Indigenous children in Oklahoma were forced to travel more than 1,000 miles away from all they had ever known to receive an “American education” at Carlisle Indian Boarding School.
Elementary school-aged children, such as Nannie Little Robe and Jane Lumpfoot, were among nearly 7,800 forcibly shipped off to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Both Little Robe and Lumpfoot never made it home and died while separated from their families.
Cheyenne and Arapaho Governor Reggie Wasanna said he couldn’t imagine the pain their parents and others like them must have felt.
“It would be very tough for someone just to watch their kid taken and then the fact that you don't know if [and] how they died,” he said during a phone interview. “Those kids that may have been out there on some other foreign land… where they weren't really welcomed as true tribal members… and so bringing them home to our traditional and historical homelands is kind of important part of allowing some of this to rest.”
Little Robe and Lumpfoot will finally be laid to rest in their tribal communities in September, along with sixteen other Cheyenne and Arapaho children and young adults — many of whom died of health-related illnesses, such as tuberculosis.
One correspondence from the Carlisle School physician named C. H. Hepburn to the founder of Carlisle, Richard Henry Pratt, reveals the death of a Cheyenne boy, whose remains will be reinterred this fall. His name was Giles.
Hepburn said his cause of death was from “congestion of the lungs.” Giles passed away at 16 on Feb. 19, 1882, after arriving in Carlisle in October 1879.
Wasanna said the tribal nation plans to bury them at an internment cemetery in Concho.
Seminole Nation of Oklahoma leaders will also bring one of their relatives home. His name was Wallace Perryman, and he was 20 years old when he walked on at Carlisle. He died following an abdominal abscess operation, according to correspondences from leaders at Carlisle and the Department of the Interior.
The Office of Army Cemeteries wrote in an email that the disinterment will begin in September and occur in multiple phases. They also noted that the remains of Alfred Charko, a Wichita boy who walked on at Carlisle and was supposed to be reinterred last summer, have still not been identified.
The names of the Seminole and Cheyenne and Arapaho young people who passed away at Carlisle and will return to their homelands were first reported by News 8 in Pennsylvania:
- Wallace Perryman (Seminole) - 20
- Belle Cahoe (Arapaho) - 12
- Wash E. He or Wah She He (Arapaho) - 17
- Tabitha Carroll (Arapaho) - 14
- Jane Lumpfoot (Arapaho) - 10
- Leah Road Traveler - (Arapaho) -18
- Percy Whitebear - (Cheyenne) - 16
- George Harrison (Cheyenne) - 27
- Charles Whiteshield (Cheyenne)
- Matavito Horse (Cheyenne) - 15
- Nannie Little Robe (Cheyenne) - 12
- Dora Morning (Cheyenne) - 13
- Louise Thunder (Cheyenne) - 10
- Giles Hands - Cheyenne) - 16
- Ruben Tanpeds
- Henry Morning (Cheyenne) - 16
- William Sammers
- Abe Lincoln Cheyenne) - 16
- Elsie Davis (Cheyenne) - 16
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
