The Old Indian Burial Ground in Fiction and Film

Corstorphine, Kevin

Abstract

Indian burial grounds are a staple of American popular culture, and through their representation in fiction and film reach a global audience. In such narratives, ‘old Indian burial grounds’ are built over with houses, hotels, and other such dwellings. The aftereffects of this disrespect to sacred ground usually include hauntings and otherworldly incursions of various types, and the possession of people, objects, or even the structure itself. In this way, the Indian burial ground serves as a fairly obvious (and indeed much-parodied) trope for the dispossession of native peoples and the subsequent cultural guilt of a colonial society. The extent to which these representations have any connection to actual Native American burial and funereal practices is less frequently explored, and the tendency is for such popular culture narratives to draw on this vaguely-defined sense of cursed, or spoiled land, unfit for human habitation but ripe for supernatural happenings. The association of Native Americans with the supernatural has a long and revealing history in settler culture in the US, particularly in the loaded terms of land ownership. This chapter will explore this history from a postcolonial perspective, alongside readings of notable examples of the motif in fiction and film such as The Amityville Horror, Pet Sematary, and Poltergeist, as well as going back to early American fiction such as Washington Irving’s ‘The Devil and Tom Walker.’

Citation

Corstorphine, K. (2024). The Old Indian Burial Ground in Fiction and Film. In E. Parisot, D. McAllister, & X. Aldana Reyes (Eds.), Graveyard Gothic. Manchester: Manchester University Press

• Acceptance Date: Nov 14, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Dec 31, 2023
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Sep 8, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 1, 2025
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Book Title: Graveyard Gothic
• Chapter Number: 15
• ISBN: 9781526166319
• Keywords: Native American; burial ground; bad place; postcolonial; haunted; Amityville; Poltergeist; Pet Sematary; American gothic
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4377544
• Publisher URL: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526166319/graveyard-gothic/