Family Welcomes Home Remains Of Seminole Nation Member After More Than 140 Years

The remains of a member of the Seminole Nation are on the way to a new resting spot after more than 140 years. Tribal leaders say a teenager was sent to boarding school in Pennsylvania in 1879 but died and was buried there instead of his home in Oklahoma.

Descendants of Albert Mekko gathered at Council Oak Park to escort his remains to his new final resting place. Joe Coon has never met his great-uncle but feels the connection.

“I always think about Joseph in the Bible when he was getting ready to go home,” said Coon. “They had his bones ready and they took him.”

Members of the Seminole Nation are transporting Mekko’s remains after he died at a boarding school in Carlisle, PA in 1881 at just 17 years old. Mekko never made it back home until now.

“It’s a somber moment,” said Lewis J. Johnson, Principal Chief of the Seminole Nation. “It’s a reflective moment, in our history of Seminoles, we’re fortunate to be able to do this.”

Leaders say getting the remains back to Oklahoma has been years in the making. They have spent the last four days in Pennsylvania going through the excavation process and confirming Mekko’s remains before the trip back home.

“This is really a time of joy but it’s also a time of sorrow,” said Chebon Kernell, Seminole Nation. “The fact and the reality that remains is that none of our children should have ever been taken from our homes.”

The remains of Mekko are heading toward Wewoka and will be reburied in that area.