There were Tlingits, Upiks, Inupiats, Denainas, Chupiks and Aleuts. Some bodies were embalmed, some were not. Some of the dead had had their names recorded incorrectly, and so finding their families, their tribes in native villages throughout Alaska, which would determine their final and true burial, was delicate and complicated.

But under the leadership of Frank Mielke (pronounced: Milky), a member of the FPE/AFT-affiliated Alaska Public Employees Association (APEA), the task was completed in such a respectful and professional manner that his team received an American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials quality award in December for exemplary partnership--the highest level of excellence and given to only seven people out of the 110 nominated for 2001.

When two decrepit ammunition bunkers were discovered to contain 147 bodies--mostly Native Alaskan victims of a post-World War II tuberculosis epidemic--Mielke, who works as a chief right-of-way agent for the Alaska Department of Transportation

 and Public Facilities, headed up a team to repatriate each and every one. The bunkers, covered with rock and vegetation, had to be cleared for an airport expansion project in the seaside community of Sitka, Alaska. The makeshift mausoleums were used by Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital--a public hospital that opened as a tuberculosis sanitarium--for the bodies of

 those who died between 1947 and 1966. "Nobody liked the idea of shipping bodies all over the territory of Alaska then," explained Mielke, himself a native-born Alaskan who grew up in Chugiak. Transportation to places like Nome and Barrow would have had to be by airplane, and officials were uncertain about TB contagion at that time, he noted.

"Nobody liked the idea of shipping bodies all over the territory of Alaska."

The natives say that their dead need to come back home, said Mielke, but the trouble was that there are more than 100 tribes in native Alaska and almost all were represented among the victims. Some tribes are patrilineal and some matrilineal--meaning the bodies had to be returned to the mother's birthplace or the father's. "Our question was: Who can speak for the dead?" said Mielke. Working with two other colleagues, Mielke said the project, which they dubbed "The Journey Back Home," was funded by the FAA and involved some 28 agencies, and an abundance of rules and regulations.

"It was a massive coordination project," he said, with health and safety, mortician, land ownership and tribal laws to respect. Key to the repatriation effort was Alaska native Bob Sam, who went to the Alaska Federation of Natives to get its endorsement for repatriation and a resolution to entrust the Sitka Tribe to see that this got done, said Mielke.

Fortunately, hospital records with numbers that coordinated with the crypts were available for identification. Unfortunately, there were no family names or hometowns listed in the death records. Some inaccuracies in the records added to the sensitive nature of finding families who had long wondered about the disappearance of their loved ones. In wrestling through tribe identifications, Mielke said they discovered that Eskimos, as a rule, are buried where they are born. Other tribes felt differently about that, he explained. In the end, almost one-third wanted their relatives buried in Sitka. "It was their choice--where the family wanted the body buried--and that was a big job," said Mielke.

Tribal and religious rites were observed always, said Mielke, explaining that when the mausoleums were opened for the first time, an elaborate ceremony was held, which included a minister and a Shaman (for want of a better term), a ceremonial fire and smoke bath using herbs and the drinking of devil's club juice at all four points, as well as the sprinkling of eagle down.

The crypts, which were essentially plywood boxes surrounded by concrete, were removed in a one-month period in the summer of 2000, following two days of ceremonies in Sitka, attended by people from all around Alaska.

"Timing was essential as the reburial had to coincide with Native subsistence activities and a short window when the ground was thawed and river transportation was possible," said Mielke

The stories and the emotions were many, said Mielke, of the effort that healed, reunited and brought closure to families throughout the state. Mielke welcomes questions; contact him at: frank_mielke@dot.state.ak.us.