A journey to reclaim a piece of lost history has unfolded over the past two years, as a name led to a profound discovery. The U.S. Army embarked on an effort to identify Native individuals buried at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and one name, Della Atkins, became a focal point of a heartfelt search.
Initially, the records contained a misspelled name of a Shoshone girl from Nevada, which prompted the Army to reach out to Shoshone tribes in Northern Nevada. This inquiry eventually led them to the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.
“They reached out to every Northern Nevada tribe that is Shoshone and eventually came down to our tribe,” shared Marco Ovando, Della’s great-great nephew.
To establish a connection, relatives delved into old census records, aligning family lines and finding that Della was indeed a part of their family.
“Looking through the census records. We found her and our grandfather to be siblings,” elder Elena Atkins, a matriarch of the Atkins family, confirmed. Despite being a relative, Della had been absent from their family history for generations.
The family has since uncovered scant details about Della’s life. “We did find out that she worked as a baker or a cook at a place in Winnemucca, Nevada, shortly before she left, and apparently she was already sick when she left and arrived in Carlisle,” Elena Atkins explained.
At 17, Della arrived at Carlisle on December 12, 1900, only to pass away 13 days later. It was discovered that she had been suffering from an advanced brain tumor, though it remains unclear if her family was ever informed of her death.
Determined to bring Della home, her relatives embarked on a journey spanning over 2,000 miles to Pennsylvania. Her remains were accompanied back to Duck Valley by the U.S. Army, where tribal members welcomed her with song, prayer, and ceremony.
For Marco Ovando, the emotional impact of the event was profound. “Overall, it was a feeling of peace and family togetherness… once everything came together, it came together in what we call a good way,” he expressed.
Daphne Emm Hooper, director of Indigenous Relations at the University of Nevada, Reno, emphasized that Della’s return is part of addressing the boarding school era’s legacy. “There’s a lot of emotion, and there’s a lot of historical trauma… this is a start of the healing process and the discussion about the reality of what has happened and what we need to do to move things forward,” she noted.
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was operational until 1918, with over 7,800 Native children enrolled and approximately 200 buried in its cemetery. The U.S. Army continues to repatriate those interred, having returned 58 remains since 2017.
Now that Della is home, Charlotte Atkins, an elder and matriarch, expressed the family’s relief. “But she’s home now, and that’s the most important thing,” she said. For the family, Della is no longer a forgotten part of their history.
