Resolutions and Petitions

Date: March 31, 2016
Petition Organizer: The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
In Cooperation With: The Northern Arapaho and the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Nations

We the undersigned, Petition the US Army War College, the Secretary of Defense, and the Commander in Chief of the United States of America to repatriate the remains of Native American students buried at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School Cemetery, now the US Army War College. The following legislation requires all Federal entities to comply with the request for repatriation:

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 
Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law enacted on 16 November 1990. The Act requires federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding[1]  which has possession or control over Native American human remains and associated funerary objects to compile an inventory of such items and, to the extent possible based on information possessed by such Federal agency, identify the geographical and cultural affiliation of such item and upon request of a known lineal descendant of the Native American or of the tribe, return such Native American remains to the lineal descendants and culturally affiliated Indian tribe.

We support the requests from the Northern Arapaho Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, and any other tribes, to repatriate the remains of their relatives who are interred at the Army War College, also known as the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

Repatriation is a small yet essential part of healing the trans-generational wounds inflicted upon families and individuals through the US Boarding School experience. The Army War College is required by law to complete an inventory of the remains and to comply with these requests for repatriation.

By signing this petition, we join the “Call to Repatriate” Carlisle Indian Students buried at the cemetery who deserve to go home and to receive a proper, culturally-relevant burial. The relatives of these children are entitled to have the remains returned so that they may grieve and heal from their loss in whatever way they choose and not have to travel all the way to Carlisle, PA to visit them. Nor should they be subjected to any further grieving resulting from having their loved ones identified as a tourist attraction for the Army War College.