The heartbreaking exhumation of 12-year-old Almeda Heavy Hair’s remains from a roadside cemetery highlights a dark chapter in U.S. history. Almeda, forcibly removed from her Gros Ventre tribe and family, was sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania in 1890, part of a nationwide system of boarding schools aimed at erasing Native American culture. Four years later, she died under government custody, never seeing her family again. This fall, 19 relatives and community members from Montana’s Fort Belknap Indian Reservation journeyed 2,000 miles to reclaim Almeda and two other children’s remains, mourning as they performed sacred rituals to prepare Almeda for her journey home.
The tragic story of Almeda is not an isolated incident. A recent investigation by The Washington Post Indian boarding school deaths, burial sites far exceed U.S. government counts - Washington Post revealed that more than 3,100 Native American children perished at these boarding schools between 1828 and 1970—a number three times higher than official government estimates. The schools, notorious for their assimilation policies, subjected children to beatings, forced labor, and harsh punishments. Many died from infectious diseases, malnutrition, abuse, and under mysterious circumstances. Often buried far from home in unmarked or poorly documented graves, these children were effectively erased from history, denying families the chance for closure.
Efforts to locate and identify the remains of these children have been filled with challenges, including poor recordkeeping and inaccessible burial sites. However, recent advancements in forensic and soil analysis technology have begun to change this grim reality. S4 Mobile Laboratories, through its innovative Subterra Grey technology Subterra Grey | S4 Mobile Labs, strives to play a critical role in helping Native communities address these historical injustices.
Subterra Grey is a state-of-the-art mobile soil laboratory designed for in situ forensic analysis. By inserting a probe into the ground, it measures soil chemical content using visible and infrared spectroscopy and assesses soil compactness through insertion pressure. This advanced technology is particularly effective in detecting buried human remains, making it invaluable for locating unmarked graves at former boarding school sites. The ability to conduct immediate, non-invasive analysis on-site provides tribes with a powerful tool to reclaim their lost ancestors.
The need for such technology is urgent. The U.S. government’s ongoing investigation into Native American boarding schools has so far identified marked or unmarked burial sites at 53 of them, with the true extent of these burial grounds still unknown. S4 Mobile Laboratories has been actively deploying the Subterra Grey to assist tribes in identifying and documenting these sites with recent partnerships over the past few years. Our work not only provides critical data but also ensures that the process is respectful of cultural practices and community needs.
As tribes continue their efforts to reclaim their histories and honor their lost members, the collaboration between S4 Mobile Laboratories and Native communities stands as a compelling example of how technology can illuminate the past while forging a path toward a more just and compassionate future.
Learn more about Subterra Grey technology from S4: Subterra Grey | S4 Mobile Labs
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