ST. GEORGE — The bodies of Paiute children are likely buried below summer grasses at the site of an Indigenous boarding school they were forced to attend in Panguitch, Utah, tribal leaders and history experts say.
Exactly how many children lie under the school grounds, just north of the small Southern Utah city, no one yet knows. Initial research indicates there could be at least 12 bodies in unmarked graves.
Utah State University plans to apply ground-penetrating radar to the 150-acre site.
“What I know about this (boarding) school is that they would come, and they would take the kids for labor,” said Corrina Bow, chairwoman for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. Paiute leaders say children ages 6 years old and older were forced to work at a farm on the property.
“We were informed that there were bodies buried over there,” said Bow, who has made several visits to the former school grounds. “But we are not sure until someone comes in and verifies it.”
Oral accounts across the several bands that make up the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, which mostly populated the school and today number about 800 members in Utah, put the figure around a dozen.
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Written by COURTNEY TANNER and ALASTAIR LEE BITSOI, The Salt Lake Tribune.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.
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