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Race Massacre search season at Oaklawn ends for the year

Oaklawn Cemetery fence sign next to the entrance on 11th Street.
Ben Abrams
/
KWGS News

The sixth field season in the ongoing search for unidentified remains of victims from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre at Oaklawn Cemetery has wrapped up for this year.

Forensic experts and archeologists found 47 previously unrecorded burials this season.

Of those found, two are believed to have gunshot wounds, taking the total number of individuals with similar trauma found during the investigation to 10.

Field experts have also exhumed 29 people buried either partially under or outside of the cemetery’s fenceline.

They will be carefully examined at the onsite forensic lab and later reburied inside the fenced cemetery in accordance with state law.

Only nine people exhumed this season met the criteria for further analysis. They were adults, showed evidence of trauma and were found buried in a simple container.

The findings will take several months to analyze and afterwards, a complete report will be released.

To date, more than 300 previously unknown burials have been found at Oaklawn Cemetery since the investigation first began in June 2021.

Angel Ford stepped into the Morning Edition host and news reporter role at KWGS in April 2026 having obtained both a master’s and bachelor’s degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah.