This fall, the remains of an Eastern Shoshone boy were brought back to the Wind River Reservation from the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. William Neikok arrived at the boarding school in 1881 when he was 8 and died there 11 years later from tuberculosis. He was one of many Native children taken from their homes and separated from their culture during the assimilation era.
During that time, there were hundreds of government-funded and often church-run Indian boarding schools throughout the country. At the schools, children couldn’t use their own language or names, and couldn’t practice their religion or culture. They also experienced physical, cultural, spiritual and sexual abuse, which has resulted in ongoing intergenerational trauma that still impacts Native communities today.
This is the seventh year that remains from Carlisle have been returned, with 10 other children going home to tribes across the country this year. Neikok is the first child to return home to the Eastern Shoshone Tribe. The Northern Arapaho Tribe was part of the first repatriation efforts at Carlisle in 2017 and also brought a relative, Beau Neal, home from the school last year.
John St. Clair is the former chairman of the Eastern Shoshone Business Council. Neikok would have been his uncle. St. Clair traveled to Carlisle with other members of the tribe to help bring his relative home. Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann sat down with St. Clair at his kitchen table to hear about that process.
Editor’s note: This interview was edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
John St. Clair: I think it was the second day that we were there, the casket was opened and the remains were taken out. The tribal members actually witnessed the whole process. It took about five hours. Because of the time that had passed and the condition of the soil – it's a moist area, Pennsylvania, they had to be very careful in taking the remains out.
The spiritual leader Arlen Shoyo was with us, and as the process went forward, he offered cedaring and prayers and tobacco along the way, during the whole process of disinterment.
[Neikok] was wrapped in a muslin cloth and placed in the cedar box that the Army had made. And there was also a buffalo hide and Pendleton blanket that was placed in the box. He was then journeyed home on the 28th of September.
Hannah Habermann: At the funeral and feast for William before he was buried at the [Sacajawea] cemetery, how were people feeling and what emotions came up for you?
JSC: What I observed and felt from the people was a feeling of relief, because he had been brought home and buried in the area where he was raised. And I think one person said, ‘Now he can rest.’
HH: A few weeks ago, Pres. Biden formally apologized for the government's role in boarding schools, calling it a “sin on our souls.” For you, what was on your mind when you heard that apology?
JSC: That's a good first step in the right direction. The boarding schools [were] just one aspect of assimilation and there's these other areas of assimilation – the General Allotment Act, the churches, the court system. And even going back further – physical extermination, the wars, and decimation of the buffalo – those things, there should be some apology for that, too, because that had a major effect on the existence of tribes.
At the turn of the [19th] century, there [were] less than a million Native Americans in this country. And when the Europeans came, there was estimated to be about 10 million. We were almost wiped out completely. We’ve begun to recover, not because of anything the white man has done. It's because of our resilience.
When we were prohibited from, say, having the Sun Dance and doing our religious things, that didn't stop completely. It just kind of went underground.
Those things continued, and I think that's the resiliency of tribal members – to not only preserve their culture, but to preserve their existence, because it's important that we be who we are, and that's all we want.
HH: Can you talk a little bit about your own connection to boarding schools?
JSC: When I went to boarding school, it wasn't really exactly like it was back at the turn of the century or before. There was still an emphasis on assimilation and acculturation, like learning trades and learning to become a citizen, an American citizen.
So that was still emphasized, but I believe that at the same time, when I was in school, cultural activities were not prohibited. You were allowed to be an Indian when I went to boarding school.
It wasn't really in the boarding school, but it was at the same time: a government policy of relocation, they called it. A lot of the students I went to Haskell with, after they finished there, they went on relocation.
They were located in cities to live after they got their education at Haskell. Then their next step was for them to go live in Los Angeles or Minneapolis or Chicago, and then the Bureau of Indian Affairs kind of helped them along to make it. That was still a form of assimilation that carried down into the ’50s and ’60s.
But what I noticed about those individuals that went on relocation, they always came back in the summertime for the religious ceremonies of the tribe and the social ceremonies of the tribe.
They always maintained that connection. I've noticed about our people, their resiliency about their heritage. And so that's a good thing.
Today, we see kind of a resurgence of Native culture throughout the country with our people. Our tribe here has one of the largest powwows in this area. We get Natives from all over the Western states and Canada to attend the powwows.
You see the activities like that growing. That's healing too. That's a form of healing. Not only us, but everyone needs to heal in this country about the experience with Native people.
Look at what happened. Don't go the way of changing history, like you see in other areas where we just don't want to have it in our books. We don't want to face it, you know. And if that can be changed – I don't know if it can be changed – but that's the way for everyone to heal.
You can cover up things, but the more you cover up, the more people want to know about it.
