removtw.html

The Oregonian, Portland, OR., May 29, 1933, page 3

SKELETONS OF 250 INDIANS TO BE REMOVED THIS WEEK
Occupants Of Memaloose Island Will Be Interred On Shore

THE DALLES, Or., May 28. - (Special.) - The remains of more than 250 Indians, some of whom were signers of the "peace treaty" between tribesmen and the United States government in 1855, this week will be transferred from their resting place on a "memaloose" island near Big Eddy and interred on the Washington shore, according to plans of tribal leaders.
The burial ceremony will be simple. The bones will be gathered under the direction of it C.H. Callaway, Wasco county coroner, and placed in small cedar box caskets made by the Indians themselves. They will be buried in a plot already selected on the Washington side of the Columbia river near Wishram village.
For centuries it was the practice of the mid-Columbia Indians to dispose of their dead on islands in the Columbia river. There are several of these "memaloose" islands near The Dalles. The word, literally translated, means "land of the dead," according to local Indians. It was the native custom to build small huts of boughs and place the dead on top of the ground inside these huts.
Spring freshets and the depredations of white relic hunters have disposed of many of the bones, but local Indians estimate that at least 250 skeletons will be transferred to the new burial plot. In more recent years mid-Columbia Indians have buried their dead after the custom of white men.