Sophia’s Return
Lauren Peters is a second year PhD student in Native American Studies at UC Davis with a Designated Emphasis in Human Rights concentrating on Human Rights of the Dead. That emphasis is to support her work finding and returning our Alaska Native children who died in government sponsored Indigenous boarding schools. Lauren is enrolled in the Agdaagux Tribe. Her mother, grandmother, and grandmother’s aunt, Sophia, were born on Tanax Amix [Saint Paul Island, Alaska]. Sophia was stolen in 1896 and eventually sent to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, where she died. Lauren is grateful for the support of the Mellon Public Scholars program that helped to bring Sophia back home.