Since my romantic partner is a Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Dakota elder, I've been following the work by the Oyate to bring the remains onf two tribal members home from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School cemetery.
Both boys are part of the terrible legacy of the Indian boarding school era.
Last September, Bluestem Prairie posted Video: Return of Our Sisseton-Wahpeton Children, about the efforts of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate to bring home two oyate ancestors who perished at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the late nineteenth century.
In February, I posted SWO moves closer to bringing ancestors home from Carlisle Indian School with affidavit signing ceremony. Mike and I attended the event to honor the children and their families, so Bluestem's post was based on Jeremy Turley's reporting for Forum Communications.
At the Fargo Forum Tuesday, Turley reported in Army: Boys’ remains won’t return to Dakotas from notorious Native American boarding school this year:
More than a century ago, administrators at the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania decided to bury the bodies of two young Native American students in a cemetery more than 1,000 miles from their homelands in the Dakota Territory.
To correct this perceived misdeed, members of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and Spirit Lake tribes recently petitioned the federal government to help return the remains of Amos LaFromboise and Edward Upright to the Dakotas so they can lie next to their fathers.
Despite successfully turning in the necessary paperwork this spring to have the boys’ remains exhumed and brought back home, the tribes will likely have to wait another year.
Officials from the U.S. Army, which maintains the Carlisle cemetery, said Amos and Edward will not be returned this year due to insufficient planning time and funding constraints. The boys’ remains are now scheduled to be exhumed next summer.
Tribal leaders are frustrated by the delay and say the Army’s disorganization is to blame. They believe the federal government should pull out the stops to address the historical trauma it has inflicted on Native Americans through boarding schools.
Sisseton Wahpeton tribal historian Tamara St. John, a leader in the repatriation efforts, said the Army is not treating Amos and Edward like loved ones who deserve a proper reburial.
Spirit Lake Tribal Chairman Doug Yankton sent a letter to U.S. Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, both R-N.D., asking their offices to aid the tribes in repatriating Amos and Edward by the end of this summer.
“The indigenous people of this country deserve healing, respect, honesty, and fair dealings,” Yankton wrote in the letter. “The further delay of repatriation of these remains does the opposite, instead sending the message that we are neither valued nor important.”
A Hoeven spokesman said the Republican senator’s office will be reaching out to the Department of Defense “to see if we can get the Department to work with the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and Spirit Lake tribes to return the remains of the tribal members as soon as possible.” . . .
This is truly saddening news.
Photo: The gravestones of Amos LaFromboise and Edward Upright in the cemetery near the site of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School contain spelling errors. Photos provided by the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center.
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