CARLISLE, Pa. _ Army officials transferred the remains Monday of two Northern Arapaho boys to their tribe for reburial in Wyoming.
The remains of two other unidentified people found at the burial site of a third boy were reburied this weekend, officials said.
Officials spoke in detail for the first time Monday afternoon after they excavated the grave sites of three boys _ Little Chief, Little Plume and Horse _ in hopes of returning them to their tribe for reburial on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
Elizabeth DiGangi, a forensic anthropologist based at Binghamton University and consulting with the Army for the excavations, said the remains at the grave sites for Little Chief and Horse were "biologically consistent" with their descriptions.
At the grave site for Little Plume, teams found instead remains that included hip bones from two people who did not match his description.
"That was a difficult afternoon," DiGangi said at a news conference at the Carlisle Post Barracks Cemetery.
Michael "Sonny" Trimble, chief forensic archaeologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers broke news to the family, which had remained near the cemetery while the work took place.
The Northern Arapaho were not present at Monday's news conference.
Little Chief, Little Plume and Horse attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which educated more than 10,000 Native American children from nearly 50 tribes in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The school's founder, Civil War veteran Lt. Richard Henry Pratt, sought to eradicate the children's Native American traditions and assimilate them into European-American culture.
Children were required to convert to Christianity. Their traditional clothing was replaced with a military style uniform. The school forced them to speak English and choose an English name. Punishments included beatings.
Many children died of infectious diseases, as team suspected was likely the case with Little Chief, Little Plume and Horse. All three were dead within two years of their arrival at the school in 1881.
Nearly 200 children are buried at the cemetery where the boys' remains were located. The excavation of the remains at their grave sites was seen as a litmus test for other, similar efforts in the future.
