Artifact #1: Deoli Gate Sketch

This original sketch was hand-drawn and shared with the survivor community by Ming Tung Hsieh, author of A Lost Tribe. 

Photograph of Ming-Tung Hsieh's sketch of Deoli Camp, shared on June 29, 2025

The watercolor version is a recreation of Ming Tung’s sketch after survivors observed the original and began to remember more details worth adding. 

"I only saw the front of this gate maybe 4 times the entire time I was there."

Camp internees likely only had 4 opportunities to see the front of the gate during their time at Deoli: their arrival, their exit to go on one trip outside of the camp, their return from their trip, and their final departure from the camp. A long barbed wire passageway was used to corral people through the gate opening. More barbed wire surrounded the camp to prevent escapes, and thin wild dogs living outside of the fence were a reminder to internees of their imprisonment. Of course, the broad expanse of the desert likely discouraged any attempts to leave Deoli. The front gate was a wide swinging door, flanked by armed guards. The Indian army was likely stationed there, as the internment camp was operated by the central government. 

Who are our (gate)keepers?

Survivors reflected upon the camp as a symbol of the social and political gatekeeping that facilitates events like internment. While true that centralized governments are mechanisms of internment, it is everyday people who may be at the end of suffering or corralling people on their way to it. At the same time, it can be through ordinary people who can choose to not facilitate these acts, or even subvert them.