Five years ago, had someone said, “Is nothing sacred anymore? What’s next, they’re going to dig up gravesites?” it would have been characterized as hyperbole. Unfortunately, today this is reality. The Legislature is continuing its special-interest give-away with a new bill that actually allows the excavation of burial sites.
AB 620, allows the desecration and destruction of Ho-Chunk Nation effigy mounds. The bill allows excavation of these effigy mounds solely to determine whether human remains are present. Excavating these mounds leads to the destruction of an irreplaceable historical, spiritual, and cultural site sacred to the Ho-Chunk Nation. The company cannot move forward in complete destruction if remains are found. However, the disruption of the mound contradicts the purpose for the protection in the first place. Regardless of whether human remains are interred at the site, the leveling of the effigy mounds would destroy a cultural and sacred site important to the Ho-Chunk Nation and Wisconsinites who care about land and cultural preservation and the history of its peoples.
The worst part is that this bill is that it has been proposed solely to benefit limestone miners Wingra Stone and Redi-Mix. It’s the latest in a string of special interest bills introduced by legislators granting special favors to industry and developers outside of their districts and constituents. Current law essentially prohibits this activity. The change is being sought to enable a company to potentially extract up to $15 million in limestone aggregate.
Wingra Stone and Redi-Mix owns the 57-acre quarry containing the effigy mounds in Blooming Grove. The effigy mounds, created by the Mound Builder Culture (of which the Ho-Chunk are descendants), are currently protected by a 1986 law that allows the State Historical Society to identify and protect burial sites and their surrounding lands. Yet the quarry company is disputing those findings based on ground radar studies and other technologies, claiming there is no evidence of human remains.
The Ho-Chunk Nation, however, is standing by its long history of religious and oral traditions which state that these effigy mounds signify burial grounds. The State Historical Society ruled in favor of the Ho-Chunk in 2012, citing the lack of evidence that the mounds do not contain human remains. The state Division of Hearings and Appeals also denied a permit to excavate in July 2014. But an appeal filed by Wingra in May 2015 overruled the 2014 finding. The State Historical Society and Ho-Chunk Nation subsequently appealed, and a cross-appeals consolidation is now on the table for future consideration.
This attack on the prohibition on disturbing effigy mounds that could lead to the destruction of sacred sites is shocking. More-so, the fact that this is just to allow more limestone mining is appalling. Wingra Stone and Redi-Mix is working to circumvent previous decisions denying permits to destroy the site. It’s shamefull that the legislature is working to help them with this special treatment and provide another giveaway for the the developers, industry, and mining companies.
A similar attempt to profit from lands owned by tribal peoples occurred in 1971, when Northern States Power Company tried to renew a lease to operate a dam near Winter, Wis. The Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Chippewa took the company to court, citing the destructive actions of flooding to their burial grounds, rice beds and homes. The Tribe eventually won a settlement a decade later, after much heartache and division.
The Sierra Club is urging members and the public to attend at rally in opposition to this bill:
Save The Mounds Rally
Tuesday, January 12
Noon – 2 PM
West side of the state Capitol building in Madison.
The rally will urge lawmakers to protect these historical and culturally significant places. More information can be found at: http://savethemounds.com/ and on the Ho-Chunk Nation’s site at ho-chunknation.com