The Long Journeys Home: The Repatriations of Henry ’Ōpūkaha’ia and Albert Afraid of Hawk

334 Pages·2018·5.863 MB·English

by  Nicholas F Bellantoni

The Long
Journeys Home
A Driftless Connecticut Series Book
This book is a 2018 selection in the Driftless Connecticut Series,
for an outstanding book in any field on a Connecticut topic
or written by a Connecticut author.
Nick BeLLaNToNi
The Long
Journeys Home
The Repatriations of Henry ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia
and Albert Afraid of Hawk
wesleyan university press Middletown, Connecticut
Wesleyan University Press
Middletown CT 06459
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress
© 2018 Nicholas F. Bellantoni
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The Driftless Connecticut Series is funded by the
Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund
at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bellantoni, Nicholas F., author.
Title: The Long Journeys Home : The Repatriations of Henry Opukahaia and
Albert Afraid of Hawk / by Nick Bellantoni.
Description: Middletown, CT : Wesleyan University Press, 2018. | Series:
Garnet books | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by
publisher; resource not viewed.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017048410 (print) | LCCN 2018010232 (ebook) | ISBN
9780819576859 (ebook) | ISBN 9780819576842 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Obookiah, Henry, 1792-1818—Death and burial. |
Afraid-of-Hawk, Albert, 1879-1900—Death and burial. | Human remains
(Archaeology)—Repatriation—United States—Case studies. | Cultural
property—Repatriation—United States—Case studies.
Classification: LCC CC79.5.H85 (ebook) | LCC CC79.5.H85 B45 2018 (print) |
DDC 930.1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017048410
5 4 3 2 1
Cover illustrations: Top: Frontispiece Portrait of Henry Obookiah, engraving,
Daggett, Hinman & Co., from Memoirs of Henry Obookiah, A Native of Owyhee
and a Member of the Foreign Mission School (New York: American Tract Society,
n.d., [1832]). Bottom: Albert Afraid of Hawk, Ogallala Sioux taken in Omaha
1899, Heyn and Matzen, photographers. (Courtesy of Denver Public Library,
X-31510.) Background: Historical maps from the David Rumsey Map Collection.
To four extraordinary women
who have inspired me and this book
Deborah Li‘ikapeka Lee,
7th generation cousin descendant of Henry ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia
Marlis Afraid of Hawk,
grandniece of Albert Afraid of Hawk
my mother, Carmella
and
my wife, Angela

Contents
List of Illustrations viii
List of Maps ix
Acknowledgments xi
PROLOGUE xv
PART I. The Repatriation of Henry ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia
1 “Oh, how I want to see Owhyhee” 3
2 “I have neither a father nor a mother. . .but, He” 32
3 After ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia 67
4 “He wants to come home” 91
PART II. The Repatriation of Albert Afraid of Hawk
5 The Buffalo Nation 107
6 “His spirit has been lifted” 143
7 After Afraid of Hawk 187
8 “Home is where he belongs” 214
EPILOGUE 223
Notes 229
References Cited 267
Index 281
Illustrations
Portrait of Henry Obookiah. 4
‘Ōpūkaha‘ia’s Cornwall Cemetery burial monument. 19
“Obookiah” engraving on title page, Memoirs of Henry Obookiah. 48
Wooden coffin lid of Henry Obookiah. 54
Foreign Mission School, ca. 1873. 60
Tomb of Henry Obookiah, Cornwall Center Cemetery, CT. 63
Frontispiece Portrait of Obookiah, 1818. 89
Frontispiece Portrait of Henry Obookiah, 1832. 89
Deborah Li‘ikapeka Lee speaks at the Farewell Service for Henry
Obookiah. 93
Final Resting Place of Henry ‘Ōpūkaha‘ia. 102
Albert Afraid of Hawk, three-quarter length portrait, 1899. 109
Author consulting with Marlis and Daniel Jay Afraid of Hawk. 129
Sham Battle, American Indian Congress, 1899. 146
Albert Afraid of Hawk, Sept. 18, 1899. 148
Albert Afraid of Hawk, Ogallala Sioux, 1899. 149
Albert Afraid of Hawk, Ogallala Sioux, 1899. 150
John Afraid of Hawk congratulates author during Lakota Naming
Ceremony. 159
William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, 1900. 178
Buffalo Bill’s Lakota “Show Indians,” 1900. 183
Burial Scaffold of Albert Afraid of Hawk, September 2012. 218
Maps
All maps by Bill Keegan
State of Connecticut. 1
Big Island of Hawaii. 17
Cornwall Center, Connecticut, in 1817. 58
The High Plains Lakota Reservations. 125
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota. 153