1. In 1906 three sisters constructed a fort over their ancestors graves in an indigenous burial ground in Kansas, armed themselves with shotguns, padlocked the gate and then hung a sign on it that read “Trespass At Your Peril.”

2.For years the Conley sisters, Lyda, Sarah, & Helena, descendants of Chief Tarhe of the Wyandot tribe, took turns protecting the burial ground, through freezing winters & hot summers. Lyda was asked by an interviewer if she was afraid to sleep in the cemetery, she replied:

3. “Afraid of the dead you ask? Afraid of what? Afraid of my mother — or of my grandmother — that their spirits would harm me, when I was enduring those hardships for the security of their last resting place?”

4. “Why should I be afraid of the dead? I builded the hut close to the grave of my mother and I felt secure every moment of my stay in the grounds that may appear to you, gloomy, but sacred to me for their memories.”

5. Lyda went to law school, & became a lawyer which aided in her defense of the cemetery in the legal system for decades. She would be the first native woman to argue a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

6. The Huron Indian Cemetery was designated a national historic landmark in 2017. The Conley sisters are buried alongside their ancestors who they all defended fiercely in life. Helena’s grave bears the warning “Cursed be the villain that molest their graves.”

7. Images, sources, and a LOT more info (because there is a great deal more to this story and the history of the sisters and the burial ground itself, on http://kchistory.org )