In the past, people were buried along rivers or trails where people traveled. As a result, many graves have been washed away by the changing current of the river, or by natural erosion of the river banks.
The burial markers used by the Dene Tha’ in more recent time are called Spirit Houses, or “Dene K’ih Koanh.” These houses are placed on the grave in a ceremony one year after the actual burial. It was thought that the introduction of the Spirit Houses came from the Crees.
Is has only been relatively recently (the last 150-200 years) that people were buried with any type of grave marker, and more recently still (last 100 years) that Spirit Houses were used to mark burial sites. Bodies were sometimes put into the trees to be “taken” by the birds, or they were put into hollowed-out logs. Often they were wrapped in canvas or tarps and placed in shallow graves in the ground.
People died in great numbers when the “white” sicknesses, such as smallpox, measles and mumps, came to the area. Only the strongest people survived these epidemics.