More DNA sought from remains of possible massacre victims

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September 14, 2022

By Associated Press

Burned remains of the Greenwood District after the Tulsa Race Massacre in Tulsa, Okla., in June 1921. (GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images file)

Scientists seeking to identify more victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre are planning to extract more DNA from recently reburied remains and test more areas as potential sites to search for additional bodies.

Remains found and exhumed from Oaklawn Cemetery last year and temporarily reburied there will be exhumed again for additional DNA samples in an effort to identify them, according to a report issued Tuesday to the 1921 Graves Investigation Public Oversight Committee.

The remains will then reburied in the same location, according to the report by state archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck and forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield.

Additional graves in the cemetery also will be excavated and those in simple, wooden coffins — said to be the type massacre victims were buried in — will be exhumed, the report said.

“We are already making preparations,” Stubblefield said. “We don’t have a date, but we hope to be there this fall.”

Read about the efforts to identify the victims.

We’ve previously posted about the Tulsa Race Massacre.

More breaking news here.

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