By the time Albert arrived in New Haven on June 26, 1900, he was feeling gravely ill with strong abdominal cramps. Albert Afraid of Hawk, a twenty year-old Lakota Sioux, had been performing with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show for the past two years, probably as one of the Cuban soldiers reenacting the Charge of San Juan Hill, or more fittingly as a Lakota fighting against George Custer and the 7th Cavalry, a battle his father actually took part in. By the time the show arrived in Danbury on June 28, 1900, Albert was close to death from botulism poisoning. He was rushed to Danbury Hospital where he died the next day. Buffalo Bill purchased a casket and burial plot in Wooster Cemetery. Then the show moved on to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, leaving Albert behind in an unmarked grave.

Over one hundred years later a local historian, Robert Young, had heard the story of an Indian dying in Danbury and buried in Wooster Cemetery. His research into the cemetery archives uncovered Albert's burial card identifying the section and plot of his grave.

Using cemetery maps, Bob located the "lost" grave. He also found out that the Afraid of Hawk family still lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, and he contacted them about his discovery. The family members thanked him, but then he did not hear from them for two years.

When he did, it was to request the repatriation of Albert's remains back to the reservation he left as a teenager. During the two-year hiatus, Marlis Afraid of Hawk, Albert's grandniece, had a recurring dream. In the dream she is a young girl and a young male horseback rider comes out of a cloud with long waving hair. He gets off his horse, bending on one knee to play a flute. Arising back on the horse, he motions for Marlis to follow him as he turns and rides back into the cloud formation. From surrounding clouds, Lakota warriors and family follow the strange young rider. Unable to interpret her dream, Marlis went to the tribal elders, who told her that the young man was Albert and that he was telling her that he wanted o come home to the reservation. She then took on the responsibility for the repatriation of Albert Afraid of Hawk.

As the State Archaeologist, I was called in to exhume Albert's remains in a respectful and professional manner. We met with Tania Porta, the funeral director in charge of the disinterment, historian Bob Young and Wendell Deer With Horns, a Lakota Sioux living in Connecticut and representing the family. All field excavation procedures were approved by Wendell and the family.

Soil tests were conducted to determine the degree of acidity as a predictor of whether organic remains would survive after 112 years in the ground. The results were disappointing. The pH levels measuring acidic/alkaline levels were low (5.2, 5.8) suggesting that skeletal remains may not have survived after all these years. We were prepared that upon excavation of the burial feature there would be no signs of Albert other than decomposing soils.

In mid-August of this summer, we began excavations at Wooster Cemetery. To our most pleasant surprise, Albert's family was able to travel from South Dakota and attend the exhumation. Present at the cemetery were Marlis, her father Daniel Afraid of Hawk, and her brother John Afraid of Hawk. Their presence made the project more meaningful to all of us as they told of family history, conducted ceremonies sacred to the Lakota, and watched over the excavation process.

The first day was spent using a small backhoe to remove overburden from the grave since we anticipated the coffin to be at a depth of anywhere between four and six feet. Scraping the soil with the blade of the machine, we leveled off the soil observing for coloration and compaction changes indicative of the burial shaft. We employed metal detectors to search for the below level hardware nails used on the wooden coffin. When we reached a level of four feet below surface, we started to hear the detectors ring as we approached the top board of the coffin. At that point, we shifted to hand tools for the delicate excavation of the coffin feature.

However, as we outlined the wooden box, and excavated into the interior of the coffin, my heart sank as we were getting deeper, but finding no signs of skeletal remains. I had prepared the family that there might only be soil to take back to the reservation. Then, as I sliced carefully with my trowel, a patch of earth slipped away revealing a small portion of bone (about the size of a fifty-cent piece), and in that instant I realized Albert's remains had survived and his family would have some of his remains to take home! Our work slowed significantly due to the poor preservation of the skeletal remains, but Albert was there and his family was very grateful.

Assisted by volunteers from the Friends of the Office of State Archaeology, we carefully, over the next four days, worked the burial and painstakingly removed, element by element, the fragile remains of Albert Afraid of Hawk. Collaborating with Dr. Gary Aronsen, from the Anthropology Department at Yale University, we conducted forensic analysis of the remains that positively identified them as Albert.

Albert was reburied on September 8 and 9, 2012, at his homeland on the South Dakota Reservation with his family and tribal people in attendance. Marlis had brought him home as her powerful dream requested.

Before the family left Connecticut, they conducted a naming ceremony bestowing Lakota names on four of us that had been influential in Albert's return. They honored me with the Lakota name, Tapu wan Waste Okile, "He Who Finds Good." At the end of the naming ceremony, two redtailed hawks flew from a wooded area bordering the cemetery and began to circle high above us. Marlis looked up and exclaimed, "His spirit has risen!"

This important and powerful story is not just of history and archaeology; it is also about contemporary people who wanted to return the remains of an ancestor to his homeland. It reminds us that when we do archaeology, it is not just a means to uncover the human past, but it also touches modern people and their lives today. The past gives us meaning, a sense of identify and connection. Archaeology is as much about the present (and future) as it is about the past. Albert Afraid of Hawk and his family remind us of that important lesson.


This article is a reprint from the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History & Connecticut Archaeology Center's Fall 2012 Newsletter. © All rights reserved..


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