First Tulsa Race Massacre victim ID’d in graves investigation was WWI vet

Written By John Dobberstein

(TULSA, Okla.) Tulsa officials announced Friday that a 5-year investigation of grave sites in the city has produced the first identification of a Tulsa Race Massacre victim among the remains.

Read this story on Broken Arrow Sentinel here. 

In a press conference, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said the man is C.L. Daniel, a U.S. Army veteran who served during World War I who next of kin’s DNA is tied with a burial from the 2021 excavation at Oaklawn Cemetery.

City officials said the discovery is the first to reveal the name of a Tulsa Race Massacre victim outside of those previously noted in the Oklahoma Commission’s 2001 Report.

Among those names were Reuben Everett and Eddie Lockard, whose headstones are the only known markers of massacre victims and are located near the grave that C. L. is connected to, the city said.

Daniel’s family did not know where he was buried for the last 103 years, until this week, Bynum said.

“I want to express Tulsa’s profound gratitude to everyone who brought us to today — from the local historians and the leaders who developed the 2001 State Commission Report to our team of experts, who are pouring their hearts and minds into this search today,” Bynum said.

“I want to thank my colleagues on the Tulsa City Council and the citizens of Tulsa for continuing to fund this search. I hope this generation of Tulsans can appreciate that you helped this family find their relative after he was missing for 103 years.”

The circumstances of C. L.’s death are unknown. But the city said his connection to the Tulsa Race Massacre was confirmed this week when Intermountain Forensics, the laboratory assisting the city with DNA and genealogical analysis, was able to recover records from the National Archives.

Contained in the records was the most convincing piece of evidence, the city said, tying him to the Tulsa Race Massacre — a letter from C. L.’s family attorney written to the U.S. Veteran’s Administration on behalf of C. L.’s mother regarding C. L.’s survivor benefits.

“As genealogists, our daily work centers on families and communities,” said Alison Wilde, Genealogy Case manager for the City’s 1921 Graves Investigation project. “We are continually humbled by the Greenwood and Tulsa Race Massacre descendant communities, as they protect the history of, and serve as guardians of, the unknown victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre.”

Based on letters written by C. L. Daniel in February of 1921, C. L. was in Utah working to find a job and a way back home to his mother in Georgia, the city said. While it is unclear why C. L. was in Tulsa, the notes from his mother’s attorney and another letter – one from a U.S. Congressman from Georgia – corroborate one another in that C. L.  died in 1921 in Oklahoma, records show.

The second letter states in part that “C. L. Daniel was killed in Oklahoma some time shortly after his discharge…”

The city said C. L. Daniel is connected to Burial 3, located in what has historically been referenced as the “Original 18” area. It’s of note that when Burial 3 was uncovered in 2021, forensic anthropologists did not note any apparent trauma associated with the burial. But with 100-year-old remains, finding trauma can be difficult, experts said.

Using data submitted through GEDmatch and Family Tree DNA, which are both online services that allow DNA testers to be compared to the DNA recovered through the 1921 Graves Investigation, Intermountain Forensics was able to contact several individuals who share a portion of their DNA with Burial 3.

Utilizing DNA testers as a starting point, Intermountain Forensics researched and contacted people and reference tested willing participants until they were able to narrow their focus to the Daniel family. Using genealogical research from family lines of those DNA reference testers, three brothers from around the time of the Tulsa Race Massacre were identified.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed,” Tulsa Race Massacre Descendant Brenda Nails-Alford said. “But nothing can be changed until it is faced. Just keep living, and you’ll understand.”

“This is the first time that any unit of American government has intentionally sought to locate and identify the remains of historic victims of racial violence in the United States,” said Scott Ellsworth, the historian and Tulsa native who launched the search for the unmarked graves in 1999. “That the DNA and genealogical team was able to identify Mr. Daniel’s remains is both an astonishing research achievement, and a crucial step in addressing the harm that was done more than one hundred years ago.”

Fourth Excavation Planned at Oaklawn

Due to recent findings and following receipt of the latest Oaklawn Cemetery summary report and proposed next steps from the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey, the city of Tulsa and field experts will begin a fourth excavation at Oaklawn Cemetery starting the week of July 22.

The summary report, which can be found at www.cityoftulsa.org/1921graves, details several new recent findings from forensic anthropologists about the remains at Oaklawn Cemetery, the largest updates of which pertain to two burials:

Burial 45 – After continued research into exhumed remains from past excavations, Burial 45 from the 2022 excavation appears to have been exposed to burning postmortem. The burial was a male in a plain wooden casket too small for his length.

Burial 101 – Continued research also suggests Burial 101 from the September 2023 excavation may have evidence of a possible gunshot wound. In their research, the forensic team detected metallic particles near the humerus, potentially consistent with a gunshot wound, but not definitive.

Currently, there are four burials with evidence of trauma or possible trauma. Burials 42 (gunshot victim from second excavation), 45, 101, and 27 (gunshot victim from first excavation) are not all located next to one another and were found in three separate areas.

Considering the evidence that Burial 3 is C. L. Daniel or one of his siblings, there is a high likelihood that any remains with trauma in previously excavated areas could be additional Tulsa Race Massacre victims, experts said.