This investigation was a huge team effort. Reporting by Dana Hedgepeth, Sari Horwitz, Joyce Sohyun Lee, @abtran.bsky.social, @jaheezy.bsky.social & me. Thank you to our editors David Fallis, @nadineajaka.bsky.social, Peter Wallsten & Wendy Galietta. And ofc Natalie Vineberg's incredible design.

The government’s final report identified 74 burial sites while acknowledging that the numbers are incomplete. The Post documented 66 additional cemeteries where students were buried at or near former boarding schools. Here’s our detailed methodology: wapo.st/3DnIr9q

In 1912, 10-year-old Daniel Nicholai died after being shot in the lungs during a tragic accident. He was a student at the St. Mark’s Episcopal Mission School. A local historian told us that his gravesite is likely disturbed due to railroad construction.
wapo.st/3DnIr9q

Fire swept through the wooden dormitory of St. Joseph’s Mission School in Idaho in 1925 and killed six students, according to reports. Their death certificates indicate that they were buried right beside the school at the mission cemetery wapo.st/3DnIr9q

We used historical maps, death certificates and census rolls to locate students and possible burial sites, and used cartographic regression, a process comparing maps over time, to help identify burial sites.
wapo.st/3DnIr9q