Written by: Gloria Kosir

University of Iowa College of Law Professor Bethany Berger, who holds the Allan D. Vestal Chair in Law, recently published an editorial in the Des Moines Register about Sergeant John Rice’s curbed burial in Sioux City, Iowa, and the resulting unity demonstrated in the following years.

Berger is a nationally renowned expert in federal Indian law and a decorated legal author and historian. Her piece chronicles the events that took place 74 years ago, detailing the cemetery’s decision to block the fallen soldier’s burial on the basis of his Native American heritage, as well as the local and national responses.

Berger also outlined ensuing legal results that emerged from the affair, including the 1953 Iowa Legislature outlawing private cemeteries from denying burial because of a person’s race as well as a lawsuit between Rice’s widow and the cemetery.