Gila Herald Staff Reports
SAN CARLOS — More than a century and a half after losing his life during military operations in the Pinal Mountains, a Pinal Apache child will finally return home to the San Carlos Apache Reservation.
The National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland, has officially published a Notice of Inventory Completion in the Federal Register. The notice, issued under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), clears the final legal pathway for the child’s remains to be returned to tribal leaders.
Historical Records Document Tragic Timeline
According to federal inventory records, the child — believed to have been under 12 years old — was killed in July 1870 in Arizona’s Pinal Mountains. The death occurred during military operations involving scout units serving under U.S. Army Lieutenant H.B. Cushing of the 3rd Cavalry’s F Troop…