CARLISLE, Pa. — Eleven Native American children will soon be returned to their closest living relatives after being buried more than 100 years at the Carlisle Main Post Cemetery.
“Every child we’re able to return to their tribes, families, and native lands is rewarding," said Renea Yates, the director of the Office of Army Cemeteries.
The Office of Army Cemeteries is undergoing its seventh disinterment project at the cemetery, which acts as the final resting place for more than 130 children who died while attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Among the children being disinterred are: William Norkok from the Eastern Shoshone Tribe; Almeda Heavy Hair, Bishop L. Shield, and John Bull from the Gros Ventre Tribe; Fanny Chargingshield, James Cornman, and Samuel Flying Horse from the Oglala Sioux Tribe; Albert Mekko from the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma; and Alfred Charko and Kati Rosskidwits from the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.
One of the tribes having a child returned to them asked to remain anonymous, according to Yates.
Yates said her team worked throughout the year to get the 11 children connected with their families.
“We were engaged in this process all year long," said Yates. "We take an opportunity to reach out to every federally recognized tribe that has a child interred here, and we work with them throughout the year and those who are ready to have their children returned.”
She said the process is very moving for families looking to be reunited with their loved ones after 100 years.
“It’s a tremendously emotional journey for them, so we start very slowly explaining the process," said Yates.
The students who are being disinterred died between 1880-1910 while attending the Carlisle Indian School. Their ages range between 12 and 26 years old.
“This is both a time of reflection and mourning for the children that were stolen from their families in an effort to assimilate them," said Tasha Mousseau, vice president of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.
Mousseau said she will be in Carlisle to bring Alfred Charko and Kati Rosskidwits home. She said the disinterment will help connect their ancestors back to their tribe and their land.
“The blood of our ancestors is in this dirt, this red dirt of Oklahoma," said Mousseau. "And to have our children reconnect in that way is profound to our people.”
John St. Clair with the Eastern Shoshone Tribe adds that the project acts as an answered prayer for people wanting to see the children of the Carlisle Indian School come back.
“We’re ready to do what is necessary to have their bodies returned here and placed where they should have been all these years," said St. Clair.
The disinterment project will end by October 14.