Wyoming Territory tag

[James Kelly]

I recently saw a rather unpleasant item for which I'd like to know some historical background. It is a metal tag about 3-1/2" long. Tried Google, but "answers" are all the same, either auction results of brass tags, or native Americans expressing displeasure at their sale. No details at all about their use, except the obvious, or reason for their existance. This one appears to be nickel silver. It is marked:

Bureau of Indian Affairs
Wyoming Territory
Corpse No. xx
Property of US Government

I may be able to get it analyzed, though I'm not certain this will tell me much about age. If it is genuine, and I can get any detailed history, I might photograph & include it in my little booklet Gunmetal, as an example of nickel silver with associated comment on certain 19th century US policies.

[Captchee]

Good morning James .
 I would suggest that you contact the state of Wyoming  or one of the state universities . They should be able to tell you about the tag .

  I have no doubt  that your  you get a quit hush to even anger from  our communities  when ask about this
 I cant really go into it without getting very political  but ill try .
  set back and read the tag . With a little understanding of what American Indian people in this country have faced . Especially during the time  Wyoming was a territory  1868, until mid  1890.  try and think of what was happening  in Wyoming at this time and you should be able to understand .

 While I have never seen one of these  from Wyoming . I have seen  later ones from the Dakotas  and from Idaho .
 Now I say that , while assuming  what you have is  what  today we would call a body bag tag .
 Now again please understand that im trying to tread lightly here .
  See  we as American Indian peoples are considered  by the government as federal wards .
What this means is  basically  the BIA has  near complete control .
 Back in the time frame of your tag , that control would have been 100%and often enforced by the military
As such when a person died , their bodies  were then government property  not the property of  their relatives unless the body was  turned over to them .
 Either way the body was still tagged and recorded. A lot of the time without any regard  for our cultures ,the individuals, families or communities .
 As such sometimes the bodies would not be returned . a lot  such bodies were used for research purposes as well . As such  they would end up in museums and such . Even today  the Smithsonian  and a whole lot of much smaller museums have  collections of skeletal remains  all tagged .
 thus such tags are the only way left to identify  the remains .
other times when the remains have been returned . such tags are viewed as  being part of the persons remains . thus VERY distasteful if attempted to  be sold .
 kind of like selling a persons death certificate. Which is bad enough  in itself .
 But imagine if  your not even a relative. Im sure you can see my point  

 Sometimes  also after a battle  if the military was searching for a given person . They also would collect bodies . Such tags were used to record and catalog and if deemed necessary the body would be sent back east ..  
 Later  in the early 20th century  there  were government funded studies  that took place .
 This includes the digging up  of known burial grounds. Again bodies were tagged and sent off for study  .
 This still happens today when burials are  inadvertently found  . The process has changed  in that  our peoples have  more control  .

So  if your tag actually has a number  then its  associated with  a body  that was collected . Examined  or retained  at  one time .  This then raise the question ; why do you have the tag ?
Did someone save it as a souvenir ?
So while you , yourself may not have had a hand in all this. The implications  are still there . The feelings still run very deep  



 If it doesn’t have a number ,then at the very least  it’s a tag  which  intended purpose  was never fulfilled .
 But its still an item  which reminds us  of what  was happening in that time frame and how we as American Indians  were and are  still very much looked  on   by the government .
As such  im sure you can understand  why your being met with  what you are  when asking about  such an item .

[Buzzard]

Very well written, Capt

[Caddo]

Thanks Capt,  well written indeed.

[huntinguy]

That is very interesting information there.

All of the reading I have done, nothing like that was ever mentioned.

Captchee, where did you find that information I would like to read a little more about it.

[Captchee]

the information isnt hard to find , if you know what to look for .
start by studying  American Indian history as it relates to government policies and laws
a lot of the information is available through the library of congress , US army department of  ethnic studies as well as the Smithsonian  which even today records a collection of over 18,000 bodies . This collection was based on the 18-19th century scientific theory of study known as phrenology. To day we still have two types of law in this country .  Eroupian law  which dictates to the masses and Native American law which  specifically applies to American Indian people and people of American Indian descent .
 If you take a look at that law and its early application , your will find  the subject of these tags and a whole lot more . From that study you then can  find specific accounts  that were documented and recorded in the library of congress .
 You will also find that are thousands of lawsuits  that  are still today are not settled concerning a lot of the acts .   Many  of these filed  100 or more years ago
Another good area of interesting study is Bioarchaeology - as it applies to the Americas’ .
 Even and over view of that subject will show the though that some peoples like the Inuit were considered missing links  and thus living examples were collected. Information about those acts can be found by reading the writings of  Franz Boas and Samuel Morton.

[James Kelly]

Captchee, can you tell me a specific web site to which I might go to find out the identity, and eventually surviving relatives, of number XX?

If there are any relatives they might wish to at least have the tag returned.

Otherwise I will keep it. It is a companion piece to my four-ball .45-70 case, and an old quote from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. CCVI - July, 1867 - Vol. XXXV. I like to make this information available to those who are unaware of our own genocide efforts.

[Captchee]

thats a hard one because your asking about records and who kept them .
 Because Wyoming was a territory not a state , your probably  going to have to  go through the US government . Thus the library of congress.
 You may be able to trace the number through the Museum of the American Indian.
 You might find information from the state of Wyoming itself . But most like  it the federal government who would have that . The other issue you may run into is that there may in fact be no name associated with the tag . Possibly only   a people .
 If it’s a reservation tag then  you probably will have a name associated with it .
Date of death , Secom stance of death and place of death
 But  out side the Rez system , if the person was not a notable person , then frankly , the government didn’t care . It then will again  most likely only have a suspected People , place of collection and circumstance of death.
 Now if you do get lucky and  the number does have a name associated with it . Then you  into a whole nother issue . The reason is that  the name may end up being a report name .
 The reason this becomes an issue is that a lot of times , because the government officials could not , nor did not want to take the time to figure out how to spell a persons true name  in English , they would   list a new name .
 So lets say your name was Tiotanegi  . The  government officials would often just say .; from hence forth your John Smith ..
 Never mind no one ever called you John Smith . Nor did you ever use that name but to  receive rations .
So now  you have to  start looking through reservation listings  OR  through later Lists like the Dawes reports , which were drawn up during a time where  there was alittle more concern with getting  things right .
Even then a lot of times  people end up having to  go through religious documents  from the different churchs , so as to find out who  was really who .. The reason for that is that unlike  the government , some ,,,,”some” of these groups actually took very good records of their congregations and listed both  the report name and their  peoples TRUE name .
So lets say you get that far . Now you will have to figure out  who , if any immediate family  may still survive. The case may simply be that there isn’t anyone  because during this time whole families were  annihilated .
So IMO if you truly feel that  you want to return this item . The best thing to do is  try and find out what people the person belonged to .
From there  you then contact that peoples Reservation  and ask how to proceed  with its return . They will then  have the resources  to insure that  the item is either returned to the rightful  relatives OR  dispose of the item as their specific belief entail

[Woodrock]

Captchee, so well written. I have just recently read everything I could find in regards to the Nez Perce War in helping my nephew, who is a direct descendant of Chief Joseph. This "tag" discussion just reinforces the shame I have for the actions of whites, and our white government in regard to the Native Americans. Finds like this leave me feeling sick.
Woody