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Regents Haskell, professor call for radar search of development site for unmarked graves • Kansas Reflector

Regents Haskell, professor call for radar search of development site for unmarked graves • Kansas Reflector

LAWRENCE — The Haskell Indian Nations University Board of Regents and a distinguished professor of indigenous studies have urged developers of a proposed commercial and residential project to deploy ground-penetrating radar on the site to look for children who may be buried in unmarked graves.

In the late 1880s and early 1900s, Native American children from many tribes were transferred to an off-reservation boarding school in Lawrence, known as the Haskell Institute, in an attempt to strip them of their tribal identity and assimilate them into white culture. Haskell was part of a federal school system where children suffered physical and emotional abuse. Students who died in boarding schools were buried in cemeteries or in unmarked places.

The proposed New Boston Crossing project would cover 175 acres south of the Haskell campus, near the Wakarusa River. Following a review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a redesign of the development plan was necessary to reduce impacts to wetlands. The original plan was approved in 2023 by the Lawrence City Commission and the city-county planning commission, despite environmental and cultural objections.

Landplan Engineering of Lawrence, which is working on New Boston Crossing, presented elements of a new plan for the business district and single-family homes, townhouses and apartments at a public meeting this week.

Brittany Hall, president of the Haskell National Board of Regents, said in an interview that Haskell’s board has required developers to use ground-penetrating radar to search for the bodies of children who might be buried in unmarked locations in the construction zone. The board said the fact-finding investigation should be overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in cooperation with tribal nations.

“Native children used the Wakarusa River corridor as a way to escape the Haskell Institute,” Hall said.

Dan Wildcat, a professor of Native and American Indian studies at Haskell, said Wichita-based developers have an obligation to engage with hundreds of tribes — not just the four recognized tribes in Kansas — to collect information about children who have never returned to home of the Haskell Institute.

Those conversations should occur before city, state and federal authorities allow heavy construction equipment to transform this part of the river valley, he added.

“You know, we’ve heard stories about missing children,” Wildcat said. “We don’t know if they ever made it home. We have received information from tribes in the past. They believe they have children or people associated with their tribes who may be in the area, in an unmarked burial of course.

He said he was skeptical that government agencies would direct a development company to implement radar technology to search for possible burial sites unless the tribes were under pressure.

Brittany Hall, president of Haskell's National Board of Regents, said Haskell's board has required the company seeking to develop 175 acres in the Wakarusa River floodplain to commit to using ground-penetrating radar to search for children who might be buried in unmarked locations in construction zone. She attended a public meeting about the investment with her son Mateo. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Spotlight)
Brittany Hall, president of the Haskell National Board of Regents, said the board required a company seeking to develop 175 acres in the Wakarusa River floodplain to use ground-penetrating radar to search for the bodies of children forcibly transferred to the Haskell Institute for decades who may have been buried in unmarked locations in the construction zone. She attended a public meeting about the project with her son Mateo. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Spotlight)

Native artifacts

During a briefing on the project, an archaeological consultant who conducted random inspections of the proposed construction site at the request of the Kansas State Historic Preservation Office said he found stone chips and discarded tools in several places.

Tod Bevitt of Buried Past Consulting in Oskaloosa said his limited inspection of the property “did not find any bodies.”

“We went out and searched and found a lot of cultural resources. We found several scatters of pre-contact prehistoric artifacts,” Bevitt said. “From my point of view, I wouldn’t want anything to hit, disturb and destroy – especially – places where human remains are buried. If something like this exists, it is a very big concern.”

Bevitt said that if human remains are discovered during construction, state law requires information to be turned over to law enforcement immediately.

Haskell Indian Nations University maintains an on-campus cemetery containing more than 100 graves of children who died during the early years of the Lawrence Boarding School, which opened in 1884.

In 2022, the U.S. Department of the Interior released a preliminary report indicating that American Indian boarding schools were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of students between 1869 and 1969. Department of Internal Affairs boarding school final report in July, at least 973 American Indian, Alaska Native and Hawaiian children were confirmed to have died while attending federal Indian boarding schools.

Last week, President Joe Biden apologized to Native communities across the country for the role the U.S. government played in the creation and operation of the residential school system.

Wetland encroachment

Phil Struble, president of Landplan Engineering, said the revised preliminary siting and zoning applications to be considered by the city of Lawrence will reduce the area of ​​wetlands disturbed by construction to just over 3 acres from the original 7.5 acres. The development site is located southeast of the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 and South Lawrence Trafficway.

“We believe we have made real progress in mitigating the area of ​​wetlands that we have disturbed as part of this project,” Struble said. “The project still has a lot of work to do.”

The Lawrence/Douglas County Planning Commission and the Lawrence City Commission must review the revised plans, which must also be considered by the federal Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Kansas state agencies.

State Sen. Marci Francisco, a Democrat representing Lawrence, expressed concern about the environmental consequences of buildings in the Wakarusa floodplain and the impact of a major development in an area that may contain unmarked debris.

She said the risk of locating homes in flood-prone areas became clear during the recent disastrous storms that hit North Carolina. The commercial components of the New Boston Crossing development will likely result in more empty storefronts in other parts of Lawrence, she added.

“I think that just as you avoid flood plains, you should avoid the cemetery,” the senator said. “Especially a cemetery where there are so many questions and concerns about Haskell.”