Graveside Services Mark Week Of Homecoming
The barracks at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, housed Native American students from Indian reservations and tribal designated places in the U.S. between 1879-1918. As many as 8,000 students attended the boarding school from more than 140 tribes, including tribes on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, as part of a government program that separated them from their families, languages and culture. Many children never made it home, their remains unclaimed and often unidentified.
Among these, the remains of Peter Howe, Richard Morgan and Christine Redstone have been the focus of a decades long process of disinterment and repatriation by area residents, family members and officials. On Monday, Aug. 31, descendants and tribal leaders gathered at Carlisle to begin a final journey back to their home communities on the reservation.
The caravan carrying Howe, Morgan and Redstone from Pennsylvania was greeted at Big Muddy Creek on the eastern edge of the reservation Tuesday, Sept. 8, where an honor song was sung by Dana Buckles and prayers were offered.
Michael Redstone told the Northern Plains Independent that she was elated to mark the homecoming of her “grandma Christine.” “It felt so good to welcome her home,” said Redstone. “When we crossed that bridge over the Big Muddy, I was so happy to see everyone and felt so relieved that finally, they are home where they belong. The effort to bring the children home was at least 20 years of work. It was slow going because there was a bureaucratic process that was pretty hard to cut through.”
Fort Peck Tribes Cultural Preservation director Dyan Youpee was instrumental in bringing the children back to the reservation. She told NPI that Redstone family members were remarkable for their courage and for their contributions to planned wakes and funeral feeds. Youpee said she credits her late father, Darrell “Curley” Youpee, for his decades long work on repatriation efforts generally and specifically at Carlisle. She credits Tommy Christian, Dylan Youpee and Mike Turcotte, “for keeping me grounded in traditional protocols and coming with me to Carlisle.” She also credits her husband, Melvin Scott, who she said was consistently by her side.
Redstone told NPI that she credits the late Ken Ryan for involving her in the project. “I got involved in 2019 when Ken Ryan came to me and told me about Christine, who was my close relative and was still buried in Carlisle. After that conversation, she weighed heavy on my mind. I knew that she wanted to come home.”
Redstone said Curley and Dyan Youpee were responsible for seeing the repatriation effort through to conclusion. “If it had not been for Dyan and her father Curley’s work, we would have never gotten this done,” she said.
The agenda for the week-long homecoming included a community feed Tuesday at Legion Park in Poplar for volunteers and supporters. A tipi was raised and a fire started to house Morgan and Howe’s remains, with tribal leaders keeping vigil.
Redstone relation Lance Fourstar told NPI that Tuesday’s activities ran into the early hours of Wednesday morning. “We were up late putting up tipis,” Fourstar said. “They brought the two boys and we had a little portable fire pit that we put in the middle and started a fire.” He said his cousin Sasha Fourstar stayed with Morgan and Howe throughout the night. Other tribal leaders present included former Fort Peck Tribes’ chairman Justin Gray Hawk Sr., Veterans Affairs director Medicine Bear Lone Warrior, Michael Turcotte, director Youpee and Melvin Scott and Michael Black Wolf with the Fort Belknap preservation office.
On Wednesday, graves were dug for Morgan and Howe at a repatriation cemetery near Poplar Municipal Airport and burial ceremonies were held, followed by a memorial feed. A community procession included riders on horseback, local students and a firetruck.
“We brought them out, and there were songs that were sung, and then we put them into the ground and the people had an opportunity to help bury the two boys,” Fourstar said.
Thursday began with services for Christine Redstone emceed by Tommy Christian at the Freda Fourstar Community Center in Frazer. A procession to the burial site in Oswego followed services, with songs and prayers offered. Family members assisted with the interment and attendees returned to the community center in Frazer for a feed and talks from Lance Fourstar and Jonny BearCub Stiffarm. A feed was also hosted by the Wolf Point Community Organization Sunday evening at the community hall in Wolf Point.
Redstone said she had anxieties as the repatriation dates approached, but relatives and tribal leaders handled the details impeccably. “One of my worries was that the children were not given the right care when they were buried, but when we got home, it was truly a relief to know that they were buried with proper care and the love they deserved,” she said. “This does close a chapter for me, but this process has shown me that repatriation is a long battle and will go on for as long as it takes to return what was taken from the Fort Peck Tribes.”
