Funeral Practices of the Western Great Lakes Tribes: A Mini-Essay

     Like many civilizations, the native tribes of the Western Great Lakes – including the Chippewa, Kickapoo, Menomini, and Potawatomi – upheld elaborate funeral practices steeped in religious practices. After death, the body of the deceased was washed, dressed, and wrapped in birch bark. Although ceremonies differed slightly based on what society the deceased belonged to, all of them included songs and speeches which instructed the soul how to make its four-day journey to the afterlife. Once instructions were given, the western portion of the wigwam was removed and the body, accompanied by its cherished worldly possessions, was carried to a grave outside the village, where the dead was interred and a carved grave marker was erected. Typically five feet long and three feet deep, the grave sat along the east-west axis and contained a shelf of food for the deceased, including fruit, maple, rice, and sugar. This was meant to give them nourishment as they traversed the road of souls. On the first day, the soul encountered the Water Monster (called Chibia’bos), which it had to appease with an offering of tobacco in order to cross the waterway. Each night, the soul lit a fire with matches provided by relatives and ate some of the food, with mourners gathering each of the four nights by the grave and lighting their own fires and joining them in a meal. After the dead entered the afterlife on the fourth day, mourners painted their faces black and grieved for a year, with an annual ceremony held for those who lost loved ones to be restored into society and presented with gifts.[1]

 

Works Referenced

 

Ritzenthaler, Robert, and Pat Ritzenthaler. The Woodland Indians of the Western Great Lakes. Garden City, NY: The Natural History Press, 1970.

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[1] Ritzenthaler and Ritzenthaler, 41-45.

Mounted Vampire Head

$40 - $50 (based on 2023)
Makes one mount

Back in 2012, my animatronic vampire – which never worked properly to begin with – died. I saved the blow-molded head in the hopes of transforming it into something the following Halloween; however, that never happened and it sat in the back of a closet for over a decade. In 2023, I tasked myself with finally using it. So, I decided to created a mounted vampire head similar to the mounted animal trophies seen in many cabins. To give the prop further character, I made the eyes glow a menacing green.

• One blow-molded vampire head
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat gray*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat green*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat olive*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat purple*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat turquoise*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat white*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat yellow*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in glossy red*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in metallic gold*
• One 0.44 oz. bottle of clear nail polish*
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in flat black*
• Two small, white ping pong balls (1 3/8” in diameter)
• Four to six inches of red yarn
• Nine to ten feet of black wire
• One string of green battery-powered LED lights
• Three small plastic skulls
• One twenty-inch oval frame
• Two yards of black fabric
• One decorative brooch
  

1. Remove any wiring or other mechanical devices from the inside of the head and, if there was a hole where the motion sensor or mounting equipment once was, fill that with hot glue. You only want light to shine through the eyes.

2. Apply two even coats of gray paint to the entire head, ensuring it covers every detail. Depending on how dark the head’s original paint was, you may need to apply additional coats to prevent it from showing through.

3. With a stippling brush, pat green, purple, and turquoise paint onto the head’s surface, concentrating the application along the creases and other features. If one of the colors becomes too overpowering, you can use the gray paint to dial it back.  

4. Gently dry brush white across the head’s raised surfaces, trying not to cover too much of the other colors. As with step three, you can always use the gray, green, purple, and turquoise paint to reduce the white if it becomes excessive.

5. Stipple the edges of the ears, mouth, and nose with purple paint. Also, if the head has any wounds (like the one I used), fill them with purple.

6. Color the inside of the mouth and wounds with glossy red paint and smudge the hue around the lips. For visual interest, you can also paint the tongue an alternate hue, such as pink or a lighter red.

7. Detail the teeth with yellow paint and accent the spaces between them and any cracks with black paint. Then, use two coats of clear nail polish to make the mouth and teeth look moist. 

8. Moving from dark to light, stipple layers of black and gray paint around the eyes and inside the ears and nose to darken their recesses.

9. Cover the eye openings with painter’s tape and, on a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, coat the inside of the head with a layer or two of black spray paint. This will help darken the interior to improve the light’s reflection.

10. Cut a two-inch section of red yarn and fray the ends. Then, coat the ping pong ball in a light layer of glue and, using a needle or other finely tipped object, spread the yarn strands across it. After the glue dries, give the eyeballs one or two coats of clear nail polish.   

11. Remove the painter’s tape and glue the eyes into the sockets. For visual interest, position them so a large portion of the veins are showing.

12. Use a 1/16 bit to drill two holes in the nape of the neck and feed the wire through them, creating a loop inside the head to insert the lights. Then, bundle the lights together and thread them through the loop, pulling it tight to secure them to the inside of the head and twisting the ends to keep it in place.  

13. Remove the mandibles from the skulls and slowly trim the backs of their heads to fit the curvature of the picture frame. Once this is accomplished, glue them to the base of the frame and use hot glue to fill any gaps and create a smooth surface between the items.

14. On a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, give the frame one or two even coats of black spray paint. As with step two, how many coats you apply is determined by how much of the original paint needs to be covered to prevent it from showing.

15. Moving in small sections, use a sponge or paper towels to pat gold paint onto the frame. Then, dull the sheen and add distress by randomly patting olive paint along the frame. You could also apply a wash of brown and flecks of black to create the illusion of dirt.

16. Remove the backing, center the head and battery box on it, and draw their outlines. Following this, cut out the hole for the battery box and, using a 1/16 bit, drill eight holes along the neckline.

17. Drill corresponding holes into the head’s neck and thread four two-foot sections of wire through them. Next, feed the battery box and wires through the holes in the backing and pull them taut to secure the head, twisting their ends and trimming the excess.

18. Glue the battery box in place and, for extra stability, run a line of hot glue along the edge of the neck to further bond it to the board.

19. Cut a square of fabric large enough to cover the backing (mine was 4’ x 4’) and make a slit in the center large enough for the head to pass through. To give the prop character, build up folds around the head before gluing the fabric to the backing and trimming the excess. You want a snug fit between the backing and the frame, so you may need to trim the fabric slightly smaller than the backing to achieve this.

20. Add the decorative brooch below the neck to accent the prop and break up the black. For additional detail, create a wash of black paint and use it to age the brooch and reduce its sheen.

21. Reattach the backing to the frame and, for added stability, glue it in place. Although the prop can be enhanced further with details like a nameplate, too many flourishes might be overwhelming.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

"The Apparition" (A Poem)

Printed in 1633, John Donne’s “The Apparition” is a unique ghost story. In the poem, the narrator returns from the dead to torment his mistress who has taken another lover. It’s an interesting companion piece to his “To His Mistress Going to Bed” published nearly forty years prior, where the narrator lures his mistress into bed with praises of her beauty.[1]

When by thy scorn, O murd’ress, I am dead
And that thou think’st thee free
From all solicitation from me,
Then shall my ghost come to thy bed,
And thee, feign’d vestal, in worse arms shall see;
Then thy sick taper will begin to wink,
And he, whose thou art then, being tir’d before,
Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him, think
Thou call’st for more,
And in false sleep will from thee shrink;
And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou
Bath’d in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie
A verier ghost than I.
What I will say, I will not tell thee now,
Lest that preserve thee; and since my love is spent,
I’had rather thou shouldst painfully repent,
Than by my threat’nings rest still innocent.[2]

Works Referenced

Donne, John. “The Apparition.” The Songs and Sonnets of John Donne. 2nd ed. Ed. Theodore Redpath. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983. 106.

Edwards, David. John Donne: Man of Flesh and Spirit. London: Continuum, 2001.
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[1] Edwards, 207.
[2] Donne, 106.

Rotten Finger Beaker

$10 - $15 (based on 2020 prices)

Makes one beaker

Like the jarred fingers and the magical elixirs, I wanted a bevy of small props to nestle among the large laboratory equipment for 2020’s haunt. Using a cheap beaker and a bag of imitation maggots used for fishing bait, I created a rotten finger to accompany many of the limbs and organs littering the mad scientist’s domain.

• One 4.75 oz. plastic beaker with lid
• One 8 oz. can of oil-based interior wood stain in Jacobean*
• One 8 oz. can of oil-based interior wood stain in red chestnut*
• One 4 oz. bottle of all-purpose tacky glue*
• One bag of maggots (roughly fifty insects per bag)
• One vinyl finger
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in brown*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in gray*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in khaki*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in umber*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in white*
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in flat black*
• One 10 oz. can of interior/exterior, fast-drying spray paint in metallic silver*

1. After thoroughly washing and drying the beaker, roughen its surface with sandpaper. This will both enhance the aged appearance and help the stain adhere to the plastic.

2. On a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, paint the beaker with the Jacobean wood stain. I discovered that applying a thin coat and patting it with paper towels produces a hazed appearance. Then, dab the surface with the red chestnut wood stain to create spots of dried blood.

3. Cover the beaker’s bottom in a light layer of glue, roll the maggots in it, and the use the handle of a paint brush or other long instrument to arrange them. You do not want the coverage to be too dense because it will cover the finger.

4. On a newspaper-lined surface, apply three even coats of khaki paint to the finger. Although I used three, you may want more or less based on your desired coverage.

5. Give the finger a smudging of brown paint, focusing primarily on the tip and around the knuckles. Then, repeat the process with umber. During this application, be careful not to cover too much of the brown paint.

6. Begin detailing the nail with a coat of white paint and, after that dries, dab gray paint onto the nail, building up layers until it looks decrepit. To complete the process, smudge black around the tip of the finger and along its cuticle.

7. Cover the severed end of the finger with several even coats of black paint. Following this, apply a stippling of black paint along the finger’s surface. Do not overthink your application, since a random pattern will look more natural.

8. After the paint dries, attach additional maggots to the finger to make it appear they are crawling along its surface. Because the maggots I picked were made of a sticky gel, I had to use superglue to hold them in place.

9. Nestle the finger among the mound of maggots at the bottom of the beaker, being careful not to obscure it too much. Depending on how densely packed the maggots are, you may not need to glue the finger in place.

10. One a newspaper-lined surface in a well-ventilated area, build up layers of black and metallic silver spray paint to give the lid the look of steel. It works best to apply a base coat of black followed by sliver, working in quick bursts to allow parts of the black to remain visible. Once the spray paint dries, create a wash of brown paint and use it to add a level of grime to the lid, allowing the liquid to settle in the crevices.

11. Reattached the lid to the beaker and accent it with one or two maggots. As with step eight, you may need to use superglue gel to adhere the insects. If you want to add further embellishments, like a specimen tag or biohazard label, keep in mind that these items may cover the finger too much, so their placement will need to perfectly planned.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.