Hallowed Ground

People from all cultures honor their dead through burial traditions and rituals. The national parks contain burial sites and resting places that provide insight into cultural practices during that time and give us the opportunity to pause and reflect on the lives of people lost. Manhattan’s African Burial Ground is the oldest and largest excavated burial ground in North America for free and enslaved Africans. Effigy mounds from Oklahoma to Minnesota provide some understanding of how the Native Americans celebrated their dead. A number of sites include Civil War burials, such as San Francisco National Cemetery or Antietam National Battlefield. Explore sites and stories of burials and cemeteries in national parks.