Lyda Conley

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Eliza Burton Conley
Lyda Conley
Died(1946-05-28)May 28, 1946
Kansas City
NationalityWyandot-American

Eliza Burton (Lyda) Conley (1869-1946[1]) was the first female lawyer of Indian descent.[2][1] She was the first Native American to argue in front of the Supreme Court.[1] She was known as the "Guardian of the Huron Cemetery."

Early Life[change | change source]

Lyda Conley was born in 1869.[1] She was a member of the Wayandotte Tribe.[1] She lived in Wyandotte County, Kansas. Her mother, Eliza Burton Zane Conley, was a member of the Wyandotte Tribe.[2] Her mother was a descendant of Chief Andrew Conley.[3] Her mother and her grandmother, Hannah Zane, were buried in the Huron cemetery.

Her father, Andrew Serenes Conley, was from New York.[3] He met and married Conley's mother in Ohio.[3] They moved to Kansas with the Wyandotte Tribe.[3][4]

The Wyandotte Tribe was from Ohio.[3][4] The US government forced the Wyandotte to give up their land in 1842.[4] They were forced to move to Kansas.[4] They were forced to a reservation on land bought from the Lenape peoples.[4] The new Wyandot land was protected by treaty with the federal government.[3]

Eliza Burton Conley had three sisters.[5] Two of her sisters were Helena (Lena) Gros Conley and Ida Conley. They helped her defend the graves of their family and ancestors at Huron Cemetery in Kansas City.

Career[change | change source]

Eliza Burton Conley graduated from the Kansas City School of Law in 1902.[1] She went to law school because the government threatened to sell her tribe's cemetery.[1]

Conley was admitted into the Missouri Bar Association in 1902.[2] and Kansas Bar Association in 1910. She became the first female lawyer of Indian descent.

She was the first Native American to argue in front of the Supreme Court.[1] She argued that the federal government had a duty to protect Native American burial sites.[2]

Huron cemetery case[change | change source]

The United States government guaranteed the protection of the Wyandotte Tribe's Huron Cemetery in a treaty.[2] The treaty was written in 1855.[2] In 1890 the government broke the treaty.[2] The government was going to sell the land to businesses.[2] The government also wanted to remove the bodies from the cemetery.[2] Congress approved the sale of the land in 1906.[2] Conley asked the court to stop the government from selling the land.[2]

Conley and two of her sisters defended the Huron Cemetery from 1907 to 1910.[2] They built a shack to live in.[2] Her sister guarded the fort while Conley fought off intruders.[2] Conley studied law books to prepare herself for cases while defending the cemetery. In 1910 the Supreme Court decided Congress could sell the land.[2]

The public was mad.[2] They scared away anyone who wanted to buy the land.[2] Conley and her sisters stopped the sale of the land.[2] She kept fighting to save it until she died.[2] It is now protected.[2] The cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places.[1]

Death[change | change source]

Eliza Burton Conley died when she was 72, on May 28th, 1946.[3] Her burial was on May 31, 1946.

References[change | change source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Kansas City Public Library. "Eliza 'Lyda Burton CONLEY". Missouri Valley Special Collections. KCHISTORY.ORG. Retrieved 2021-12-17.
  2. 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 "13 Pioneering Women in American Law - ABA Journal". American Bar Association Journal. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 "Helena Conley, the Conley Sisters [Kansas City, Kansan, 09/16/1958]". web.archive.org. 2006-09-29. Archived from the original on 2006-09-29. Retrieved 2022-03-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "Wyandot Indians - Ohio History Central". ohiohistorycentral.org. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  5. "THREE SISTERS' DEFENSE OF CEMETERY CONTINUED FOR NEARLY FORTY YEARS". Kansas City Times. June 7, 1946. Retrieved 2021-12-17.