Burial tree

[1] A number of Native Americans used a burial tree as either a final or intermediate resting place for a dead relative, either as the general rule (along with a scaffold) or as an alternative to a grave.

[2]: 87 [3]: 99 The corpse was wrapped up carefully in a robe or blankets and either placed in a fork of the tree[4]: 67  or tied to a heavy branch.

[5]: 112  Maximilian zu Wied saw burial trees with red painted trunk and branches among the Assiniboine Indians.

This foundation carried a sort of bier, where the dead body was laid to rest out of reach of wolves.

[12]: 94 The personal effects of an Indian woman were laid with her in an open pine box (likely made by a carpenter) situated on a scaffold put up near Fort Laramie in 1866.

[3]: 99  With the scaffold rotten and on the ground, the bones were wrapped in a hide and buried in the refuse at the Mandan village or in a riverbank.

[3]: 100  Newborns, who died unnamed, were not considered members of the society and hence placed in trees (or buried) away from the common burial ground outside the village.

Inuit tree burial, Leaf River , Quebec , c. 1924–1936
Indian burial ground. S. Eastman
Funeral scaffold of a Sioux chief 0044v. Something like a travois basket is placed over the muffled up body. The Cheyennes used now and then the same method of protecting the corpse.