, at these burials, provisions, salt, and other necessaries, interred with the dead for their long journey. There are very few of the prairie Indians but practice something of this kind: many kill the favorite hunting horses, and deposit the arms, etc., of the deceased, for his use in the chase, when he arrives at the 'happy hunting ground.' ..this is practiced by some, if not all, of the natives beyond the Rocky Mountains. The same is told of the Navajoes, Apaches, and other uncatholicized tribes of the north of Mexico."
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Commerce of the Prairies
1806 – 1850
Commerce of the Prairies: or, The journal of a Santa Fé trader, 1831–1839 was written by Josiah Gregg (1806–1850), a merchant, explorer, naturalist, and author who described his travels and adventures throughout the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. He is most famous for this book, a classic description of his early travels along the Santa Fe Trail to Santa Fe, then along El Camino Real to Chihuahua, Mexico and further south.
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