Names of Native Americans who died at Nebraska boarding school found
GENOA, Neb. – Researchers say they have found the names of 102 Native American students who died at a federally operated boarding school in Nebraska.
The Omaha World-Herald reports that the find comes as ground-penetrating radar has been used in recent weeks to search a cemetery once used by the school that operated in Genoa from 1884 to 1934. So far, no grave has been found.
Genoa School is one of the largest in a network of 25 Native American-run boarding schools. The dark history of abuses at schools is now the subject of a nationwide investigation.
Margaret Jacobs, co-director of the Genoa Indian Schools Digital Comparative Project, said some of the names identified so far may be duplicates, but the true death toll is likely much higher.
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Jacobs says many children have died from diseases including tuberculosis. Several other deaths such as drowning were reported in the press at the time.
When the school closed, the documents were either destroyed or scattered across the country. Locating them has proven to be a challenge for both the Genoa project and others working to gather information about the schools.
Jacobs, a professor of history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said many names associated with Genoa have been found in newspaper archives, including the university’s student newspapers.