Sophia's Return

More than a century after her death at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Sophia—an Unangax̂ child taken from her home on Saint Paul Island, Alaska—finally returned to her community. This powerful book tells the story of that return and the histories it reveals. Centered on the rematriation of the author’s great-aunt from Carlisle’s cemetery to her homeland, the narrative traces the colonial systems that removed Indigenous children from their families and confined them in church- and government-run boarding schools.Weaving archival research, family history, and community knowledge, Lauren M. Ayagakuchax̂ Peters demonstrates how Unangax̂ ways of doing history reshape the telling of the past. Rather than presenting a distant academic account, she foregrounds storytelling, Indigenous ethics, and relationships to land, family, and ancestors. Through these approaches, she exposes the structural inequities that enabled the seizure, incarceration, and burial of Indigenous children far from their homes.At the same time, Sophia’s Return offers a guide for communities seeking to bring their own children home from boarding school cemeteries. It documents the first rematriation project carried out with, by, and for Alaska Native communities connected to Carlisle, while situating that effort within longer histories of colonialism and Indigenous resilience.Ultimately, the story of Sophia’s return affirms a future grounded in cultural resurgence, community survival, and the enduring power of Indigenous knowledge.