I didn't attend the return of Amos LaFromboise and Edward Upright to their families and tribal members from the cemetery at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School as a journalist, but as the companion of a Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate elder.
Thus I didn't take pictures or notes.
My companion and I noticed a photographer with professional gear taking photos; Mike got his first name, and I remembered the name from the December 2021 Philadelphia Inquirer feature 'I had to be prayed home' highlights Sisseton Wahpeton family, which told the story of Kelley Bashew, who was born Rose Anne Owen in Sisseton and taken from her Sisseton Wahpeton family.
Reporting for Indian Country Today, Fox's superlative photos and copy are online in A final journey home from Carlisle; Two students return to their homelands more than 100 years after leaving for boarding school. From the article:
. . .The two boys had been among an ill-fated group of six Dakota students from Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and Spirit Lake who had come to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania on Nov. 6, 1879. The school had been in existence exactly one month.
In 20 days, Amos was dead — the first student to die at the school. There is no record of the case of death, though a newspaper report at the time suggested he was sick when he arrived at the school.
Upright lived about 18 months at the school before dying at age 13. They both were buried far from home for more than 100 years, returning only now to their homelands as part of the U.S. Army’s disinterment project from Carlisle Barracks.
“I always felt that we, as kids, no matter what boarding school, that we weren’t really recognized as even human. We were just there,” said Bob LaFromboise, a relative of Amos and a boarding school survivor himself. . . .
Tribal members, family and others spoke to ICT about the disinterment and reburial process, though ICT agreed ahead of time not to photograph the ceremonies or other sensitive items.
Edward, son of Chief Waanatan II, was only 12 when he arrived at the school. He was a year younger than Amos, and died on May 5, 1881, of pneumonia as he was recovering from the measles. . .
Related posts
- ‘They are important to us’: Remains of Sisseton Wahpeton & Spirit Lake children returning home
- Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate & Spirit Lake Tribe strike historic deal with Army over repatriation of Amos LaFromboise & Edward Upright
- On September 11, US Army began disinterment project to return remains of more children buried at Carlisle to tribal communities
- Update: Amos LaFramboise to be returned to the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, Lake Traverse Reservation from Carlisle Indian School
- SWO archivist: "We are committed to them . . . to bringing them home like the chiefs that they are"
- SWO moves closer to bringing ancestors home from Carlisle Indian School with affidavit signing ceremony
- Video: Return of Our Sisseton-Wahpeton Children
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