Sec. A Page 23 Missoulian Centennial Indian Burial Ground Here
Indian Burial Ground Here
Although graves of Indians have been uncovered by excavations for new buildings and roads in many spots about the Missoula Valley, there apparently was an Indian burial ground of some size in the 1870’s on Waterworks Hill in the general vicinity of the present reservoir.
The late Will Cave, who lived in Missoula more than 80 years, wrote in the Daily Missoulian of May 15, 1923, of the “only Indian burial ground that I remember.”
Sees Indian Burial
He told of a winter day in his youth when his teacher, Miss C. P. Simms, took him and his classmates to witness an Indian burial. He said, “We thought little of it at that time. Since I have grown up I have always felt she probably was more interested than we were, because she had only been in Montana a year or two and the Indians were more or less of a curiosity to her.
“It was in the winter of ’74, if I remember correctly. We stood out in the soft winter afternoon while the Indians performed their strange ceremony over the grave. The ceremony, as I recall, consisted principally of wailings and chantings and other manifestations of grief.
“There were probably a score or more of Indians at the funeral. I think that at different times about seven Indians were buried in this same spot.”