BREAKING NEWS: Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum Makes Major Announcement In 1921 Graves Investigation
On Friday, the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma made an announcement regarding the 1921 Graves Investigation from the Tulsa Race Massacre.
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NewsTranscript
00:30Everybody ready to go? Okay. Well, thank you for being with us today. From the
00:38very beginning, at the forefront of this search have been the victims of the
00:441921 Tulsa Race Massacre. While this search is important for many reasons, at
00:50the most human level, for all of us who've worked on this search, we just
00:57wanted to find these victims and reunite them with their families. I committed the
01:02city from the outset to follow the truth wherever it led us, and at each step we
01:07have followed the guidance of the best technical experts in the whole world to
01:12determine what we should do. And those steps have been many. They began with
01:18historical research back in the late 1990s and early 2000s to identify
01:24potential locations where these graves may be located. Later on, geophysical
01:31work was done at those sites to try and narrow down within those sites
01:36potential areas that should be looked at. More recently, core sampling was done at
01:43each of these sites, again continuing to narrow that down. Then test excavations
01:48to see what might be underground in those spaces. Then full-bore excavations,
01:57which were carried out with painstaking care by the teams doing the work with
02:04respect for the remains both of victims and non-victims that were found along
02:10the way. Then after remains were found, there was forensic analysis in the field
02:16to determine if those remains should be exhumed. And if they were, then there was
02:22further forensic analysis in a lab. And if we were really fortunate, DNA was
02:30extracted and analyzed. And the last time that we held one of these press
02:35conferences, we were announcing that for the first time that we're aware of in
02:41human history, DNA profiles were able to be constructed of remains that had
02:48potentially been underground for over a century to try and work between DNA and
02:54genealogical records to identify who the remains in the ground were. For the
03:04remains that we knew as burial number three, that long line of testing and
03:11refining evidence led researchers to this letter written in 1936 by an
03:21attorney on behalf of his client who was seeking veterans benefits. And I want to
03:28read part of this. February 11th, 1936 to the Veterans Administration in Atlanta,
03:35Georgia. Gentlemen, a Negro woman, Amanda W. Daniel, has appealed to me for help in
03:42securing any benefits that may be due her or which she may secure under
03:48present regulations. She is in destitute circumstances. She had a son, C.L. Daniel,
03:56who served in the Army during the late war. She has no discharge and is going to
04:01have difficulty in establishing his death. C.L. was killed in a race riot in
04:08Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921, according to the best information that she has furnished
04:14to me. And it goes on. Today, because of the efforts of so many people, I can
04:22stand before you to announce that we've identified the first 1921 Tulsa Race
04:28Massacre victim since we began our search for them five years ago. C.L. Daniel
04:36was a veteran who served our country in World War I, who was killed in the 1921
04:45Tulsa Race Massacre, and whose family did not know where he had been buried for
04:51the last a hundred and three years, until this week. When I read that letter,
05:01as a parent, I can't help but think about his mom, Mrs. Daniel, who knew her brave
05:11son had been killed, but never knew what became of his remains. Identifying Mr.
05:19Daniel's remains has been, candidly, an emotionally powerful experience for
05:26every person on our team. It makes every challenging day of this search worth it,
05:32but it's also important in the larger context of this search. His remains show
05:39no signs of gunshot wounds. They were identified purely due to the expertise
05:45of our team of experts, and give us hope that other remains found in similar
05:52circumstances could be those of other victims. We also have documented evidence
05:58that there are at least 17 other victims buried in Oak Lawn Cemetery, so this
06:04identification affirms our need to continue this search with the knowledge
06:11that identification and reunification is possible. I want to express, as their
06:19elected spokesperson, Tulsa's profound gratitude to everyone who brought us to
06:25this day, from the local historians and leaders who developed the 2001 State
06:31Commission Report, to our team of experts who are pouring their hearts and minds
06:37into this search today. I want to thank my colleagues on the Tulsa City Council
06:42and the citizens of Tulsa for continuing to fund this search. There have been many
06:49times, as I've said, where it felt like we were searching for a needle in a pile
06:54of needles, but today I hope that this generation of Tulsans can appreciate
07:00that you've helped this family find their relative after he was missing for
07:06a hundred and three years. Now I'll turn it over to Allison Wilde with
07:13Intermountain Forensics, who's going to share more details on how we got here
07:18today. Thank you.
07:23I'm going to provide some details about how our team came to connect Burial 3
07:29with Mr. C.L. Daniel, and also give a little more context to his life. I want
07:35to emphasize that although you see one genealogist standing here today, I
07:39represent the entire team, which consists of not only Intermountain Forensics, but
07:45our dedicated partners who are professional genealogists from the
07:52organizations the DNA Doe Project, DNA Detectives, Identifinders International,
07:56and Moxie Forensics. Thousands of hours have been spent on the genealogy work
08:00to date, not just for this burial, but for all. As a team, we also realize we're
08:07only able to do our work because of the dedication of so many other
08:10organizations and individuals over the last hundred years that have brought us
08:14to this point. The goals of the 1921 graves investigation are to find and
08:19identify the victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre. I was confident that genetic
08:24genealogy could provide identifications, but today we know that the efforts of
08:30the community, the anthropology team, the archaeology team, they found the victims.
08:37As genealogists, our daily work centers around families and communities, and we
08:42have continually been humbled by the Greenwood and Tulsa Race Massacre
08:45descendant communities as they protect the history of and serve as the
08:49guardians of the unknown victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Today the family
08:53members of Mr. C.L. Daniel join those communities. I'm confident his next of
08:58kin, who we've worked with, and the memory of their loved one are in good
09:03hands. The community's dedication and the work of the city's 1921 graves
09:08investigation has led to an added chapter in the story of the events of
09:131921. To make the connection between burial three and Mr. Daniel, our work
09:21begins by comparing the DNA profiles in the Judd match and the family tree
09:24databases, which consists of everyday family history hobbyists. It's
09:36consumers and people that have taken DNA tests and placed it there. Unknowingly,
09:43they have contributed so much to this research. We then reach out to some of
09:50those individuals. We build the trees of many of those matching DNA relatives,
09:55and we start our work to say where and how might burial three fit into this
10:01web of families. You know early on we published a long list of surnames that
10:06were related to burial three and tied to the county of Coweta, Georgia. I think
10:14I've been saying that wrong for a very long time. And the families were very
10:19interrelated. It took a lot of time and effort to untangle those families, a lot
10:25of contact with descendants of families of interest who willingly shared their
10:32stories, their DNA were comfortable, and their time. The relatives or the people
10:39that we contacted who didn't share DNA, you helped. You helped us. The people who
10:44took a chance and answered the phone call of a stranger who wanted to talk
10:49about your family history, you helped us. And we want to thank them. It was only
10:54through those additional DNA comparisons that we were able to narrow our focus
10:57down to a set of brothers and begin requesting records of their lives, which
11:03led to the records from the National Archive that the mayor just discussed.
11:11I'd like to read a small portion of the life narrative created by the Burial
11:21Three team leader Janelle Daniels that she created for the family and the next
11:25of kin. CL Daniel, born in Noonan, Georgia, was one of seven sons born to Thomas and
11:32Amanda Merriweather Daniel. After the early death of their father, the Daniel
11:37family faced significant challenges. Their mother, Amanda, became a widow by
11:401910 and worked tirelessly to provide for her sons. Despite the hardships, the
11:46Daniel family together persevered and records show that by 1920, Amanda proudly
11:50owned their home, a testament to their hard work and resilience. I think it's
11:57only fitting that Amanda, this strong woman that our genealogy team came to
12:02know and love so well, is the reason that we're here today. It's her, it's her
12:08efforts, her perseverance that led to the documentation that was able to give us
12:16the answers that we were searching for. CL Daniel served his country during
12:22World War I. He was stationed at Camp Gordon. During his service there, he spent
12:2919 days in the base hospital. He was honorably discharged, having served with
12:33dedication for nine months and 16 days. In 1919, CL embarked on a journey across
12:40the United States, displaying an adventurous spirit and a longing to
12:44explore the country. In a heartfelt letter to the Army requesting veteran
12:48benefits, he expressed his commitment to the war effort and his ongoing struggle
12:51with the injuries he sustained. He sought assistance to secure employment and
12:56sustenance, hoping to return home to his beloved mother in Noonan, Georgia. That
13:00was in February of 1921. Tragically, CL's journey was cut short. Sometime while
13:09en route to Georgia from Ogden, Utah, which is only 45 minutes from the DNA
13:15lab that would eventually sequence his day, his DNA, and bring us here, he
13:21stopped in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it was there he became a victim of the 1921
13:26Tulsa Race Massacre. The research into CL Daniel and another missing brother is
13:32ongoing and will hopefully bring additional details of their lives and
13:36the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre to this community. Also ongoing, of course, is
13:40our research on the other burials in the genealogy phase. We encourage everyone to
13:45read the surnames and locations of interest that are posted on the City of
13:48Tulsa's website. If you recognize an ancestor's surname or family location,
13:53please contact the genealogy team. Use the provide information button on our
13:58website, which is Tulsa1921DNA.org, or you can email the genealogy team
14:04directly at IDTEAM at Tulsa1921DNA.org. If you've taken a consumer DNA test, such
14:13as AncestryDNA, MyHeritage23, and Me, you could be very useful to our project. We
14:21don't compare the burial profiles in those databases. We need you to take an
14:24extra step and upload that information to GEDmatch or FamilyTreeDNA, and then
14:30you will be directly compared to the burials in this project and may have a
14:34hand in guiding us toward the next identification. Last, I want to thank the
14:41next of kin of Burial 3 who shared their stories, families, and their DNA
14:46with our team. This is the beginning of a new phase of the 1921 graves
14:49investigation in which they will play a prominent part. We realize this news has
14:54come as a shock to them. The City has pledged their support to the
14:59family members, and we look forward to connecting them to the Greenwood and
15:04Tulsa Race Massacre descendant communities, as we know that they will do
15:08the same. I'd like now to turn it over to Ms. Brenda Alford, a representative of
15:16the descendant community. Good morning. This is an awesome day, a day that has
15:27taken forever to come to fruition, and I have to share with you, just to be honest,
15:34that when I heard this news, it brought tears to my eyes. I'm going to try to
15:38hold it in right now, but this is absolutely awesome. Today, I am thinking
15:48of the families and the community members who lost loved ones that they
15:51did not get to memorialize in the ways that they would want to do it.
15:57I just also think about the awesome experience that it's been for me to have
16:04the opportunity to work along these awesome people to help find the graves
16:10and the victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre. I am so very humbled and
16:16honored to stand here today to witness this time in history and this historic
16:24moment as it is. I want to again thank Mayor G.T. Bynum for allowing these
16:30processes to move forward after so, so many years, and to our awesome team
16:36members who have put so much work into these processes to bring us to this
16:43final situation and this day. I just want to give them a hand, I tell you. Please
16:51help me. And finally, I'd like to pay homage to our dear Lake Chair, Mr. Kevin
17:03Ross, who did so much to find the history and share the history of our community
17:09to make sure that we never forget what happened on Greenwood and Black Wall
17:15Street. We all know, standing here, that he would be so very, very proud and we
17:22are honored to carry on the legacies. Thank you.
17:31I really want to thank Ms. Alford, who's been just a tremendous leader on
17:38this every step of the way. You see her here at these press conferences, but she's
17:44out at every time out in the field helping the team. I think, as you can see,
17:55I'm going to avoid looking at my friends over here. I think we're all choked up about
18:00this. And this is one family. This is one family who gets to give a member of
18:11their family that they lost a proper burial after not knowing where they were
18:15for over a century. We know we have at least 17 more people to find in this
18:23cemetery, and it is so important that we keep that work going. So I also want to
18:30use this to announce, starting the week of July 22nd, our team of experts will be
18:36right back out there in Oaklawn, continuing the excavation and analysis
18:43and work that goes into finding these victims. And, as Allison mentioned, gives
18:52the DNA team and the genealogical team the resources and the material they
19:00need to try and find these families out there. So we will be back at it. Again, I
19:05want to thank my colleagues on the council who just adopted a budget a
19:10couple weeks ago that will fund this phase of the search. We are hopeful, and I
19:17want to reiterate Allison's point a moment ago, that there are other families
19:22out there that maybe didn't know about this search yet or were hesitant because
19:28they didn't know if it would really lead to being connected with their family
19:33member that they've lost and now can see from this that it is possible to
19:38find them. You can go to cityoftulsa.org slash 1921 graves and everything that we
19:46have from the city is on that site from the very beginning of this search to
19:51today. All the material that you need to learn about it or to participate in it
19:56is all right there and we hope that you will. Again, our thoughts today are
20:04with Mr. Daniel's family who, you know, we're emotional about this. I can't
20:09imagine how it is for them after so much time being reunited and with his remains
20:15and finally finding out where he's been. We're thinking of them and we're going
20:22to work with them every step of the way, whatever they decide they want to do
20:26moving forward with his remains. The City of Tulsa is fully supportive of that as
20:32his next of kin and we'll continue this search until we find everybody that we
20:39can. I would love to answer any questions that you have.
20:52I'm wondering if you could share any details on how you have authenticated this letter? Is there an original copy out there and what steps did you take to be sure that this letter was authentic?
21:10That's a great question. We received the letter directly from the National
21:15Archives. We have done no work to authenticate it. When I contacted the City
21:21of Tulsa, I think there was a decision making point, and I can't speak to their
21:27decision making point, but clearly there's a decision to be made. Do we
21:32continue to research in private before releasing any information or is
21:41information released to the community as soon as possible? And you can see the
21:46decision that was made. So our research is ongoing. We have a lot. We've
21:52already started reaching out and doing more, but a letter like that, a document
21:58like that, that comes out of the National Archives is too important to sit on.
22:03Before we get, I think it's important, like this letter didn't just fall out of
22:09the sky. It was located by Allison after finding, tracking down to the mother.
22:16Yes, yes. In case I wasn't clear in my first comments, the DNA
22:24reference testers and the research that we had done led us clearly to a set of
22:30brothers. In researching all those brothers, there were record
22:34requests and other attempts carried out by our team to get more information. One
22:41of our, some of the information had already come back and was not fruitful. This
22:45particular information was delivered to us this week, and as you saw, it was very fruitful.
22:51And we will, of course, we'll be providing that document and others
22:58that we're really fortunate that the federal bureaucracy sits on all that
23:03paperwork and collects it over the years, because it's been crucial in this,
23:06and we'll provide that to all of you as well.
23:10You also found a letter from February of 1921, and if so, does that letter specifically say he's going to Tulsa, or does it say he's going to Utah, and you figured he must have got off the train here, or something happened?
23:30The information all came from the same records request. There were several
23:33documents in that. The Veterans Administration and the War Risk Insurance
23:37Department were documenting requests for assistance. They had received a letter from
23:44him from Ogden, Utah, that was dated February 1921, that stated he was seeking
23:51assistance and that his intended goal was to travel back to Noonan, Georgia to be with
24:00his mother. There was no mention made of Tulsa. Yeah, no mention made of Tulsa.
24:07We can only assume that in his efforts to travel to her, he went through Tulsa,
24:14as we know he was here.
24:18I've got two questions. One of them is kind of a clarification. On some of these documents, they say C.L. Daniel or one of his siblings. You are now confident it is C.L. Daniel and not a brother?
24:33In terms of the DNA analysis, because C.L. didn't have any direct descendants, the brothers that had direct descendants, we had already been in the process of DNA reference testing.
24:48And so we know because of that that they bear the appropriate relationship to C.L., but it also could be one of his brothers.
24:57Unless you can compare your DNA directly to yourself or one of your descendants, when you get to the point of great nieces and nephews, they would all share the same amount of DNA with any of the brothers.
25:09So C.L. is the only brother that we have any context to place in Tulsa.
25:17So we can say it's definitely, we can say two things. C.L. Daniel was a victim of the Tulsa race massacre, according to his own mother.
25:26And that burial three is consistent with the DNA we would expect to see in C.L. Daniel or one of his brothers.
25:36As I mentioned, there is another brother that we're still researching that is also missing.
25:41We have no context to say for sure that he was ever in Tulsa or in Oklahoma. We will look for that.
25:48We've speculated as a team that what if the other brother was here as well and what if the other brother is one of the burials that we have not been able to bring to the genealogy phase yet.
26:00I know for sure none of the other burials are his brother because we compare the burials directly to each other and they're unrelated as of yet.
26:09But we will continue researching.
26:13My second question is about some of the word, especially on this map here. It says plot three. That is y'all's word, plot.
26:22There was no, they didn't bury him gently in a designated area. Is that still, he was dumped there. Is that still what happened there?
26:30Dr. Stubblefield.
26:33Oh, sorry. I'm Dr. Stubblefield. Am I too high? I'm short.
26:40I'm Dr. Stubblefield from the University of Florida, the lead forensic anthropologist on our investigation.
26:45To address your question about the plot three, Oak Lawn Cemetery, even to the white and colored potter's field, and we're digging in the colored potter's field area.
26:58I mean those are his actual names. I'm not hearkening to annoying terms.
27:03The cemetery was plotted to the burial. They had space allocations per burial.
27:11And so when we say plot three, it's really burial three, our third burial that we encountered.
27:17So not the city's.
27:20Okay.
27:24Question, Gary Lee from the Oklahoma Eagle. Really two questions.
27:29One is that I noted in the notes and I think that the mayor said that the cause of death was not really clear.
27:40I wonder if anything in the forensics indicated anything about any physical altercation that might have taken place on this particular day.
27:51Okay. So thank you for asking about his cause of death.
27:55So his remains were very fragmentary.
27:59That's a general theme of the remains coming from that portion of the cemetery.
28:03So by fragmentary, I mean before you move them, you might see that a bone is there and intact.
28:09And then once you move it to take it to the laboratory, it's in multiple pieces.
28:14And it has to do with just time and pressure.
28:18And some parts of him were in better shape than others.
28:21So he was in good enough shape for us to determine his skeletal age, that he was a young man.
28:27I'm not sure he even made 25.
28:30But as far as damaged trauma, I've even reviewed since then the images we had for his legs.
28:37I've looked at the notes.
28:39And he complained about leg pain.
28:41His disability was general debility in that packet in the information we have.
28:46So we've seen multiple individuals in the cemetery who have pathological conditions involving their legs.
28:54I didn't detect that for burial three, Mr. Daniel.
28:59But he was not well preserved.
29:04So if he was too young for arthritic changes and we didn't see any sign, we X-rayed every set of remains,
29:12and we didn't see any sign of gunshot wounds, but if the bullet doesn't hit bone or isn't retained within the body,
29:19how would we detect it?
29:21So, no.
29:23For every burial, and this in and of itself is one of our triumphs, that he is ID'd,
29:30despite that we could only hold him as a not excluded individual from being a victim.
29:38And now we know he is a victim.
29:42It's just, yeah, I'm still flabbergasted.
29:44Because I only saw the information a few days ago when Allison found it.
29:48And it's just, I've got to stop thinking about it.
29:52Okay.
29:53My second question is that the obviously very painstaking process that were used,
29:59the processes that were used in this particular case,
30:03will they be helpful going forward in examining the other cases out there?
30:10Or is every case different?
30:13Well, they are helpful because we now have a better grasp of how well preserved the individual should be
30:22for that section of the cemetery.
30:24My colleague, Dr. Stackelbeck, could speak to this better,
30:27but there are challenges to that location because the city long ago had filled in a stream bed
30:34to create more land to bury individuals in, and water still travels through there.
30:39So depending on the burial, sometimes it's better, worse.
30:44And keep in mind, we're also looking for individuals who had been burned,
30:49and so we don't yet know how that will add to the preservation.
30:55But knowing now what it looks like, what a level of preservation looks like for that time period, 1921,
31:04yes, it does help.
31:06And I have no doubt that we'll find more of them just based on his aspect, his buried aspect, his posture.
31:17Can I add to that a little bit?
31:21I think this, I'm Dr. Carrie Stackelbeck.
31:25I'm the state archaeologist of Oklahoma and also the lead archaeologist on our team.
31:30But what I would also add is context is so critically important.
31:35And so in this particular case, so I think you all have maps that have been provided.
31:41So it's not just about finding this one individual.
31:44It's finding him in relation to the other individuals that we have been examining in this part of the cemetery.
31:50He is in proximity to Burial 27, who was our first gunshot victim that we identified.
31:56We haven't identified him in terms of his name, but the first gunshot victim that we located.
32:02Also not terribly far off from Burial 42, who was another gunshot victim.
32:08Proximity to the headstones for Reuben Everett and Eddie Lockhart.
32:13So that's really important and tells us that we're in the right vicinity.
32:18But also what's important is the context of his burial specifically, the fact that he was buried in a simple wooden casket
32:25and that the casket itself was too small for his remains.
32:29He was forced to fit into this casket.
32:32His stature was such that they didn't construct a casket to suit him and his specific size,
32:38which is typically the case of normal honorific when you're burying an individual,
32:42even if you're constructing the casket and it's not one that's commercially made and bought from elsewhere.
32:49So they forced him into a casket that was too small for his stature.
32:53They had to bend his legs somewhat at the knee in order to get him to fit.
32:57His head and his feet both touched either end of the casket.
33:01Again, that just speaks to the fact that he was made to fit into a casket that was not really made for him.
33:07And so that's something that is one of the characteristics that we do see among some of our other burials
33:13that we have exhumed but have not yet yielded indications of trauma,
33:18that we still consider to be, to Phoebe's phrasing, not yet excluded.
33:23So we know that there are other individuals that are potential candidates who meet some of those same criteria
33:28that we continue to be interested in.
33:30Those individuals continue to be investigated by the IMF team for their genetic profile
33:36and hopefully will yield similar results.
33:39So I think when we hear the word first, we hope he's not the last.
33:43We hope that Mr. Daniel is not the last, and we are confident.
33:47No pressure, IMF, but we are confident that there will be others yet to be found
33:55as long as we have appropriate and good participation from other members of the public.
34:02I'll add one thing, if you don't mind, please.
34:06I'm Danny Helwig.
34:07I'm the Director of Laboratory Development at Intermountain Forensics on the lab side.
34:11And there's a really good question that was asked there
34:14because you have to realize that this really hasn't ever been done before.
34:19So all of this was based on a lot of really good science, an amazing team, and a lot of hope.
34:25But we've been learning through the process.
34:27And as we have learned and adapted and adjusted, we're getting better at it.
34:34So this is definitely something where we have the experience now on the next one and the one after that.
34:42And the second part of this, and Allison can allude to this, is community involvement.
34:49We have to thank the City of Tulsa, the community as a whole, for embracing us
34:54and just letting some strangers into your life to help this investigation.
34:59We hope this provides some confidence and context and maybe a lot more trust
35:06that we can expand upon this because the process is going to get easier for us.
35:14Mind you, it is extraordinarily difficult, but easier is better.
35:19And the more we have learned and adjusted, the better the next one will be.
35:25The community help is essential, and we appreciate it.
35:29And for two more questions, one right here.
35:31This question is for anyone and everyone involved in contacting the next kin that was involved.
35:36I know that it says that the City is not identifying them at the moment,
35:40but can you go into any detail regarding the process to contact them
35:44and then what information they were providing or what kind of reactions were
35:49when you presented them with information regarding their genealogy connected to Mr. Daniel?
35:55Yes.
35:58The genealogy team has been in contact with some of the next of kin
36:03before even knowing that they were next of kin, right?
36:08They were part of a list of a lot of people that we wanted to contact
36:13and get, hopefully, a DNA reference comparison from their family line to help us narrow in.
36:23The record collections and the DNA reference tests all kind of started coming back at the same time.
36:32That's why we were in a position to have some of the DNA reference tests already
36:37when this record was delivered to us this week.
36:40So in contact with them, our team has already been in contact with them.
36:46We realize now we have placed their family in a position where they're not residents of Tulsa or Oklahoma.
36:55They live in other states.
36:58We've brought this project not to their doorstep but into their lives, into their hearts.
37:09And when it was time to share with them the news, which happened all very quickly.
37:16This has all been just this week.
37:20When it was time to actually give them the direct news that it was their great uncle that was burial three
37:28and that was going to be a victim of the Tulsa race massacre,
37:32the city of Tulsa was involved in that Zoom call.
37:36We've had lots of conversations with family members about the family in general, right?
37:44That's what we've been trying to do is collect the stories.
37:48What did you hear handed down?
37:50Where did people go?
37:52Where did people travel?
37:53What were their occupations?
37:55Can you talk to all your cousins, the older people in your community?
38:00Who remembers what?
38:02So we've already had so many conversations about their families in general with many of them.
38:09And I think when we said, you know, we would like to schedule a meeting with you in the city of Tulsa,
38:17I can't imagine what they must have thought or felt.
38:24I think it's shocking news to say the least for the families.
38:29I think that, well, one step that still needs to be done,
38:34you would think that they would all know each other because they're next of kin.
38:38But they do not know each other.
38:41They're distantly related enough because of the passage of time that that introduction is still yet to come.
38:47So as a group, we know we've brought a lot into their lives.
38:52And that's something, as a genealogy team, we've talked about that.
38:55We feel responsibility to ease the transition into what has now been opened for them.
39:08Thank you, Allison.
39:09We have time for one more question.
39:11I was looking at Google Earth and comparing it to the map and everything we've known over the years.
39:15Has there been any discussion of some kind of marker or monument put out there to better honor those
39:22who are going to be identified or may not even ever be identified,
39:26but knowing what you know has happened out there?
39:29No, that is absolutely something that our team at the city has talked through as far as moving ahead.
39:38Especially we have remains that have not been identified but reinterred.
39:43How do we properly mark those?
39:46Because whether or not they're a Tulsa race massacre victim, they are still important to somebody.
39:55And we want to make sure that they're properly honored.
39:57So we've had those discussions as it relates specifically to Mr. Daniel, though.
40:02We just want to support whatever his family wants to do in that regard.
40:07And I think Allison's point is so well made.
40:11Try to put yourself in their shoes to have found this out this week
40:17and to have an ancestor that they did not know what happened to them for the last century plus.
40:24And my message to them is just we are here to support you and whatever we can do as a city to be of help
40:32as you decide what you want to do with his remains and to give him that proper burial that is so important for a family.
40:40We're here to support that.
40:43I really appreciate you all coming out today, helping spread the word about this investigation.
40:48We hope this will lead to more people participating in this search.
40:52And again, I just cannot say how grateful our city is for these folks who have,
41:00you're looking at a whole chain of this investigation and so many folks who aren't even with us anymore
41:07who were part of that developing that state report that really brought to light that these graves existed in the first place.
41:15All of them are standing with us today and their work made this possible.
41:23Thank you very much.