{{Short description|American Wyandot activist (1864–1958)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Helena Conley | image = Helena Conley (Wyandot Nation of Kansas Archives, 1930).png | caption = Conley in 1930 | alt = 20th-century B&W portrait photo of a Native American woman looking at the camera, wearing a dark hat, fur-collared coat, sparkling necklace, and pale blouse. | native_name = Floating Voice | birth_date = {{Birth date|1864|09|10}} | birth_place = Nearman, Wyandotte County, Kansas, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1958|09|15|1864|09|10}} | death_place = Kansas City, Kansas, US | resting_place = Wyandot National Burying Ground | education = Park College | occupation = Activist, herbalist | known_for = Defense of Huron Cemetery, "The Wyandot Curse" | relatives = {{plist| *Lyda Conley (sister) *Chief Tarhe (great-great-grandfather) }} | family = Zane family }}
'''Helena Gros Conley''' (September 10, 1864 – September 15, 1958) was a Wyandot activist and self-styled sorceress known for her fierce defense of the Huron Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas. Along with her sisters, Lyda and Ida, she gained national attention for occupying the cemetery in a makeshift fort to prevent its sale and development by the federal government. Conley was particularly noted for her role in physically guarding the grounds, her use of curses against political opponents, and her reputation as a "force to be reckoned with."
== Early life and education == Helena Conley was born on September 10, 1864, on a farm near Nearman station in Wyandotte County, Kansas.<ref name=":0">{{cite news |date=September 16, 1958 |title=Descendant Of Wyandot Tribe Dies |url=https://www.kckpl.org/media/document/423 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251225031537/https://www.kckpl.org/media/document/423 |archive-date=December 25, 2025 |work=The Kansas City Kansan |page=1}}</ref> She was the third of four daughters born to Andrew Serenes Conley and Eliza Burton Zane.<ref name=":0" /> Her father was born in New York and died in 1885, while her mother was born in Ohio and died in 1879.<ref name=":0" /> Through her mother, Conley was one-sixteenth Wyandot and the great-great-granddaughter of Chief Tarhe, a distinguished head of the Wyandot tribe and the Huron confederacy.<ref name=":0" />
Her mother had received a 65-acre land grant at the age of 17, which became the family farm where Helena and her sisters were born.<ref name=":0" /> Around 1890, the sisters were forced to abandon the farm after the Missouri River eroded the land on its south bank.<ref name=":0" /> Following this loss, they moved to 1712 N. 3rd Street in Kansas City, Kansas, a property willed to them by their aunt, Sarah Zane.<ref name=":0" />
Conley pursued higher education at Park College, rowing a boat across the Missouri River daily to attend classes.<ref name=":0" /> As a young woman, she was secretary of the Sunday school at Six Mile Methodist Church and later became a member of the Seventh Street Methodist Church.<ref name=":0" /> For a time, she also worked as an instructor and matron for girls at the Wyandot Indian reservation in Oklahoma.<ref name=":0" />
== Defense of Huron Cemetery == Following the deaths of their parents, Helena and her sisters, Lyda and Ida, learned that the Huron Cemetery, a sacred Wyandot burial ground, was being targeted for sale and development.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Lastelic |first=Joe |date=1959-05-17 |title=Curse May Play Role in Cemetery Combat |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-star-curse-may-play-role/187412787/ |access-date=2025-12-25 |work=The Kansas City Star |pages=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Contending that the ground was sacred and should not be disturbed, the sisters launched a multi-year campaign to resist the sale.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=1922-10-25 |title=Body of White Man in an Indian Cemetery |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sioux-city-journal-body-of-white-man/187412584/ |access-date=2025-12-25 |work=The Sioux City Journal |pages=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
In a direct act of occupation, the sisters moved onto the cemetery grounds to protect them.<ref name=":1" /> On July 25, 1907, they constructed a 6-by-8-foot frame structure, which they named "Fort Conley," and surrounded it with a fence of iron spokes.<ref name=":1" /> For two years, they lived in the small shack.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Denesha |first=Julie |date=2025-09-03 |title=A new Kansas City monument tells how 'Wyandot women warriors' defended a tribal burial ground |url=https://www.kosu.org/race-culture/2025-09-03/a-new-kansas-city-monument-tells-how-wyandot-women-warriors-defended-a-tribal-burial-ground |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250910053838/https://www.kosu.org/race-culture/2025-09-03/a-new-kansas-city-monument-tells-how-wyandot-women-warriors-defended-a-tribal-burial-ground |archive-date=2025-09-10 |access-date=2025-12-25 |work=KOSU |language=en}}</ref> They maintained their vigil for nearly five years in total, defying United States marshals and police who attempted to interfere.<ref name=":1" />
During this occupation, the sisters armed themselves with their father's musket.<ref name=":1" /> Although the gun was reportedly not loaded, their armed presence was a deterrent.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news |last=Reynolds |first=Monica V. |date=November 11, 2023 |title=Guardians Of Hallowed Grounds |url=https://kcindependent.com/guardians-of-hallowed-grounds/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250611190119/https://kcindependent.com/guardians-of-hallowed-grounds/ |archive-date=2025-06-11 |access-date=2025-12-25 |website=Kansas City Independent |language=en-US}}</ref> Helena Conley was described as a "force to be reckoned with".<ref name=":3" /> She wore a rattlesnake necklace as a protective amulet and frequently threatened curses upon anyone who disturbed the graves.<ref name=":3" /> In one instance involving her own property, a neighbor alerted her that men were cutting down trees on her land. She forcefully expelled the men, returning from the altercation with blood running from her ears.<ref name=":4" />
She showed compassion during the occupation.<ref name=":5">{{cite journal |last1=Leeds |first1=Stacy L. |author-link=Stacy Leeds |last2=Gunsaulis |first2=Elizabeth Mashie |date=Spring 2012 |title=Resistance, Resilience, and Reconciliation: Reflections on Native American Women and the Law |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/tjeflr34&i=310 |journal=Thomas Jefferson Law Review |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=303-324}}</ref> On one occasion, she caught a young boy climbing the cemetery fence and confronted him. Upon learning he was climbing in to visit his little brother's grave, she brought him into the shack to comfort and console him.<ref name=":5" />
Her activism continued into the 1920s. On October 24, 1922, the body of a white man, Frank Epsy, was buried in the Huron Cemetery.<ref name=":2" /> Helena stood at the head of the grave, accompanied by police officers and a welfare officer.<ref name=":2" /> Raising her right arm, she commanded, "I forbid this burial," and delivered a curse in the Wyandot language against the dead man's soul and those responsible for the interment, using "dam" and "hell" as "trimmings" for the curse.<ref name=":2" />
Weeks later, on November 8, 1922, her vigil was halted when she was arrested for disturbing the peace after wiring the cemetery gate shut.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |date=1922-11-09 |title=Helena Conley in a Cell |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-times-helena-conley-in-a/187412619/ |access-date=2025-12-25 |work=The Kansas City Times |pages=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Upon her arrest, she refused to give her name or age to the police sergeant.<ref name=":6" />
=== The Wyandot Curse === Conley cultivated a reputation as a "self-styled sorceress" and was a reputed witch and herbalist.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /> She claimed her power to curse was transmitted to her by a tribal witch who offered her a choice between money and power. Conley chose power.<ref name=":1" />
She placed curses on numerous public figures, including Presidents, members of Congress, and mayors.<ref name=":1" /> She attributed the death of Senator Preston B. Plumb to her curse after he introduced a resolution to sell the cemetery in 1890. Plumb died a year later.<ref name=":1" /> She also claimed responsibility for the political defeats of president Theodore Roosevelt, who had signed the bill authorizing the sale, and attributed the deaths of his two sons in war to her curse.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":7">{{cite news |date=September 19, 1958 |title=Last of Conleys Joins Family |url=https://www.kckpl.org/media/document/424 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251225031242/https://www.kckpl.org/media/document/424 |archive-date=December 25, 2025 |work=The Kansas City Kansan |page=5}}</ref> In later years, she asserted that a 1951 flood in Kansas City was caused by a curse she placed on the city after her home was sold for taxes.<ref name=":7" />
== Later life and death == In her later years, Conley lived at 1704 North Third Street in Kansas City, where she often recounted stories of her curses to visitors.<ref name=":1" /> She was the last survivor of her immediate family.<ref name=":1" />
Conley died at her home on September 15, 1958, at the age of 94, believed to have suffered a heart attack.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Funeral services were held at Gibson Chapel and officiated by reverend Judd Jones.<ref name=":7" /> Although she had previously expressed a wish in 1956 to have her ashes thrown into the Missouri River, she changed her mind and requested burial in a walnut casket.<ref name=":7" />
She was buried in the Huron Cemetery. Her tombstone bears the Wyandot name "Floating Voice" and the inscription: "Cursed Be The Villain That Molest Their Graves".<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":7" /> At her funeral, a friend sprinkled sweet balsam on her coffin, fulfilling a specific request Conley had made.<ref name=":7" />
== References == {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Conley, Helena}}
Category:1864 births Category:1958 deaths Category:Wyandot people Category:People from Kansas City, Kansas Category:20th-century Native American women Category:Native American women activists Category:Activists from Kansas Category:Park University alumni Category:Methodists from Kansas Category:Herbalists Category:Activists for Native American rights Category:Native American people from Kansas