LOST IN TIME

Remains of 10 Native American Children Who Died at Boarding School Will Finally Be Returned to Their Families

The children attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where they were subjected to harsh treatment and forced assimilation.

A group of archaeologists have begun disinterring the bodies of 10 Native American children who died at a U.S. boarding school more than 100 years ago, the Associated Press reported. The project began on Saturday at a cemetery on the site of Carlisle Barracks, which contains more than 180 graves of students who attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School, a government-run school for Native American children in Pennsylvania. The school opened in 1857 after being founded by an Army officer and as many as 10,000 children attended it before the facility was shuttered in 1918. Students faced harsh treatment and disease at the school and were forced to assimilate by cutting their braids and speaking English. The disinterment project will cost the Army roughly $500,000 per year, which will include transporting and reburying the remains after a special ceremony to reunite the deceased children with their family members. “Our objective is to reunite the families with their children in a manner of utmost dignity and respect,” said Karen Durham-Aguilera, executive director of Army National Military Cemeteries, Rapid City Journal reported.