Based on Giroux/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2019s research, the National Cemetery Administration plans to replace the /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201cSix Unknown Indians/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201d grave markers with headstones that list the names of the fallen warriors, their death dates and their native nation affiliations./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
During the Plains Wars, Fort Marion was used as a prison for prominent warriors and chiefs in hopes of demoralizing their nations into surrendering to the U.S. Army. Prisoners were forced to suppress their native heritage and become a military company in order to assimilate, drilling and performing guard duty for themselves. Capt. Richard Henry Pratt instituted and enforced the policies of forced assimilation that started in St. Augustine, and continued through boarding schools like the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which Pratt founded in 1879./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201cIt’s important to me to make people understand that all these prisoners had families, it wasn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2019t just that they died here /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2014 their families lost them here,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201d says Giroux. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201cI’m hoping that the information I/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2019ve found can help give the descendants of the prisoners some understanding and closure about what happened to their kin when they were here in Florida./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201cWatching Norene interact with her ancestor/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2019s face on a touch screen and study the family resemblance was powerful. That was one of the defining moments of all the work I have done.” /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2014 Amy Larner Giroux, Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ faculty/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
The National Park Service put Giroux into contact with Norene Starr, outreach coordinator for the Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2019 executive branch and a direct descendant of Chief Heap of Birds and Big Moccasin./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
Part of Giroux/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2019s research resulted in a 3D digital model of the 1877 bust created from Cheyenne Chief Heap of Birds, the great-great-great-grandfather of Starr. The bust was created from a life mask of Heap of Birds/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2019 face, created only three months before his death./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
As Giroux connected with the National Park Service and the Cheyenne and Arapaho people, several events were conducted in November (which is Native American Heritage Month and National Veterans and Military Families Month) to memorialize the fallen warriors and educate the public. Alison Simpson, command historian of the Florida National Guard, Denny Medicine Bird, Veterans Affairs coordinator and Giroux acted as liaisons to the National Cemetery Administration on events in the cemetery to honor the prisoners/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2019 military service. Through these events, Giroux met more descendants of the prisoners she researched from the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201cI’ve been working in cemeteries for most of my career,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201d Giroux says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201cBut this is the first time, other than my own family work, that I’ve impacted living people. And that emotional impact has been extremely rewarding./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
The first of the memorial events was held on the evening of Nov. 15, 2022, in Piney Grove Cemetery in Baldwin, Florida, to honor Cheyenne Chief Grey Beard. In 1877, Chief Grey Beard jumped out of the window of the train bringing prisoners to St. Augustine. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201cFreedom was more important than living,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201d Giroux says. The guards were told to recapture him, but he was shot instead./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
For Chief Grey Beard/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2019s memorial ceremony, Giroux met with Marcy Galbreath, retired associate lecturer in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric (DWR), and members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations at the cemetery. The members sang for Chief Grey Beard to assist him on his journey to the next life. Giroux and Galbreath were honored to be included in the ceremony./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
The next morning, Gordon Yellowman, Peace Chief of the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations, spoke with National Park Service rangers about how they could better educate the public about the experiences of the prisoners at Fort Marion. The exhibit on the imprisonments of 1875 through 1878 is changing based on input from native nations to include stories told from a native perspective. Previously, exhibits were mainly told from the perspective of the U.S. Army./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201cFuture visitors to the fort will be able to see both sides of the story,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201d Giroux says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
Throughout Nov. 16-17, 2022, Flagler College presented a series of events entitled, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201cHi Vi Mitz Mak a be o ta, Honoring the Historic Footprint of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Warriors at Fort Marion, 1875/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u20131878./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201d During the events, Giroux gave a presentation, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201cSo Many Miles Towards the Rising Sun: Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche Burials in Florida 1875/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u20131877,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201d in which she spoke of the 10 men who died in Florida./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/nGranite, the riderless horse, adorned with the U.S. Army saber of Norene Starr, the sash of her grandson (a seventh generation descendant), a rifle gifted to Moses G. Starr, Sr. (grandson of Big Moccasin), a shield of the Yellowman family and the moccasins of Helen Heap of Birds, which were gifted by Heap of Birds descendants of the Yellow Eagle/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398//Wassana family. (Photo courtesy of Amy Larner Giroux)/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/nThroughout early November 2022, flags flew over the Castillo de San Marcos to represent each of the families of the native nation members who died there. On the afternoon of Nov. 17, 2022, a final ceremony was held in the courtyard of the fort to honor them. A riderless horse was brought in wearing the moccasins of Helen Heap of Birds, granddaughter of Chief Heap of Birds. Then, a National Park Service ranger performed a roll call, naming each of the Cheyenne who died during their imprisonment and whose names were discovered. The ceremony concluded with a three-cannon salute./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/nDenny Medicine Bird and Norene Starr at the St. Augustine National Cemetery for the flag raising ceremony honoring Chief Heap of Birds. (Photo Courtesy of Amy Larner Giroux)/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n“He called the name of Chief Grey Beard /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2014 silence. And then he went through each of the names of the dead to the end of the roll call. It was very emotional,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201d Giroux says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u201cPeople need to know what happened at Fort Marion and understand why it happened. I hope sharing these stories makes people less likely to forget what happened there.”/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
The events ended with a keynote presentation given by Dorothy Firecloud, the National Park Service Native American Affairs liaison. At the end of the reception, Giroux and others were honored by being wrapped in a Cheyenne blanket./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
The findings of the Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ and Flagler College research teams have left a lasting impact on families and future visitors to the fort, but their work is far from over. Giroux, Galbreath and Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ collaborators Mike Shier, research specialist in CHDR, and Jeremy Carnes, postdoctoral scholar in DWR, are continuing their work with Starr and Yellowman. They continue to search for the names behind the unmarked headstones in St. Augustine National Cemetery, hopefully bringing more indigenous stories to light. Max Bear, director of the Historic Preservation Office of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, has invited Giroux to Oklahoma to speak with the native nation about her research and the experiences of their ancestors./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
History is never static or set in stone. The story of America/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2019s past is continuously unfolding; it carries a heavy impact on contemporary life. New research allows us to challenge the ways we have come to understand the world around us. As once-buried stories are unearthed, the dissemination of new perspectives brings the public closer to the truth, and families closer to peace./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ researchers collaborated with the Cheyenne and Arapaho native nations of Oklahoma and Florida, as well as national agencies, to restore 10 indigenous prisoners/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/u2019 experiences for their descendants and the public./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":133427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,6,23],"tags":[16177,17023,1286,14751,2175,2270,14916],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-133398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-community","category-research","tag-center-for-humanities-and-digital-research","tag-college-of-arts-and-humanities","tag-department-of-writing-and-rhetoric","tag-faculty-excellence","tag-history","tag-impact","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n
Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ Researchers Help Restore the Lost History of Indigenous Prisoners in St. Augustine | Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ News/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/133398/n