GENOA, Neb. (AP) — A grandmother wearing beaded necklaces of bright red, yellow and blue watched Tuesday as archeologists searched a remote site in central Nebraska for the remains of children — including her aunt — who died decades ago at a former Native American boarding school.
The search for a hidden cemetery near the former Genoa Indian Industrial School in Nebraska gained renewed interest after hundreds of children’s remains were discovered at other Native American boarding school sites across the U.S. and Canada in recent years, said Dave Williams, the state’s archeologist whose team is digging at the site.
The dig in Genoa began Monday and is expected to last through the week. Williams said they have yet to uncover any human remains.
“I came today to witness the dig because I had an aunt who died here, Mildred Lowe, in 1930, and she never came home. So I’m here to find out if they find any bones and how we’re going to go about identifying and all of that,” said Carolyn Fiscus, the woman in beads who is a member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.
“As a tribal member and elder and grandma, I’m interested,” Fiscus continued. “I’ve got a lot of spiritual and emotional investment in this. And my mom too, who’s now passed away. That’s why I’m here.”
The school was part of a national system of more than 400 Native American boarding schools that attempted to assimilate Indigenous people into white culture by separating children from their families, cutting them off from their heritage and inflicting physical and emotional abuse.
Newspaper clippings, records and a student’s letter indicate at least 86 students died at the school in Genoa, most due to diseases such as tuberculosis and typhoid. At least one death was blamed on an accidental shooting.
Researchers have identified 49 of the children killed but have not been able to find names for the other 37. The bodies of some of those children were returned to their homes but others…
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