the area. By 1907 it was a prime site, near a new Carnegie Library, the Grund Hotel, and the Masonic Temple under reconstruction after a fire. In 1906, the Wyandotte Nation authorized the Secretary of Interior to sell the cemetery, with the bodies to be reinterred at nearby Quindaro Cemetery. This proposal was opposed by Lyda Conley and her two sisters in Kansas City, who launched what became a multi-year campaign to preserve the burying ground. They achieved much support. In 1916, Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas, who was of partially Native American descent, won passage of a bill protecting the cemetery as a national park and providing some funds for maintenance. Ironically, it was the dispute over this cemetery, that saved the tribe from termination during the 1950s. Over the years, the Wyandotte Nation continued to explore ways to increase revenues for the tribe, including redevelopment of the Huron Cemetery. Descendants in Kansas vigorously resisted these efforts. In 1971, the cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1998, the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma and the Wyandot Nation of Kansas reached agreement to preserve the Wyandot National Burying Ground for religious, cultural, and related uses appropriate to its sacred history and use. Wendat Confederacy In August 1999, the Wyandotte Nation joined the contemporary Wendat Confederacy, together with the Wyandot Nation of Kansas, Huron-Wendat Nation of Wendake (Quebec), and the Wyandot of Anderdon Nation in Michigan. The tribes pledged to provide mutual aid to each other in a spirit of peace, kinship, and unity. This followed an important meeting of Huronia reconciliation in Midland, Ontario, Canada, attended by representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy, Wyandotte nations, British, French, Dutch, Anglican Church and Catholic Jesuit brothers. The weekend of events was organized by the Huronia Reconciliation Committee. See also Leaford Bearskin (1921–2012), Chief of the Wyandotte Nation (1983–2011) Bertrand N. O. Walker (1870-1927), writer who published under his Wyandotte name, Hen-Toh Wyandot for early tribal history in Ohio References External links 7th Street Casino, official website Nation Native American tribes in Oklahoma Federally recognized tribes in the United States