The remains of Della Tuscarora Atkins, a 17-year-old Shoshone girl, have been returned to her descendants at Nevada’s Duck Valley Indian Reservation, 126 years after she died at Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School in Pennsylvania.
The Tribe said Atkins arrived at Carlisle on Dec. 12, 1900, and died 13 days later, on Christmas Day, from complications of advanced brain cancer. Misspellings in her name meant her family was not notified; living relatives were later located and verified.
Atkins’ descendants said this was the first time one of their relatives’ remains had returned from an Indian boarding school, and described bringing her home as a chance to correct an error. She is one of 12 children who died at Carlisle being repatriated to their tribes in the Army’s ninth round, which will conclude in October. The school operated from 1879 to 1918; 190 Native people died there.
