In early September, a van leading a caravan home stopped on Big Muddy Creek Bridge, marking the boundary of the Fort Peck reservation. Families embraced, tears were shed, and the smell of burning sage lingered. In the back were three wooden caskets draped in the flags of the Assiniboine and Sioux. Over the following days, community members celebrated, processed and grieved the repatriation of three long-separated members who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. As one former tribal official put it: “They are home where they belong.”
