Repatriation of Remains Begins in the U.S.
Recently, the Ogallala Sioux tribe in South Dakota brought back home for burial the remains of nine of their children who were buried for over 140 years at the Carlisle Indian School in eastern Pennsylvania. It is estimated that around 180 children are buried on this school’s campus. The AP reports:
The remains of nine Native American children who died more than a century ago while attending a government-run school in Pennsylvania meant to assimilate them into white culture have been returned to their South Dakota tribe for burial on its reservation.
Some of the children will be reburied in a veterans' cemetery on the reservation and others will be interred at family graveyards, tribal officials said.
The report goes on to say:
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced a nationwide investigation into the boarding schools that attempted to assimilate Indigenous children into white society... The federal government will investigate its past oversight of Native American boarding schools and work to “uncover the truth about the loss of human life and the lasting consequences” of the institutions, which over the decades forced hundreds of thousands of children from their families and communities, Haaland announced Tuesday.
It is only fitting and right that these children be returned to their families for burial and to help in the healing process for tribal members. We as Indigenous Christians must do all we can in these challenging times to minister God’s grace to the hurting and represent Christ in a way He should have been represented all along; with love, grace, and expressions of tangible help to the families who are reburying their ancestors. How we as believers respond today in our Native communities will go a long way to show the real character of Christ, as reflected in the lives of us as His committed followers today.
Let’s never forget to pray earnestly during this tragic season that the God of all comfort will comfort those in need, and that His Church will rise to the occasion to be salt and light in these dark days. Nothing less is expected of us, brothers and sisters!
Craig Smith