SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The remains of nine Native American children who died more than 100 years ago at the Carlisle Boarding School will return home to South Dakota today.

A ceremony was held in Sioux City Thursday night marking the journey home to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. The remains left the site of the former government run school in Pennsylvania earlier this week.

“This is a place and time for us to come together and heal and welcome these relatives through that never made it back home from what they call boarding school here or residential school in Canada back to their homelands so their relatives can take care of their remains and they can be in the place their suppose to be,” organizer Sikowis Nobiss said.

The Winnebago Tribe held a community meal and prayer service Thursday night for the children at the War Eagle Monument in Sioux City.

The children’s remains will return to Rosebud on Friday, making several stops along the way, including on the Yankton Sioux Reservation.

KELOLAND’s Dan Santella is following the journey home and will have the story tonight on KELOLAND News.