In the two weeks they have been back on site, forensic anthropologists and other researchers have more than doubled the number of graves and bodies found in the search for unidentified victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
The team—led by Kary Stackelbeck, Oklahoma’s state archaeologist, and Phoebe Stubblefield, renowned forensic anthropologist—last completed excavations at Oaklawn Cemetery at the end of October last year, before they had to resecure the area and wait for warmer weather.
At that time, the team had located 12 bodies and 11 coffins in what may be a mass grave feature. Last week, after returning to the site on June 1, the team discovered 16 more bodies, bringing the total to 28.
Last Thursday, Stubblefield and team finished setting up their onsite forensic laboratory, enabling them to move forward on the analysis of the unidentified human remains.
Right now, there are 7 individuals in said lab, according to Stubblefield. Although 8 burials were excavated last week, one was devoid of skeletal remains. Of the remains left, Stubblefield said they vary from poor to almost good.
“We’re seeing patterns when we excavate,” said Stubblefield during a press conference on Monday. “Radar can see that there’s a full skeleton there, but by time we finish excavation, some parts will have dried out and started crumbling, especially vertebrate and the ends of long bones.”
So, Stubblefield and her team have started applying consolidant to the bones in order to preserve age-indicators, or areas of the body that show how adults age over time, such as the medial clavicle or the two pelvic bones that met at the front.
“We are getting enough preservation on at least one individual so far to have multiple age-indicators,” said Stubblefield.
Of the 7 individuals in the lab right now, these age-indicators, in addition to other features, have revealed 4 adults—2 females, 2 males—and 3 infants.
“Teeth are wonderfully well preserved,” said Stubblefield. “These individuals have had full dentition and some of them had lives full of using their teeth—well-worn teeth that lasted them to the end. One person showed arthritic changes to their head and femur, while another person showed dental changes that indicate probable high fever as an infant, indicative of a disease like measles.”
However, the presence of female bodies and especially infants is unusual as the researchers expected to find all-male victims of the 1921 attack, with gunshot wounds or other evidence of deadly trauma.
Still, Stackelbeck says the burials uncovered and excavated recently are a-typical in that the persons are not in individual grave shafts, which would be seen if they were buried individually in a ceremony. The team has discovered individual grave shafts just outside the common grave feature undergoing excavation, further illustrating a difference and keeping open the possibility that at least some of these unidentified human remains are victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Stubblefield says she has found no indication of trauma on the skeletal remains yet, but it’s still very early. As analysis continues, she and her team will look for evidence of gunshot wounds, be it a fracture pattern on the bones caused by the gunshot, the presence of lead scatter, or actual bullets in the casket area.
Ultimately, Stubblefield says she is “pretty confident” we will know one way or another if the excavated remains of this grave shift are trauma victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
This week, the team is re-exposing what they call Trench A, which is where the first 11 bodies were discovered. The trench runs parallel to three rows of burials that appear to be funeralized people. Stackelbeck said this gives the possible indication of “normal,” cemeterial burials, following by the creation of a mass grave as the white mob rushed to bury their victims on June 2, 1921.
Photo: Team members shifting through discoveries on June 7. Credit: 1921Graves.