The Ghostly Exhumation on the Hill
A grieving widow and a procession of mourners perform a mysterious, haunting ritual to rebury a man murdered in the streets of Seattle.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A large procession of Indians might have been seen the other day wending their lonely march in single file up one of our streets in the direction of the cemetery on the hill. In the lead was an Indian pony, on which was mounted a small boy and the squaw who was formerly the mate of the Indian who was murdered last Saturday night. The horse was led by an Indian medicine-man, and following behind was a large number of squaws, all of whom were pouring forth most hideous noises. They marched directly to the place where the remains of the murdered man were buried and proceeded to dig up the body, after the accomplishment of which they opened the coffin, took the body out, placed it in the grave, and after putting the coffin on top of the body, again filled the grave. They then proceeded to perform a few burial rites, after the manner of the ancient aborigines. At the conclusion of this very strange proceeding they dispersed in every direction, each retiring to his respective wigwam.
“They marched directly to the place where the remains of the murdered man were buried and proceeded to dig up the body, after the accomplishment of which they opened the coffin, took the body out, placed it in the grave.”
This 1878 account captures a moment of deep cultural collision and grief in early Seattle, occurring near the city’s early burial grounds—likely near the Denny Hill or original cemetery sites. It highlights the stark disconnect between the settler-colonial press and the Indigenous communities who were already being displaced or marginalized within the city's rapidly hardening borders.
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