A later reburial — in a more deliberate, permanent location, further from the Army post and more deeply integrated into the Lakota homeland — might then have occurred.

Some accounts point toward this two-stage burial as the explanation for why accounts of the burial location don’t always agree: different people know about different stages.

If this account is accurate, the earlier burial location might be in northwestern Nebraska, closer to Fort Robinson, while the later and permanent burial might be somewhere in South Dakota, in the Pine Ridge country or the adjacent area.

This possibility is mentioned in some historical treatments of the burial mystery, but it remains unconfirmed.