Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Wisconsin Bill to Make It Easier to Destroy Indian Mounds

From the  Jan. 17, 2016, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Mounds should remain part of landscape" by Mary Louise Schumacher.

A protest was held in Madison.  The bill is supported by Redi-Mix which is in  a legal battle with Ho-Chunk Nation over control of mounds in one of its quarries.

Not much is known about the mounds, but they were already here when Europeans first arrived.  As many as 20,000 of these earthen sculptures were built.

They were created by native people from about 800 B.C. to 1000 A.D. and were especially numerous in the southern part of Wisconsin.  They became an significant obstacle for early white farmers.  Some were huge like the destroyed bird effigy near Muscoda which had a wingspan of a quarter mile.

Many mounds contain burial remains and it is estimated that about 80% of them have already been lost

The bill from Sen. Chris Kapenga and Rep. Robert Brooks places a significance on whether the mound contains actual burial remains.

Here's Hoping They Keep Them.  --Cooter

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