Names found for 11 girls from Turtle Mountain who died in the late 1800s at a boarding school • North Dakota Monitor

The researchers made a disturbing finding: the school owned a plot in the historic Calvary Cemetery in Milwaukee, the city’s oldest Catholic cemetery.

Official response and confirmed impact

The plot is dedicated to the “Indian girls” of Good Shepherd but a majority of graves are unmarked or possess non-descriptive markers, making it difficult to give the girls their names back.

Now, an ICT investigation has revealed the graves of 14 students who died while attending Good Shepherd from 1884-1891.

Those students – all girls – are buried in the Calvary Cemetery.

The ICT research further reveals that at least 11 of the 14 deceased students came from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and, through cemetery records, Milwaukee County death certificates and boarding school correspondence, ICT has been able to identify the names of the 14 students.

Students buried in Milwaukee’s Calvary Cemetery ‘Indians of Good Shepherd’ plot

Letters written between school officials and the Bureau of Indian Affairs mention the deaths of only nine girls, three of which were unnamed; however, cemetery records show 14 burials from Good Shepherd during this time period.

The exact burial locations of several girls are unknown, but are noted as being in the cemetery.