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Little Rock, Ark. • U.S. Sen. John Boozman has introduced an amendment that would lead to the burial of a human skull traced back to the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857.
Boozman introduced the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2017 in an effort to help an Arkansas-based group, Mountain Meadows Massacre Descendants, claim the remains and bury them in Utah.
About 120 people trekking from Arkansas to California in September 1857 were attacked by Mormon settlers and American Indians in southwestern Utah.
U.S. soldiers traveled to the site, about 30 miles north of St. George, to collect the remains in 1859, but an unidentified child's skull was taken to Washington, D.C.
Members of Mountain Meadows Massacre Descendants, which was founded in 2004, trace their roots to the families of the original trekkers. The nonprofit group reached out to Boozman, R-Ark., after an unsuccessful attempt to have the National Museum of Health and Medicine part ways with the remains.
"All we've ever wanted to do is see that that child had a proper Christian burial at Mountain Meadows," Patty Norris, the group's president, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "That's all we've ever wanted to do, and hopefully we'll get that done."
National Museum of Health and Medicine spokesman Tim Clarke Jr. said Monday that the skull is well protected.
Boozman said the child should be laid to rest with the rest of its family.
According to Boozman, it is likely that his measure will be approved when the Senate votes on the overall legislation later this month.