Remains of three people repatriated to Fort Belknap Indian Community

On Thursday, September 19, 2024, the Fort Belknap Indian Community welcomed home the remains of three young people who died in a boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania more than 100 years ago.

The three people:

Thursday's event brought mixed emotions throughout the Fort Belknap community, with the return of the remains bringing a sense of closure, but also serving as a heavy reminder of all the Native children taken from their families. During its operations from 1879 to 1918, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School had more than 10,000 Native American children enrolled.

The gathering in Fort Belknap was organized by The Fort Belknap TIWAHE, which delivers services to children and families in the community through the integration of Tribal practices and traditions. TIWAHE’s cultural coordinator Retina Longknife says, “There are many, many of our children taken against Our parents will go to these boarding schools and many of them never saw home again. So these children are going to see home. Their spirits are going to rest at home”.

Almeda Heavyhair was identified to be in relation to all descendants of Lamebull, and will be laid to rest, finally, at the Lamebull Family Cemetery. The families of Bishop Shield and John Bull were not able to be identified, but the Fort Belknap community considers them all family. Their burial will be at traditional burial grounds by Dry Lake.

Joan Johnson is the program manager for TIWAHE’s Sovereign Eagle Juvenile Justice Program. She explains, “They’re home and that's the most important thing. They rightfully belong here. I'm just real thankful to the creator for blessing us with this day”.

A fourth child belonging to the Fort Belknap community and a member of the Nakota tribe, Solomon Brown, was unfortunately left behind in Pennsylvania due to his resting place in the cemetery being unknown at this time.

Fort Belknap Deputy Tribal Preservation Officer Emma Filesteel explains, “It was very heartbreaking for them, you know, to have to leave him behind. But I just want everyone to know right now, we're working hard and we're going to start working even harder to try to get him home sooner than later”.

After a year long process working with the Office of Army Cemeteries, a delegation from Fort Belknap went to retrieve the remains from Pennsylvania, and drove them cross country where they were welcomed home with open arms, with a police escort followed by a caravan of cars and cheering community members, escorting the remains to the wake at Hays-Lodgepole High School.

Longknife says, “We are still here as Native Americans. We are still here and I know I, for one, am very, very grateful for that. And I pray for our future generations always that they will always have a home. They will have a home to come to”.

Their repatriation work is far from over. The Fort Belknap Tribal Historic Preservation Office has been reaching out to other boarding schools, education and medical institutions looking for their lost children. Filesteel says, “I don't honestly think our repatriation work is going to be done in our lifetime, any time soon, just because of all our ancestors that are in these medical and educational institutions”.

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(APRIL 10, 2024) The U.S. Army announced Wednesday that the remains of 11 children, including three from a north-central Montana tribe will be disinterred and returned to family later this year.

This is the seventh year the Army has exhumed the remains of Native American children buried at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania and returned them to family.

According to the Army, all the children were buried more than 100 years ago.

The 11 children are from six tribes and are identified as:

• Almeda Heavy Hair, Gros Ventre Tribe of the Fort Belknap Indian Community
• Bishop L. Shield, Gros Ventre Tribe of the Fort Belknap Indian Community
• John Bull, Gros Ventre Tribe of the Fort Belknap Indian Community
• Fanny Chargingshield, Oglala Sioux Tribe
• James Cornman, Oglala Sioux Tribe
• Samuel Flying Horse, Oglala Sioux Tribe
• Leonidas Chawa, Pechanga Band
• Albert Mekko, Seminole Nation of Oklahoma
• Alfred Charko, Wichita and Affiliated Tribes
• Kati Rosskidwits, Wichita and Affiliated Tribes
• William Norkok, Eastern Shoshone Tribe

The Office of Army Cemeteries will begin disinterment in September. The Army Corps of Engineers will provide forensic archaeological and anthropological expertise.

Office of Army Cemeteries

Families and tribes will choose the final resting place for these children. The Army covers the cost of family traveling to witness the disinterment, transport of the remains and reinterment.

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School operated between 1879 and 1918. During that period more than 10,000 Native American children were enrolled there, representing some 50 tribal nations.

In September of 2023, a Blackfeet child who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was disinterred. The U.S. Army returned Launey Short's remains to their family in a dignified transfer.

In January the Fort Peck Tribes signed claims requesting two members of the tribe taken to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School be disinterred and returned to the reservation.

Peter Howe died at the age of 16 from tuberculosis at the Carlisle School in June of 1896. Christine Redstone, who was taken to Carlisle at age 6, died of tuberculosis at the age of 24 in July of 1899.

According to the Fort Peck Tribes, the earliest these remains may be disinterred and repatriated is September of 2026.

In September 2023, the remains of a Blackfeet child who died more than 100 years ago at an Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania was returned; click here for details.