Biography
Lyda Conley was a Wyandot lawyer — the first woman admitted to the Kansas bar — who fought for decades to stop the sale of the Huron Indian Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas, where her parents were buried. With her sisters she built an armed shack, "Fort Conley," inside the cemetery and physically guarded the graves. She was arrested multiple times for interfering with city officials and in June 1937 served ten days in jail rather than pay a fine for defending the cemetery. In 1909 she became the first Native American woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court (Conley v. Ballinger). (Recorded as Eliza Burton "Lyda" Conley)
The Kansas City Kansan’s May 28, 1946 obituary retrospectively describes a June 1929 confrontation over a retaining wall at Huron Cemetery. Lyda Burton Conley was forcibly removed and taken to jail, where she stayed rather than pay a $10 fine. The report does not give the exact arrest day or jail term; this episode is distinct from her existing June 1937 case. Source.