White Earth group has been quietly rewriting wrongs, correcting Native veterans' headstones
Share
Tweet
November 15, 2023
Tim "Pete" Fairbanks, Father Benny Lipalata, Bruce Engebretson and Jack Heisler stand by a headstone. Contributed
Families visiting cemeteries on the White Earth reservation might notice 12 new headstones.
They were updated this summer because the names on the old ones were wrong. This was a common problem for many serving in the Civil War who couldn't read or write - Native Americans, as well as non-native Americans.
Many had to take anglicized names to enlist, and sometimes even those names were recorded with errors. Budd Parker and other volunteers from Calvary Cemetery and St. Benedict's Catholic Church have been working for more than 30 years to correct those mistakes.
Reader Comments(0)