Subjects
Federal laws
State laws
Some preserved sites.
Some history and culture
Controversies Concerning Archaeology
American Indian Voices
News Archives Index
Return to main Learn page
Please inform the webmaster of any broken links!
| News Items
Posted to NDN AIM by Erthavengr
Monday, March 31, 2003
Ojibwe band may regain ancestors' burial ground
SURPLUS PROPERTY: The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa may gain control of 18 acres at the end of Wisconsin Point that it lost in 1918.
BY STEVE KUCHERA
NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Nearly 90 years after their forebears were evicted from Wisconsin Point, Ojibwe Indians may regain control over a small part of the land.
If successful, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa might use the former U.S. Army Corps of Engineer property at the end of Wisconsin Point as a cemetery for human remains removed from the point in 1918.
The remains were reburied in a mass grave in Superior's St. Francis Cemetery.
"If we are successful in getting the property back, we would give due consideration for a reburial back on Wisconsin Point for those individuals that were put in that mass grave," said Band Chairman Robert "Sonny" Peacock. "And we would like to keep that area as a historical site, probably educational as well."
The Army declared the 18.2-acre property to be surplus late in 2002. Earlier this year, the General Services Administration, which will dispose of the property, asked other federal agencies if they wanted the land.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs responded in March that it wants to obtain the property and hold it in trust for the Fond du Lac Band. No money would change hands if the transaction advances.
The bureau will submit a formal application for the property to the General Serv- ices Administration later this month, BIA environmental scientist Herb Nelson said. The General Services Administration will review the application when it arrives.
"If it's complete, we approve it, and the property is transferred," said General Services Administration real estate specialist Arthur Ullenberg.
The property includes two houses, a four-bay garage and a dock that were part of a former U.S. lighthouse station built about 1912. The Corps would reserve an easement on 3.33 acres to allow for work on the road and shipping channel.
The federal government has owned the property since it was condemned in 1901. The Ojibwe lost the rest of Wisconsin Point about 1918 in a dispute with the Interstate Railroad Co.
In 1914, area Ojibwe petitioned President Woodrow Wilson and Indian Commissioner Cato Sells for help in the ownership dispute.
"We do with horror contemplate being torn from the property of our fathers on Wisconsin Point, our dear honored dead removed and the sacred cemetery desecrated," they wrote. "Seven generations and more lie buried in this cemetery, including Chief O-sa-gie."
But corporate interests prevailed, and the Ojibwe and some of their graves were moved.
"We found one paper that was written by a young man who was a water boy out there when they were moving the cemetery," Superior Area Indian Center President Robert Miller said. "They only moved the graves that were well-marked. Out of about 300 bodies that were out there, they moved about 180. My grandmother knew where a lot were."
Miller's grandmother was raised on the point. He said there were about seven homes in the village when its residents were evicted.
Today, some people still consider the area to be sacred. Graves remain under the point's road and one of its parking lots, said Miller, who opposes talk to either expand the road or extend the Osaugie Trail onto the point.
The paved bike trail is named for a Fond du Lac leader, the Chief O-sa-gie of the 1914 petition.
Peacock said there is no timetable for the possible movement of graves back to the point if the band regains control of the land.
"That's a technical point, a cultural religious point that I can't even approach," he said. "I don't know what the medicine people would say on something like that. I don't know what the process would be."
Because federal agencies get the first chance to obtain surplus federal property, the Bureau of Indian Affairs application on behalf of the Fond du Lac Band likely dashes the University of Wisconsin-Superior's desire to obtain the land for itself.
UWS's Lake Superior Research Institute has talked about using the area for natural and cultural education.
The UWS institute operates the research vessel L.L. Smith, which is also used for education. UWS once leased the Wisconsin Point property but let the lease lapse during a budget crunch in 1986. The L.L. Smith now docks in Minnesota.
"We understand it's property that's important to the tribe, and would be satisfied if they gain ownership of it," UWS spokeswoman Beth George said.
Posted to NDN AIM by Ishgooda
AGNES DIGGS Staff Writer
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030405/62023.html
TEMECULA ---- Grading at a local development site has been halted after heavy
equipment unearthed artifacts and human remains from what is presumed to be
an
Indian burial site.
A portion of the approximately 32 acres of the mixed-use residential and
commercial project along Highway 79 South has been cordoned off while the
developer, city officials and representatives of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno
Indians come to terms on how to proceed.
About a month ago, tribal monitors found scattered human bone fragments as
they
examined the excavated earth. During the past three weeks, remains of seven
humans, including an intact infant, were found in their original place. The
tribe is hoping for some project design changes that would protect the burial
sites, which could date back to the late 1700s and the arrival of the
Spanish.
Reburying the remains elsewhere is not an option, because of traditional
beliefs, said Mark Macarro, tribal chairman. Calling it a rare find, Dave
Hogan, principal planner for the city of Temecula, said a discovery of this
magnitude was a surprise to everybody. That it involved human remains
complicates matters, Hogan said.
"There's a religious and cultural component to this," Hogan said. "It's part
of
(the Pechanga) heritage which the tribe is trying to preserve. That's
something
that at the city we are aware of and we support their concerns."
Hogan said the developer is not happy about the find but is trying to come to
an agreement on disposition of the remains. The property owner, David Esoldi
of
Temecula Creek Village LLD did not return phone calls made late Friday.
Macarro confirmed that the developer agreed to use less destructive machinery
to do the digging once the remains had been found.
The California Environmental Quality Act, which requires an environmental
impact report calls for closure once the report has been filed. The loophole
is
that the sites were discovered after the approvals had been given.
"The way the law is written leaves no remedies under (the act), which is
supposed to protect these sacred sites," said Laura Miranda, an attorney
representing the tribe. If the information had been available before the
approval, the project might not have been approved by the government, she
said.
Once the bones were found, the process became legal as well as cultural. They
are sent to the county coroner to determine if they are modern, Western or
Indian. Once that determination is made, he notifies the Native American
Heritage Commission, which then contacts the most likely descendant ---- in
this case the Pechanga.
The tribe has a contractual agreement with the developer that sets forth its
rights, including wording on the disposition of remains, Miranda said. The
next
step, mediation, is expected to begin in a few weeks and will include the
Heritage Commission, she said.
Pechanga is not against development generally," Miranda said. "It's just that
we're trying to protect our culture and practice our religion, and this is
what
it boils down to ---- tribal self-governance and the Indians' right to
practice
their religion."
Contact staff writer Agnes Diggs at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2621, or
adiggs@californian.com
Posted to NDN AIM by Erthavenger
Friday, April 11, 2003
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/04/11/state1
(04-11) 12:14 PDT COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) --
The Coeur d'Alene Tribe is preparing a final resting place for the ancient
skull of an Indian woman found during a police raid.
The skull, missing its lower jaw, was found Feb. 20 in a closet, tucked
inside a motorcycle helmet as police served a warrant in the house.
Investigators sent the skull to Kootenai County Coroner Dr. Robert West, who
immediately was struck by its apparent age and sent it to Eastern Washington
University for more precise identification by anthropologists.
Sarah Keller, chairwoman of the university's anthropology department,
determined that it belonged to an American Indian woman, most likely in her
mid-30s but somewhere between 25 and 40 years old, who ate a diet of
stone-ground foods.
Keller was not able to pinpoint the era in which the woman lived, only that
it was not recent. She also was unable to determine tribal affiliation.
Richard Mullen, who handles cultural issues for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe,
accepted the skull from Sgt. Don Ashenbrenner on Thursday.
"With the help of police, this woman was treated humanely and with dignity,"
Mullen said. "She was somebody's mother and somebody's sister, and that's how
we look at it."
Coeur d'Alene police said three men arrested at the house denied any
knowledge of the skull.
Posted to NDN AIM by Karen McCormick
Posted: April 14, 2003 - 10:57am EST
by: James May / Indian Country Today
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - In a signing ceremony staged at his capitol
office, California Gov. Gray Davis signed Senate Bill 22 into law,
which is aimed to protect a Quechan tribal sacred area from a
proposed nearby open pit gold mine.
"We're sending a message that sacred sites are more important than
gold," said Gov. Davis in a short speech that preceded the actual
signing of the bill.
The signing ceremony included tribal officials as well as state
legislators who had worked on the bill, including its author Sen.
Byron Sher, D-Palo Alto.
The bill is the result of several months' effort by the Davis
administration to protect the Quechan site after he had vetoed a more
broadly based sacred sites protection bill last year. After vetoing
that bill Gov. Davis singled out the Quechan tribe and said he would
specifically work to protect that site.
The language of the bill essentially deals directly with open pit
mining operations near sacred sites and requires that all such
projects be back filled and restored to "pre-mining conditions." The
protected area effects an 880-foot deep, one-mile wide open pit,
cyanide leaching gold mining operation originally proposed by Reno,
Nevada-based Glamis Gold, Ltd in 1994. The proposed project sits
about a mile from the Quechan sacred site, which is located in the
Indian Pass area of Imperial County.
Essentially this restores a federal decision on mining that was
signed by former President Clinton in the closing hours of his
administration and was later reversed by the Bush Administration's
Department of Interior. It is unclear, however, how the new state law
will fare against the federal reversal.
In fact when Davis was questioned during the ceremony whether this
was a warning shot to the Bush Administration, Davis recalled the
Clinton order and called the current bill a restoration to the former
mining regulation.
"California has done what the (federal) Department of Interior won't
do, he (Davis) protected our sacred site," said Quechan tribal
President Mike Jackson. Jackson had at one point in the preceding
months asked Davis if he would stand in front of the bulldozers at
the proposed gold mine; an anecdote that Davis wryly recalled during
the ceremony.
Though the state had only recently agreed to take up the tribe's
cause, Quechan has been fighting the proposal for the past seven
years and in the past two has launched a major public relations blitz
for their cause. Just last year the tribe's efforts paid off. Shortly
before the first, more comprehensive bill was vetoed last year, the
Quechan managed to get the site registered as one of the 50 Most
Endangered Historic Sites by the National Trust for Historic
Preservation.
Though the Quechan site is now protected some tough issues regarding
sacred site protection remain. Though last year's more comprehensive
bill only covered about 75 total acres in California, it was opposed
by a variety of business interests and was notable for making some
strange political bedfellows that included the decidedly unusual
joining of liberal Democrats and social conservatives opposing pro-
business conservatives.
Though Davis referred to the Quechan site protection as a triumph
over "corporate interests" the Quechan site specifically had fewer
opponents because of the relative small scope of this specific
project. Coupling this fact is that Glamis Gold, who had proposed the
project, is not based in California making the economic impact fairly
negligible.
Tougher questions abound in other areas considered sacred to other
California tribes. For example last year somewhere in the
neighborhood of 20,000 salmon died on the Klamath River, considered
sacred to, among others, the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes. Later
studies concluded that business interests ranging from logging to
farming to urban public utilities were among the culprits that
contributed to higher water temperatures and thus lower oxygen levels
that resulted in the massive die-off.
When questioned by Indian Country Today as to whether he would be
willing to take on the larger corporate interests to protect sacred
sites such as the salmon on the Klamath River, the governor responded
that he would. When asked what he is specifically doing in this
regard, Gov. Davis replied that he was working with tribal
representatives from across the state to craft new, more
comprehensive sacred site protection and expected to have results in
the coming months.
Reprinted under the Fair Use Law: Doctrine of international
copyright law.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com
April 19,2003
Agency: River sites need protection
By Andrew Nelson, Associated Press Writer
PIERRE -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should take immediate action to
protect graves and other sacred and historic sites along the Missouri River
from looting, vandalism and erosion, according to a federal report issued
Wednesday.
The corps also should work with states and Indian tribes to develop a
permanent program to preserve historic sites and the agency should seek more
federal funding for the preservation effort, the report said.
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, an independent federal agency,
made the recommendations in a status report on the Corps of Engineers'
Historic Preservation Program.
The report deals with the nearly 6,000 miles of Missouri River shoreline in
South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana. The corps operates six dams and the
reservoirs created by those dams along the river.
The report says the corps' efforts to protect historic sites along the river
are inadequate, but it acknowledges that the agency faces difficulty in
protecting thousands of miles of shoreline.
Larry Janis, the cultural-resources program manager for the corps in Omaha,
said the agency is already implementing several recommendations made in the
report and has been able to increase funding for preservation to $3 million
in the past year.
The corps is building partnerships with Indian tribes and is working to
improve monitoring and law enforcement along the river, Janis said.
The Advisory Council held a public hearing in Pierre last year to take public
comment on its review of the corps' efforts to preserve historic property.
Members of Indian tribes urged that more be done to protect burial grounds
and other sacred sites along the Missouri River.
Much of the area along the river was flooded when the huge reservoirs were
built. As the drought has caused water levels to fall in some reservoirs in
recent years, many historic sites have been exposed.
Historic sites along the Missouri include prehistoric and historic Indian
villages, graves, forts, battlefields, sites visited by the Lewis and Clark
expedition, and other features.
Many endangered sites are important to the heritage and culture of Indian
tribes, the report says.
The corps has identified nearly 5,000 archaeological sites and other cultural
resources on its land along the Missouri River, but little of that land has
been subject to intensive surveys or inspections, according to the report.
Part of the problem is inadequate funding, the report says. The corps
estimates a $77 million backlog of historic preservation needs along the
Missouri River. Current funding does not allow the corps to develop and
implement long-term historic preservation efforts, the report says.
"There is not adequate ... historic funding for the Corps right now," said
Paige Hoskinson, an archaeologist with the South Dakota Historic Preservation
Office, who had not yet seen the report. "Data recovery for one site can run
hundreds of thousands of dollars."
The report recommends several solutions. Adequate funding is required to
sustain a competent preservation program, and the corps should build
partnerships with states and Indian tribes along the Missouri River to create
a permanent program to identify and protect important sites, the document
says.
Immediate steps to prevent looting and vandalism should include public
education, increased patrols by law officers and coordination with federal
prosecutors, the report says. The 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark
expedition also can be used to promote tourism and increase public support
for preserving sites, the agency recommends.
"Preserving these places will foster heritage tourism which will result in
economic and cultural benefits to the region," John L. Nau III, chairman of
the Advisory Council, said in a written statement. "We look forward to
working in partnership with all involved to better protect and appropriately
share our historical treasures."
Nau also said he was encouraged by the corps' recent efforts to improve its
management of historical sites along the Missouri.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=624&e=2&cid=624&u=/ap/20030421/ap_on_sc/archaeological_find
DAMIANSVILLE, Ill. - Digging crews have found hundreds of 1,200-year-old stone arrowheads and pottery fragments buried under an Illinois hillside.
The discovery near this village about 35 miles east of St. Louis represents an important archaeological find, said Brad Koldehoff, a state archaeologist.
"It's a significant site. They discovered a keyhole-shaped house and what appears to be a small village," he said.
"Keyhole" houses are dwellings made of clay and logs with rooms half submerged in the ground. The large, dome-shaped living area at one end was reached by a long, straight, covered entrance, giving rise to the name "keyhole."
Microscopic examination of debris from their ancient garbage pits shows the inhabitants ate venison and turkey, plus what are today considered weeds. One common dish was a sort of pancake made from the seeds of knot weed.
The village dates from the Late Woodland period, from about 600 to 800 A.D., said Koldehoff.
What is learned from the dig will be integrated with knowledge gained from other finds in Illinois in recent years, including the 2001 discovery of 70 handmade ceremonial stone ax heads beneath a field in Shiloh.
The hillside where the artifacts were found last week was chosen for excavation because the landowner wants to sell its dirt to the state as fill for a nearby highway project. State law requires that an archaeological team search for artifacts and excavate any that might be found.
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Posted to NDN AIM by Erthavengr
John-John Williams IV
Argus Leader
published: 4/22/2003
A federal judge has ruled that state workers can start building a waste dump
site and fish-cleaning area for campers on a parcel of land along the
Missouri River that includes a Native American burial site.
Federal District Judge Lawrence Piersol said the state also can resume
construction at a second campground location if workers first return fill
dirt taken from the original burial site. The judge ordered state officials
to notify the Yankton Sioux Tribe when the dirt transfer is scheduled to
occur, and to allow time for Native American ceremonies to be conducted there
before resuming construction activity later this spring.
Tribal officials criticized Piersol's ruling and will meet as early as
Thursday to discuss a possible appeal, according to Mary Wynne, tribal
lawyer.
"To build a sewer on top of the remains of ancestors is beyond what the
Lakota culture can comprehend," Wynne said. "It creates a large gap between
the plaintiffs and the defendants."
The dispute has centered on a state-run campground, called the North Point
Recreation Area, located along the Missouri River near Pickstown.
On May 14, 2002, workers were moving dirt from the area to use as fill for
campground construction projects when the remains of two children, a woman
and other funerary objects were unearthed.
The Yankton Sioux Tribe filed a lawsuit against the state and the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, the agency that manages the river, asking a judge to stop
work in the area and to order the remains returned to the original burial
site.
Piersol issued a preliminary injunction last June, halting the state's
construction activity at North Point. The judge set out conditions under
which the injunction might be lifted, including a demonstration by the state
that its proposed future construction activities would not further damage the
area where the burial items were uncovered. Piersol also required the state
to examine fill dirt taken from the original burial site for use in the new
construction to ensure that it did not contain Native American cultural
items.
The state later returned to court asking to be allowed to resume work on a
dump station planned on a parcel of land in the disputed area. A state
archaeologist said the dirt at that site had "almost no chance" of containing
human remains or funerary objects.
Sanitation needs
A lawyer for the state argued that campers need the new sanitation station in
order to empty their recreational vehicles' holding tanks before leaving the
park. The old dumping station had already been removed and the next nearest
station for North Point visitors would be four to six miles away, a state
parks official said. North Point attracted 231,000 visitors in 2001, making
it the fifth most visited park in South Dakota.
During a hearing on the issue last week, state lawyers also presented an
archaeologist's report stating that while dirt taken to the site of a planned
campground registration building contained human remains, there was "almost
no chance" of remains or artifacts being located in the sewage dump station
site.
During the hearing John Guhin, lawyer for the state, also told the judge that
a group composed of members of the Yankton Sioux Tribe once had planned to
build a resort on the site now in question.
"How can it be sacred land and be developed?" he asked.
Wynne argued the tribe's general council never approved that plan and without
that approval, it was incorrect to say the tribe pursued the resort
construction plan.
In his order Friday, Piersol said the state must provide written notice to
tribal officials of the date when the fill dirt from the original burial site
would be returned. After the tribe receives the state's notice, they will
have seven days to conduct ceremonies at both sites.
The dispute isn't over, Wynne said. "I believe strongly in the position of
the tribe and the powers at work of the ancestors who have come before," she
said.
Bonnie Ulrich, who represented the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the case,
called Piersol's decision fair. She said the original lawsuit, which claims
the transfer of Missouri River land from the federal government to the state
is unconstitutional, and several legal proceedings will be needed to resolve
the matter.
Wynne said the tribe can still ask for permanent protection for the burial
site and a nearby area.
She said Piersol also invited the two sides to a mediation session, but the
tribe has not agreed to it.
Other burial disputes
Concerns have surfaced in other parts of the state regarding Native American
burial sites.
A national historic preservation group last week called Army Corps of
Engineers efforts to protect historic sites along the river inadequate, but
acknowledged that the thousands of miles of shoreline make that task difficult.
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, an independent federal agency,
recommended that the corps take immediate action to protect graves and other
sacred sites along the river from erosion, vandalism and looting. The group
also urged the corps to work with the state and tribes to develop a permanent
program to preserve the sites and seek more federal funding for preservation.
Corps officials said they already are implementing several of the group's
recommendations and have increased funding for preservation to $3 million in
the past year.
Much of the area along the Missouri River was flooded when the federal
government built reservoirs in the 1950s. The drought has caused water levels
to fall even lowers in recent years, exposing the old burial sites.
Faith Spotted Eagle, Yankton Sioux Tribal member, said it is unfathomable
that a court or agency would use statistics and archaeological grids to prove
a burial ground is insignificant.
"It shows how far the state (and) Game, Fish and Parks (department) is
disconnected and numb from a horror that has already happened and continues
to happen to our ancestors," she said.
"Perhaps if the tribe cleaned fish and threw the guts on the military
cemetery at Fort Randall, paved the parking lot and had a picnic on the
soldiers' graves, our point would be made," Spotted Eagle said. "The
spiritual immaturity of the corps and the state is clearly evident."
Slaves' Graves, Indian Site At Heart of Land Dispute
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18211-2003Apr22.html
Examiner Ponders Developer's Request for Change in Zoning
By Susan Gervasi
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, April 24, 2003; Page PG16
On a rainy June morning last year, Fort Washington resident Dawn Davit
watched in horror from Riverview Road as a developer's bulldozer unearthed
five graves in a family cemetery undisturbed since the 1820s.
"I was really just heartbroken," Davit said. A resident of the neighborhood
for 33 years, she is president of Potomac Valley Citizens Association and is
opposed to residential development of the Potomac River tract that spans
about 23 acres. There the remains of prominent Prince George's County
landowner Dennis Lyles and his four young children were buried.
"I just visualize their mother burying four of them in six months and putting
them in that beautiful spot and them being so crudely extracted with no
dignity," Davit said. "It still bothers me."
With no physical remains evident after the excavation, some earth from each
grave was soon ceremonially reburied in a local churchyard. But the dispute
persists between neighbors and developer Leo Bruso of Upper Marlboro, who
wants to build "executive style" homes on the rolling grassy pasture with
sweeping river views.
The neighbors also insist that slave graves may have been on the property and
that it had been the site of a historically significant Native American
settlement. Even the National Park Service has weighed in, expressing
skepticism about Bruso's plans.
Bruso, who since 1974 has developed commercial and residential property in
Maryland -- such as Clinton's New England Estates -- is unimpressed and said
he will persevere.
"She's just trying to drag this out to the point where I'm saying that I'm
going away," said Bruso, who recently attended an Upper Marlboro hearing to
seek a zoning change to build four waterfront homes and a dock on about 10
acres of the land. "Well, I'm not going away."
Nor, apparently, are opponents of Bruso's planned "Rivers Edge" subdivision.
They include the National Park Service, which manages several historic sites
in the area and objected at the hearing to Bruso's plans.
"We believe there are multiple strong reasons that this property should not
be subject to further modification of its current zoning and Chesapeake Bay
Critical Area status," wrote John Hale, National Capital Parks-East
superintendent, in a letter read at the hearing by a Park Service official.
Bruso wants a zoning change because about 13 waterfront acres of the property
are categorized as a critical area "resource conservation" zone, which allows
only one house per 20 acres. Bruso hopes to have about 10 acres of the
protected section recategorized as "limited development," which would enable
him to build one house per acre, which is allowed on the rest of the tract.
Hale's letter expressed concern about the project's environmental impact.
"Multiple known and suspected historic and archaeological resources on this
property" could be at "grave risk" if the development goes forward, the
letter said.
Bruso disputes the notion that his land is historically or archaeologically
significant, and he objects to Park Service involvement.
"Show me where [the Park Service] came in on other projects and sent a staff
person [or] weighed in on any other case," he said after the hearing.
A decision on the Critical Area status by zoning hearing examiner Maurene
Epps Webb is expected in a few months. The issue then goes to the Prince
George's County Council, sitting as a zoning body, for a decision.
In a separate opinion last February about the entire parcel's possible
historic status, Epps Webb suggested that the issue be returned to the Prince
George's County Historic Preservation Commission for a second look.
That came after a commission ruling in December 2001 -- sought by Bruso --
said the entire site had been mistakenly classified by the Maryland National
Capital Park and Planning Commission as a historic resource. The error was
made because a port known as "Tent Landing" was thought to have been there
but wasn't.
For Bruso, this ruling eased the path to development. After a subsequent
court fight with then-Prince George's State's Attorney Jack B. Johnson, now
the county executive, Bruso also won the right to move the Lyles family
graves.
But neighbors, who still refer to the property as Tent Landing, contended
that the parcel's possible Native American and African American history,
which the commission declined to consider, should have been discussed at the
hearing.
Moe Thomas Jr., who lives in the county's Chapel Hill neighborhood and is a
former Tuskegee Airman and expert in local African American history, said Ed
Contee, an African American and former neighborhood resident who was 109 at
his death in 1971, told him that slaves were buried on the property.
"Ed Contee told me specifically that unmarked slave gravesites were adjacent
to the white Lyles graves," said Thomas, who sad he believes that these slave
remains were part of a "second cemetery" shown by some maps as being on the
land.
The second cemetery has been hotly contested. After Bruso complained, an
official of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which shows two cemeteries on
a map of the area, agreed that the "second cemetery" was put on the map
erroneously and would be deleted.
Neighbors have asked the USGS to reconsider, saying other resources such as a
1982 historic site survey and map published by the Maryland-National Capital
Park and Planning Commission have shown two cemeteries.
Thomas, who said two cemeteries also appear on local aeronautical maps, noted
that because of the importance of oral tradition in preserving African
American history, he has no doubt that Contee knew what he was talking about.
"Ed Contee was known, especially in southern Prince George's, as a
gravedigger," Thomas said. "He dug graves for all of these black churches.
There'd be no reason for him to dissemble about what he knew, about the
second cemetery. He was familiar with it. He'd say, 'Some people are buried
here, some over there, and they don't even have the gravestones.' "
Fort Washington resident Dave Turner, who lives close to the site in the
Broad Creek Historic District and serves on the district's Advisory Council,
said he would not be surprised if slave graves were on the property. Colonial
families associated with the property were large slaveholders, and though
some small cemeteries in the area may contain slave graves, large numbers of
local slaves remain unaccounted for, he said.
"We know that the Lyles and Magruder families had 80 slaves and more from the
time they settled there in 1660 to the time Mr. Lyles died in the 1820s,"
Turner said. "There were a lot of slaves. But there's no African American
slave cemetery of any size in the Broad Creek Historic District. Where were
they being buried?
"Our contention is it was probably here, and that would explain why that one
little grouping of Lyleses were buried there."
Bruso disagreed, saying that arguments about slave graves "are based on a
government mistake of identifying a second cemetery where one never existed"
and that slaves are buried elsewhere in the neighborhood.
Turner has also worked closely with members of the Piscataway-Conoy Indian
tribe, who are based in Charles County and believe that the land is also the
location of a Native American site called "Tessamatuck," which appears on a
1640s map. They suspect that, like other Indian settlements along the
Potomac, the property might contain a community grave or ossuary.
About 1990, the then-owners of the tract and adjoining land were
contemplating a property sale to the Marriott Corp. for construction of a
military officers' retirement home. Sizable numbers of Indian artifacts were
uncovered.
In her February opinion, Epps Webb noted that an archaeological survey
commissioned for the Marriott project uncovered about 12,000 artifacts in the
vicinity.
The Prince George's County Planning Board, which reviews plans for
residential subdivisions, has said it is "cognizant of the potential
archaeological importance of the site based on the testimony of area
residents, oral tradition and prior reports" and will consider those issues
in any reviews of the site.
Bruso insisted that his land was not the site of Tessamatuck.
"Only [an] artist's rendering shows it in the vicinity of my property," he
said. "Three other [maps] show it [to the] south."
Meanwhile, Davit said she is hopeful about the larger dispute with Bruso.
"People would like to see Tent Landing purchased as open space," she said.
"That would be my number one choice. The Indians would like to see that
happen. Most everybody would. I think that would be a wonderful thing for
that to happen. I'm optimistic because I do believe we're right."
Bruso is equally resolute.
"Absolutely I feel that Rivers Edge is going to get built," said Bruso, who
believes that his four planned waterfront homes could command almost $1
million apiece.
He is not averse to the idea of selling his property, though. In fact, he
said it's for sale -- for $3 million.
That would be about twice what his company paid for 43-plus acres in 2001.
That tract also included about 20 acres now being developed by Mid-Atlantic
on the other side of Riverview Road.
According to state records, 11207 Riverview Rd. -- the official address of
Bruso's riverfront land -- is valued at about $735,000. Bruso said that is
less than the land is worth.
Putting pricey homes on the property, he said, will be good for county tax
coffers. Also, he warned, "Every day the citizens extend this case, the price
is going up."
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
Go to News Archives Index |
