It told him if Indian was
good he would go to a better place, where game would be plenty, and, no
one would drive him away. No doubt he had made preparation for his
departure and wanted his bow, arrow, and maybe other things, buried with
him. If this was so they had disappeared as we found nothing of the kind.
It is known to be the belief of the Indian in his wild state, that he
will need his bow and arrow, or his gun and powder horn, or whatever he
has to hunt with here, to use after lie has passed over to the happy
hunting ground.
About the time that Clark dug up the bones, I became acquainted with
something that I never could account for and it has always been a
mystery to me. An Englishman was digging a ditch on the creek bottom, to
drain the creek, a little over three-quarters of a mile west of
father's house. He was digging it six feet wide and two feet deep, where
brush called grey willows stood so thick that it was impossible for a
man to walk through them. He cut the brush and had dug eight or ten
inches when he came to red earth. Some day there had been a great fire
at this place. The streak of red ground was about an inch thick, and in
it he found what all called human bones.
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