The Conley Sisters
"I will go to Washington and personally defend it,...If I do not then there is no cemetery in this land safe from sale, at the will of the government."1
Lyda Burton Conley
Lyda, Helena, and Ida Conley were the sisters who made the famous defense of the Huron Cemetery between 1906 and 1913, when sale of the cemetery was proposed in Congress. The sisters erected a small fortified shed on the grounds of the cemetery and through their efforts were successful in saving the historic spot. Lyda Conley, who defended the cemetery before the Supreme Court of the United States, was the first woman of Native American ancestry to appear before that high court and argue a case.
- Newspaper articles
- "A Defender of Huron Cemetery Dies at 72"
[Kansas City, Kansan, May 28, 1946]
- "Huron Cemetery Plans Wouldn't Please Sisters"
[Kansas City, Kansan, February 29, 1976]
- "Ida Conley Was Noted for Huron Cemetery Stand"
[Kansas City, Kansan, October 6, 1948]
- "Descendant Of Wyandot Tribe Dies"
[Kansas City, Kansan, September 16, 1958]
- "Last of Conleys Joins Family"
[Kansas City, Kansan, September 19, 1958]
- Photos
- "Grave Marker for Lyda Conley"
- "Grave Marker for Helena Conley"
- "Grave Marker for Ida Conley"
- "Fort Conley"
- "Map of Huron Place"
- "Huron Cemetery Grounds Before 1978 Remodeling"
- "Huron Cemetery West Entrance Before 1978 Remodeling"
- "Huron Cemetery North Entrance Before 1978 Remodeling"
- Documents
Lyda Conley Interview
Lyda Conley's defense before the Supreme Court
Opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court delivered by Chief Justice Holmes
- Further Reading
- Dayton, Kim. " 'Trespassers, Beware!': Lyda Burton Conley and the Battle for Huron Place Cemetery," Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1996. pp. 1-30.
- Morello, Karen Berger. "Rebels and Reformers," in The Invisible Bar, 1986. New York, NY. pp. 122-125.
- Related Links
Three Sisters Defense of Cemetery Lasts Nearly Forty Years
- Text of a Kansas City Times article (Friday June 7, 1946) by Henry Van Brunt. Posted on the ARCH-L (Archaeology List) February 1997.
Wyandot Nation of Kansas
- Official Wyandot Nation of Kansas page, "dedicated to the preservation of Wyandot history and culture and the preservation, protection, restoration and maintenance of the Huron Indian Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas"
Top
NOTES
1Martin, I.T. "Living in a City of the Dead," Kansas Magazine, June 1909. Wichita, Ks. pp.51-52.
Top |
People |
Exhibits |
Kansas Collection |
KCKPL Home
Last update May 30, 2007
© Copyright 1999 Kansas City, Kansas Public Library
Comments and questions to Webmaster
