Archaeological atlas of Michigan [by] Wilbert B. Hinsdale...

BURYING GROUNDS

*Prairie Ronde (P), "round prairie." Cass County.
Prairie Village. Mitchell's map. Kent County.
Quanicassee (C). Tuscola County.
Reaum's (C). Usual name given to Neome, more properly Nibegom.
Father Baraga gives meaning: "I wait for game in the night on
the water in a canoe." Saginaw County.
*Rogue's (?). Kent County.
*Sagenish's (?). Probably the name of a chief. Sagenash or Shaganash,
"English." Known also as Englishman's Village. Ottawa County.
*Sagimaw's (P), "knows his medicine." Variant-Sagima. Kalamazoo
County.
*Sagonakato's (C). Variant-Saganakwato, probable meaning "a cloud
whose top exceeds the others in height," G. Alpena County.
*Saguina, first occupied by S, later by 0 and C. "Mouth of a river,"
HB. Commonly accepted meaning "the place of the Sauk." Saginaw County.
*Seginsiwin's (P). "Probably Segisiwin is correct form, meaning
'fear'," G. Variant-Seginsavin's. Oakland County.
Segwun (?). Known as Chesbro's Village. Sigwan, "spring" (season),
G. Kent County.
*Shabboo's (?). Alger County.
Shako (?). Saginaw County.
*Shashekanowbegoking (C). "Probably for Shashikwanabikaniug, reduplicative of Shikwanabikaning, 'place of the grind-stone'," G.
Alpena County.
*Shawboaway's (?). "Correctly, Shabwewe," G. Mackinac County.
Sheshigemasking (C). Shishigamemijking, "place of the soft maples,"
G. Shiawassee County.
*Shimmenecon (?), probably for kitchi minikan, "large seed." Monroe
County.
*Shingquacaseking's (?). Variants-Shingquakcase, probably from
Shingwakenseking, "place of the small pines," G. Isabella County.
*Shitumoron's (?). Ionia County.

*Shobasson's (C). Leelanau County.
*Tahquamenon (C). Variants-Takwamenon, G.; Tahquamenaw,
Walling's Atlas of Michigan, 1873; Takwamenaw, Longfellow, in
Hiawatha. Chippewa County.
*Tekanquasha (P), "short-haired." Present village of Tekonsha. Calhoun County.
*Teuchsaygrondie (H). Wayne County.
Tewawbawning (C), "the place of the hickories." Variants-Tewawbawking, Mitikwabaking, G. Saginaw County.
*Tonquish's (P). Variants-Tonguish, Treaty of St. Joseph; Tonquish,
Treaty of Detroit. Oakland County.
*Topenebee's (P), "sitting bear." Variants-Topenibe, Mississinewa
Treaty; Topennebee, Tippecanoe Treaty; Topinibe, St. Mary's
Treaty; Topnibe, Chicago Treaty. All found in HB. Berrien
County.
Tsheetsweechkewa's (C), "great friend," G. Ontonagon County.
*Wabwahnaseepe (?), "lookingglass river; reflection in the river"
(?). Variants-Wabwohnahseepe, Wabwabinasibi, G. Clinton
County.
*Waganakisi (0). Ottawa name for Middle Village. Fr. Aubert, O.F.M.
Emmet County.
*Waishkee's (C). Variants-Waiski, Waiska, Weshki, Weshky. Chippewa County.
*Wakazoo (0). Allegan County.
*Walkinthewater (W). See Maera. Wayne County.
*Wapisiwisibiwininiwak (C), "men of the swan river." Wabisiwisibiwininiwak, G. St. Clair Couny.
*Waubojeeg's (C), "white fisher." Variants-Wahboogeeg; Wabodjik,
G. Baraga County.
*Weesaw's (P). Variant-Wesaw. Berrien County.
*Wequagamaw (0). Variants-Sequagmaw; Waiekwagama, "end of
the inland lake," G. Antrim County.
*Wyandot Villages (W). There is a group of two or three villages
known by this name on the Huron River. Wayne County.

VI. BURYING GROUNDS

T HE finding of an Indian cemetery is almost always accidental.
Burial places, aside from mounds, are discovered by those who
work the ground. Farmers, road builders, gravel pit operators,
ditchers, cellar diggers, and excavators of all kinds are the usual
discoverers and destroyers of what would, under careful observation, be important material for archaeological study.
The Indians had a custom of interring their dead in contiguous
graves. A cemetery was simply a place where the villagers had
been removed under ground. Villages and burial sites are, as
would be expected, often found in proximity When the archaeologist locates one, he seeks for the other. His chances for making a discovery depend upon the way in which the burials were
made.
The Indians of Michigan practiced several methods of interment. Whether all were employed by the same tribal organization, or were used by different tribes which occupied the location
at various times, archaeologists have not in every case decided.
Careful examinations of some burying grounds have disclosed
that bodies were systematically oriented. This may have been a
trait of particular tribes. There was interment without any kind

of permanent marker to designate the graves. Some interments
were made in small tumuli called grave-mounds, or conspicuous
mounds were built, evidently designed as lasting monuments to
the persons buried under or within them. In some of the Indian
cemeteries which are still being used, or which have been used recently, grave houses of wood or bark are to be seen. The custom
of building structures of bark and logs, and in later times of
boards, was quite general among many of the Michigan Indians.
If one were to visit some of the burying grounds, such as those
near L'Anse, those upon Garden Island in Lake Michigan, or those
on Sugar Island in St. Mary's River, he would see small houses still
standing over the graves and observe a striking similarity between
a village of the living and one of the dead. These wooden monumental structures were not, of course, very lasting. Some of them
were renewed and others were replaced by grave-posts, although
the grave-post was also used as an original marker. It is evident,
from careful examinations, that permanent mounds were sometimes built so as to enclose the temporary log and bark grave
houses.
Two hundred and sixty-five burial sites have been located
in the state.

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