WARNING: This story has photos of caskets and contains disturbing details about residential and boarding schools. If you are feeling triggered, here are healing-informed resources from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition in the U.S. The National Indian Residential School Crisis Hotline in Canada can be reached at 1-866-925-4419 or the Lamathut Crisis Line at 1-800-721-0066. If you’re in Treaty 4 territory, call 306-522-7494.
Charles Fox
Special to ICT
FORT PECK, Montana — The last handful of soil drifted through the air and down upon the casket, marking an historic moment in the decades-long quest by the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes to bring home their children.
More than 135 years after leaving home for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Christine Redstone, Peter Howe and Richard Morgan have been reburied under the big sky of Montana, with the whispers of a breeze coming off the Missouri River.
They finally are resting in the earth that contains the echoes of their past.
The three children were part of a group of 43 students who arrived after an 1800-mile journey from Fort Peck to the Pennsylvania school, arriving on April 15,1890. The school, the first federally run off-reservation boarding school, was known for its “kill the Indian, save the man” motto initiated by founder Richard Pratt to suppress Native culture and languages. Nearly 8,000 students attended during its 39 years of existence, and many, like Christine, Peter and Richard, never made it home.
Finally, this year, the three children were repatriated back to their homeland, bringing a lasting impact to their community.
Organizers had stressed in the weeks and months leading up to the homecoming of “the community becoming the family,” and the need to make sure “no child comes home alone.” Family members greeted Christine’s remains, but Richard and Peter do not have living relatives.
The messages translated into reality over three days, producing large processions and caravans, nightly community meals, and children dancing in the headlights of parked cars while preparations were made for all-night vigils.
A community procession to the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes’ repatriation cemetery in Poplar, Montana, includes students from Poplar High School, a fire truck, riders on horseback and vehicles. The remains of three Fort Peck youths – Christine Redstone, Richard Morgan and Peter Howe – who died while attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School more than 100 years ago were repatriated for reburial in September 2026. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT
“It’s been a wonderful time to see the families gather, to give love to one another, for us to laugh, for us to cry, for us to hold close to each other, and for our young people to learn how we’re all related and how all those connections connect to one another…not let it just be a temporary thing, but to strengthen those family ties for future generations,” Jonny BearCub said in her prayer at the service for Christine Thursday, Sept. 10, at the Freda Fourstar Community Hall.
“They (the children) are coming home at an opportune time to remind us that we’re only as strong as our families are strong. We’re only as strong as our tribe is strong. A nation is only as strong as its people,” BearCub continued in her prayer.
‘How fleeting freedom really is’
The level of participation and enthusiasm was especially evident by the procession leading up to the reburial of Howe and Morgan in the tribal repatriation cemetery. Students from Poplar High School ran the distance, while equestrians and a caravan of cars followed closely behind. They were led by an orange fire engine affectionately known as the “Big Orange Pumpkin.”
But the celebratory spirit did not mask the obstacles they overcame to bring the children home.
Well over a decade ago, Darrell “Curley” Youpee, who died in May 2021, and Ken Ryan had tried to initiate bringing Christine home at the family’s request.
For Richard and Peter, the difficulties were greater since they did not have living relatives, a requirement from the Office of Army Cemeteries that has been challenged by tribes in court.
Michael Black Wolf, the tribal historical preservation officer at Fort Berthold, places a star quilt on the casket of Richard Morgan as preparations are underway for an all-night vigil before Morgan’s remains will be rebured. Morgan was one of three Fort Peck youths, also including Christine Redstone and Peter Howe, who died while attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School more than 100 years ago. They were repatriated to their homeland for reburial in September. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT
Finally, the Office of Army Cemeteries agreed to let a tribal representative sign on behalf of enrolled members, and Dyan Youpee, the tribe’s cultural preservation director, was able to bring her late father’s efforts to fruition.
“He set the bar really high to be an anthropologist, an archeologist, historian, museum curator, and an archivist. … I learned to fight harder,” Youpee said.
“For people who never experienced repatriation, there’s the fighting with the agencies to bring [the children] back, the organizing, the planning, and the difficulties of getting different families together,” Youpee told the crowd at Christine’s pre-burial service. “I really fought a lot of battles, and I didn’t win all of them.”
But there was also sadness that many who worked hard for the day and dreamed of seeing the children returned home had passed away.
“I know that Ken [Ryan], my dad, and Lana Fourstar’s grandma and mom, they really wanted to be here and be a part of it,” Youpee said. “There were a lot of people in the community who wanted to witness this, and they’re not here.”
Dyan Youpee, center, the cultural preservation director for the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux and Sioux Tribes, is wrapped in a star quilt on Sept. 10, 2026, by Michael Redstone, left, and Lisa Todd as a thank you for her work to bring Christine Redstone home. Redstone was one of three Fort Peck youths, also including Richard Morgan and Peter Howe, who died while attending the Carlisle Indian Industrial School more than 100 years ago. Dyan Youpee’s father, Darrell “Curley” Youpee, who died in May 2021, initiated efforts to bring Christine home at the family’s request, and Dyan Youpee was finally able to bring her father’s efforts to fruition. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT
While the celebratory spirit and the return of the remains of the three children could bring some healing to families and the tribe, it would never produce closure to a period of Native American history that affected most every Native family and produced generational scars.
“We cannot comprehend the grief that our families went through long ago,” BearCub said as she led those assembled in prayer. “We can only be angry for them. But help us to understand that our rage and our anger that our ancestors felt, and use that as a power to fuel ourselves to be better than those who took our children. Help us to use that rage and anger to make us stronger, to make us more compassionate, to make us be able to understand people who are different from ourselves.”
She continued, “For with the return of our children, we understand how fleeting freedom really is. For in those days, the government came and took them.”
A message to future generations
Peter and Richard are now buried in the tribal repatriation cemetery in Poplar, while Christine lies to the west in the Oswego Catholic Cemetery, where she is reunited with other family members. Both locations are dramatically different from the cemetery at the Carlisle Barracks, where the act of stripping away individuality and culture were taken to a new level after death.
Christine Redstone was 15 years old when she arrived at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School on April 15, 1890. Credit: Courtesy of the National Anthropological Archives/Smithsonian Institution
The students who were not lucky enough to survive Carlisle found themselves represented by identical, white gravestones lined up in straight lines like a formation of soldiers.
At Christine’s wake, Dylan Youpee, one of the spiritual leaders on the journey, described the cemetery and the emotions stirred by the visit.
“You think it’s just a cemetery, something that you see all the time on the side of the road,” Dylan Youpee said. “But when you go around that corner and you see those headstones of all those Indian kids, holy smokes. That lump comes up in your throat and your first reaction is to be sad, is to cry. And then you get another emotion. You get angry. You want to get angry because these people took our kids. These people took our children, brought them all the way over here, 1,800 miles over here, and beat the Indian out of them…Pretty soon you want to leave because of it. You want to leave that place. But then a part of you wants to stay… You want to make sure the relatives are brought back.”
At events over a three-day repatriation period in Montana, various relatives, spiritual and tribal leaders spoke about the experience of visiting the grounds of the former boarding school and the repatriation process. The emotional duress of walking in the footsteps of ancestors, especially those who never made it back home, dominated their talks.
Peter Howe was 16 years old when he arrived at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School on April 15, 1890. Credit: Courtesy of the Cumberland County Historical Society in Carlisle, Pennsylvania
But out of the somber darkness and raw emotions there was the light of inspiration created by the students who endured the experience.
“There were some difficult things that our ancestors went through like those young children dying, separated from their families,” said Barry Bighorn, a member of the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board. “But for the majority of them, they didn’t lose what was inside of them, how they were raised, and they stayed strong. They learned. They succeeded. And that’s what stuck with me, is how, how well they did, how they overcame those difficult circumstances.”
Bighorn said there are lessons for the current generations.
“It’s a reminder to us today,” he said. “It brings that message home to us to love your families, love your children…. A lot of those children [in Carlisle] didn’t get to have that their whole life here. And a lot of the parents didn’t get to have time with their children because they were taken from them … It’s a different world that we live in now. There’s no reason for our children to go away like that anymore. So, consider that a blessing…We’re still here. We still have our identities and our families.”
‘She wanted to come home’
Throughout the homecoming, an inspiring image of Christine began to emerge, though little is known about Peter and not even a photograph can be found of Richard, who died of tuberculosis less than a year after arriving at Carlisle.
“Today, you look around what this young lady [Christine] brought us, it helps us understand the importance of compassion, empathy, caring, sharing, loving, our patience, our generosity,” said Michael Turcotte, who served as master of ceremonies for the reburials. “All these things she’s instilled in us, in our development of our own self.”
The five female relatives of Christine who traveled to Carlisle spoke about how they had gained a clearer image of who Christine was.
Michael Redstone describes how years ago, early in the process, she would imagine Christine.
Michael Redstone, right, receives a hug after the reburial of her relative Christine Redstone at Oswego Catholic Cemetery on the Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Reservation on Sept. 10, 2026. Christine was repatriated home along with Richard Morgan and Peter Howe for reburial. The three died as students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School more than 100 years ago. Credit: Charles Fox/Special to ICT
“I would shut my eyes and I could see the prairie, and I could see that she wanted to come back, and she didn’t want to stay there,” she said. “I had to go back and get her. But, I didn’t know how.”
She learned along the way, with the help of Dyan Youpee. She also learned more about Christine, who spent nine years at Carlisle.
“When I got to Carlisle, I got to learn more about her,” Michael Redstone said. “She became more human to me, and not some ancestor that I’ve never known, but my actual grandma. I got to know her and know that she’s like us. She was a hard worker. She liked to play the mandolin and I’m pretty sure she had a wicked sense of humor… One of my cousins told me that she had a dream about Christine and that all she wanted was to be with her family and to hear a good song.”
But the emotions of Carlisle took their toll.
“I remember calling home three days in, and saying, ‘I’m done. I’m ready. I want to come home,’” Michael Redstone said. “I could just imagine what she had to deal with, being there for so long. But I like to think … the other Fort Peck kids all helped each other and all kept each other going and kept supporting each other.”
She, too, felt the impact of stepping into the cemetery.
“I started to get emotional the minute I walked into the cemetery, and then when I saw where she was buried for myself for the first time… it just hit me, and then it made me cry, and I dropped to my knees, and I just sobbed because it was so overwhelming,” she said.
“After so long, I was finally able to see her there. Like she was there in person.”
Now that the journey has reached its end, there is time for Michael Redstone to reflect and to heal with the hope that one day there will no longer be children in a cemetery in Carlisle.
“It does give me some peace because I feel like there’s a part of me that was missing, and it makes me feel more whole knowing that a member of my family got to come home and gets to rest with our relatives,” Michael Redstone said.
“It gives me some peace to know that she’s home and that she no longer has to be by herself where nobody can visit her and properly mourn her,” she continued. “What a privilege it is to be at the end of your life, to be buried next to your loved ones. There are kids over there that are still waiting. I keep hoping and praying that eventually, that cemetery’s going to be empty. That there’s nobody left there. Everybody’s going to get to go home, and everybody’s going to get to be with their families.”
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