Carlisle, PA—Tribal nations seeking the return of their children buried at what was once the nation’s flagship Indigenous assimilation institution, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, may have a new playbook to follow—one that involves the U.S. Army’s cooperation. For the first time this summer, the Army granted the requests of three tribal nations to visit the Carlisle Barracks Post Cemetery—now the site of the U.S. Army War College – to plan for the return of their respective children who were among the nearly 200 who died and were buried while students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
AP
In this May 6, 2016, file photo, Russell Eagle Bear, the historic preservation officer for the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, stands in his office in in Rosebud, S.D. A group of tribes pushing to place Pe Sla, a site that s sacred to the Great Sioux Nation, into a federal trust has come up against the state of South Dakota. The state in April appealed a federal decision to take the land purchased by the tribes into trust. (AP Photo/Regina Garcia Cano, File)
The remains of 10 children who died at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Cumberland County between 1880 and 1910 are slated to be exhumed this summer.