This part of the website contains names of children who died while part of Carlisle Indian School’s outing program and who remained interred in numerous cemeteries throughout Pennsylvania.
There are also names of children who died while at the Lincoln Institution and who remain interred in the Woodlands Cemetery or the Fernwood Cemetery in Philadelphia.
We have investigated the deaths and burials of these children and know there are more out there. We do know there are children from the Lincoln Institution buried in unmarked plots at the Fernwood Cemetery, a private cemetery in Philadelphia.
The table below includes names of students from Carlisle’s outing program who died while they were on outing and are buried in various locations throughout Pennsylvania and possibly New Jersey.
The table also includes names of students who died while at the Lincoln Institution and are interred at The Woodlands Cemetery or the Fernwood Cemetery in Philadelphia.
The table is incomplete as new names are periodically added.
|
Name
|
Lincoln
|
Carlisle
|
|---|---|---|
|
Warren Clute
|
✖
|
|
|
Elmer Sewell
|
✖
|
|
|
Edward Moore
|
✖
|
|
|
Henry Peake
|
✖
|
|
|
Charlie/Charles/Chas Fisher
|
✖
|
✖
|
|
Samuel Porter
|
✖
|
|
|
Adelbert Williams
|
✖
|
✖
|
|
Alphonso/Alfonso/Eolista/o/v
|
|
✖
|
|
Thomas Billings
|
✖
|
|
|
Joseph Norcross
|
Possibly
|
|
|
Levi Charles
|
Possibly
|
|
|
Henry Irondoor
|
✖
|
|
|
Abraham Neck
|
✖
|
|
|
Jno/John Frenchman
|
Possibly
|
|
|
John Robinson Longwolf
|
Possibly
|
|
|
Haines Harold G.B
|
✖
|
|
|
Eddie/Edward/Edw Bucktooth
|
✖
|
|
|
Rowland Mott Roubideux
|
✖
|
|
|
Philip C Roubideux
|
✖
|
|
|
Charlie Hill/Hall
|
✖
|
|
|
Thomas Deer
|
✖
|
|
|
Alexander Ephraim
|
|
✖
|
|
Ealy Taylor
|
|
✖
|
|
Charles Paisano
|
|
✖
|
|
John Walking Pipe
|
|
✖
|
|
Jacob Jackson
|
|
✖
|
|
Simon E. Johnson
|
|
✖
|
|
Name
|
Lincoln
|
Carlisle
|
|---|---|---|
|
Angie Jordan
|
✖
|
|
|
Fannie Keirk/Kirk
|
✖
|
|
|
Frankie Bear
|
✖
|
✖
|
|
Ella Fisher
|
Possibly
|
|
|
Annie Afraid of Bear
|
✖
|
|
|
Etta Springer
|
✖
|
|
|
Margaret Billings
|
Possibly
|
|
|
Nettie Hansel/Roubideaux
|
✖
|
✖
|
|
Sophia Dahwadtes
|
✖
|
|
|
Louisa Farnham
|
✖
|
|
|
Sophia Smith
|
✖
|
|
|
Mattie/Mattee Nason
|
Possibly
|
|
|
Hattie Blackchief
|
✖
|
|
|
Jeannie Ironnest
|
✖
|
|
|
Hattie Charco
|
✖
|
✖
|
|
Mabel Block/Bloch/Black
|
Possibly
|
|
|
Marie Hutchinson
|
|
✖
|
|
Flora Patterson
|
|
✖
|
|
*Nora Printup
|
|
✖
|
|
Libbie Standing
|
|
✖
|
|
Pauline Peazonni
|
|
✖
|
|
Alice Peazonni
|
|
✖
|
|
Gertrude Spotted Tail
|
|
✖
|
|
Unknown
|
|
✖
|
|
*Possibly sent home for burial.
|
||
Through our extensive research piecing together and cross referencing archival documents and consulting with Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, we have identified where many of the children came from. However, in many cases we have only found general descriptions of communities such as “Sioux,” it’s not always evident which present-day community they belong to, complicated by removal policies and changing student Indigenous names.
Shaking the Clouds has identified the Nations for most of the names listed above, although there are likely discrepancies due to limited and inaccurate archival information. We hope relatives will be able to assist with filling in missing information.
This link will take you to an interactive Storymap created in collaboration with The Woodlands Cemetery. It contains information on the Lincoln Institution and names and burial locations for Indigenous children interred at The Woodlands and Fernwood Cemeteries.
*Please note that there are photos of gravesites and descriptions of burial details.
Coming soon…
For Indigenous relatives and community members, access our Password Protected Database for more information about the names listed here.
**Until our Password Protected Database is complete, you may email us at: ShakingtheClouds@gmail.com to find out more about your relatives.
*To uphold and honor Indigenous Data Sovereignty, Indigenous relatives and community members are given priority in accessing the information we have curated here.*
Additional information includes archival sources related to who they were, where they were from (as best as we can ascertain), and in some cases, who their relatives were. Archives include:
Death certificates, cemetery registers, newspaper clippings, school records including registration, annual reports, outing reports, letters and school newspapers. Data has been curated from various sources including: Cumberland County Historical Society, Army Heritage and Education Center, National Archives and Records Administration, Pennsyvlania Historical Society, American Philosophical Society, U.S. Census, Newspapers.com, Ancestry.com, FindAGrave.com, Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center, and New Hampton Museum.
In 2018 I was supported by a contract from the National Native American Boarding School Coalition (NABS), to continue my research into finding Carlisle’s children who died while on outings and who were not sent home or buried in the school cemetery.
I walked through six different cemeteries in PA and NJ looking for ten children. I couldn’t locate them all, most were interred in unmarked graves, while a few had headstones of some kind.
This work has evolved over the years to include other Indian boarding schools, other cemeteries, more children. I know there are more outing burials, and more children who died and whose remains are still far from their homelands, families, and communities.
25 Indigenous children who attended the Lincoln Institution, died, and were buried at the Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia. While searching for Carlisle’s outing burials, I received a list of children’s names, internment dates, and lot numbers of children who died while at the Lincoln Institution and were buried at the Woodlands Cemetery. We had names but no one knew where they were from, who their Nations were, or who their families were.
My first visit to the Woodlands Cemetery was in July 2019.
Amidst tall oak trees in a small area, I spotted a few grave markers poking out of the ground, mostly sunken into the earth, mossy green and blackened by a century of weather and neglect. Those that hadn’t sunk completely into the ground were no longer legible. No names to read. No shiny marble stones tended by family. I brushed off the soil, pushed the grassy edging aside, hoping for some indication of who lay beneath.
I lay down tobacco and offered my prayers for the children and for their relatives who never got to say goodbye. I wept. And when it started to rain, I sat on the lush green grass under a large oak tree overlooking the lot. And I wept some more.
~ White, L. “A mother’s prayer.” Indian Country Today Media Network, 2021.
Finding out where these children’s homes were has proven very difficult. The Woodlands Cemetery registry only lists names and dates of internment but no Nations, making it impossible to tell where these children came from and who their current relatives and communities are. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania and other archival locations revealed Annual Reports indicating names and Nations but several reports are missing.
Lincoln annual reports and written accounts do not reflect the same number of children who died and are buried in the cemeteries we have identified. They are grossly undercounted.
For example, the Annual Report in 1892 reported only two deaths in the prior year, stating they were the first in over five years. Yet, there were three deaths in just the previous year, and three more would die in 1892, including one right after the Annual Report was published.