Army open to returning remains of Rosebud Sioux
The children died far from their families, stricken by tuberculosis, flu, and loneliness, buried on the grounds of what was then the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, today the Army War College.
The head of Army cemeteries said in an interview that he's open to meeting American Indian demands to repatriate children's remains, provided talks on the matter prove fruitful and all regulations are met.
"Just like if I was dealing with an individual family member that wanted to conduct a disinterment. What are the family's wishes?" said Patrick Hallinan, executive director of Army National Military Cemeteries.
"We look for a cogent reason to authorize a disinterment, and I believe there's definitely a cogent reason. . . . I think it's incumbent on us to work with them and assist them to carry that out."
That stance marks a reversal for the Army, which in winter denied a Rosebud Sioux request to return 10 tribal children to South Dakota.
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Carlisle opened in 1879 as the first federal Indian boarding school, spawning a fleet of successors that embraced the motto, "Kill the Indian, save the man."
Founder Richard Henry Pratt sought to solve "the Indian problem" by forcing youths to acculturate. He and his Quaker and Christian-missionary allies saw no harm - they thought they were helping to save a vanishing race, and some Indians agreed.
Pratt traveled to Dakota Territory, to Rosebud, where he persuaded Chief Spotted Tail to send several dozen children, and on to Pine Ridge. He promised that the youths would be taught ways to prosper in the white man's world.
The two tribes sent 82 children, many the relatives of chiefs. Later, in the drive to fill Indian boarding schools, children were seized from their families. Some parents on poor reservations were offered a choice: Give up their children, or give up their food rations.
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