sep 18, 1955 - Sec. Seaton of the Department of the Interior issues a Statement

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September 18. Secretary Seaton of the Department of the Interior issues a statement on The Wyandot Cemetery which includes the following statements: (WNK)

"...The Business Committee of the tribe has indicated that it will request a sale of the property, reinterment of the bodies, and distribution of the net proceeds of sale (after deducting the costs of reinterment) to the tribal members. However, there may well be, as there was in the period from 1906 to 1913, deeply felt opposition to a sale among many of the descendants of the Indians buried in the present site. Such sentiments should certainly be given an opportunity for expression through the referendum process... (WNK)

An item in the Indian appropriation act of June 32, 1906 authorized the Secretary of the Interior to sell the burial ground and pay the proceeds of sale to the Indians. Although a commission to sell the land was appointed, the sale was never consummated because of opposition to a sale by relatives and next-of-kin of persons interred in the cemetery. On February 13, 1913, Congress repealed the sale authority, and thereafter appropriated funds for the preservation and improvement of the site, authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to pay to Kansas City, Kansas, the sum of $1,000 in consideration of the agreement by the city to maintain forever and care for the cemetery. (WNK)

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