Affidavits help return ancestral tribal remains to Dakotas

AGENCY VILLAGE, S.D. (AP) — Descendants of Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribal leaders will sign the necessary paperwork Saturday (Feb. 19, 2022) to help bring home the remains of their ancestors. Relatives of Amos LaFramboise and Edward Upwright will gather with South Dakota tribal leaders to sign affidavits that will allow the remains of the two young boys to be removed from the Carlisle Indian School cemetery in Pennsylvania and moved to the Dakotas. LaFramboise’s father helped found the Lake Traverse Reservation government in South Dakota. Upwright is the son of Waanatan II, an early tribal chief. The school cemetery is on property owned by the U.S. military which in recent years has given tribes the opportunity with affidavits from living relatives to claim the remains of the 188 Native American children buried there.