Casper, Wyo. • The remains of a Northern Arapaho boy who died attending a government-run boarding school in Pennsylvania about 135 years ago will be returned to a Wyoming reservation.
The body of 10-year-old Little Plume, also called Hayes Vanderbilt, will be exhumed Thursday and returned to the Wind River Reservation, the Casper Star-Tribune reported.
Little Plume was to be reburied last year when the remains of 15-year-old Little Chief, also known as Dickens Nor, and 14-year-old Horse, also called Horace Washington, were returned. All three died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Archaeologists for the Army National Military Cemeteries could not identify Little Plume’s remains at the time. The remains were later verified through new information and research, the Army said Monday.
Little Plume, Little Chief and Horse attended the school in the early 1880s. The school founded by an Army officer forced students to cut their braids, dress in uniforms, speak English and adopt European names.
Officials are planning to exhume and return the remains of three more children. George Ell of the Blackfeet tribe, Herbert Little Hawk of the Oglala Sioux and Her Pipe Woman, also known as Dora Brave Bull, of the Standing Rock Sioux are planned to be reburied.
“The Army’s commitment remains steadfast to the four Native American families whose sacrifice is known to only a few,” said Karen Durham-Aguilera, executive director of Army National Military Cemeteries. “Our objective is to reunite the families with their children in a manner of utmost dignity and respect.”
Northern Arapaho tribal officials declined to comment Monday.
