She died at an Indian boarding school 126 years ago. Now, she’s home in Nevada

One hundred and twenty-six years after she died at an East Coast boarding school established to force her assimilation into white American culture, the remains of 17-year-old Della Tuscarora Atkins returned home to her Nevada tribe this week.

Nevada officials, Shoshone-Paiute tribal members and Atkins’ family gathered for her burial on the Duck Valley Reservation, which straddles the border of Nevada and Idaho about 100 miles northwest of Elko.

“No person, especially a child, should go through this,” said Stacey Montooth, executive director of the Nevada Department of Native American Affairs. “And yet they did, she did. We owe it to the federal government and to ourselves to correct that grave wrong, and we are doing that today.”

The Duck Valley Reservation was the setting of a Las Vegas Review-Journal investigation into a cancer cluster tied to hydrocarbon plumes under a tribal school that was eventually replaced.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the U.S. government sent Native American children hundreds or thousands of miles away from their communities to attend what were called Indian boarding schools.

It was a systemic attempt to eliminate Native American culture and languages from society in an attempt to “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” — a direct quote from the U.S. Army captain who founded the school where Atkins attended.

The Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School in Pennsylvania, where Atkins lived for 13 days until she died of brain cancer, was the nation’s first federally funded, off-reservation boarding school. It operated from 1879 to 1918, and 232 children, or 3 percent of its students, died while in attendance, according to Dickinson College.

In Nevada, the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum in Carson City honors the history of the state’s most prominent government-run boarding school for Native Americans.

Ancestor reburied on Nevada reservation

Atkins, who was part of the Shoshone tribe, arrived at the Carlisle school in December 1900, according to the press release.

She died 13 days later, according to records the tribe cited from Dickinson College and the Cumberland County Historical Society, and her death was blamed on complications associated with advanced brain cancer and other health problems.

Atkins’ remains were buried at the site, and her family never heard of her passing due to a discrepancy in how records spelled her name, a news release said.

Her family traveled more than 2,000 miles to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Army presented them with gifts in a transfer ceremony. Montooth, on behalf of the family and the state of Nevada, delivered her eulogy.

In a statement, the Atkins family said clouds from dust devils formed to the west of the ceremony as Atkins’ body arrived. To them, it was their ancestors dancing, they said.

“This opportunity is truly a once-in-a-lifetime event to rectify that error and bring Della back to where Creator originally intended her to be, at home,” the statement said. “While this whole situation has been difficult to process, through our prayers and community, we are seeing this as a time of celebration and joy.”

The family added: “We never expected to be a part of such a movement but through it all, we realize that we all are tied into reconciliation and the healing of this great trauma. Bringing Della home is just the start for us here.”