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Pine Island, Florida
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The Issue
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 09:16:27 EST
From: AIMFL@aol.com
Subject: FLORIDA AIM SEEKS INFORMATION, ASSISTANCE
Greetings:
The American Indian Movement of Florida (Florida AIM) is seeking information
relating to the robbing of graves at Pine Island near Montverde, FL in Lake
County, FL.
On January 20th, 2001 in the early afternoon Lake County realtor and
concerned citizen Diane M. Combs was monitoring the area's known burial sites
on Pine Island due to iminent development of the property by Ginn
Development. Ms. Combs began photographing bulldozers and other construction
equipment in an area that is part of the known burial site known to the state
of Florida as 8LA58. As Ms. Combs photographed the equipment for documentaton
of a potential violation for the Lake County Planning and Development
Department, she noticed at least ten (10) white individuals with shovels,
rakes, sifters and buckets digging and removing artifacts including skeletal
remains that appear to be human from the area known as 8LA58. Ms. Combs was
able to photograph three (3) of the individuals from a distance.
Ms. Combs notified the media and the Lake County Sheriffs Office and was
summarily ignored.
On January 23 accompanied Ms. Combs, with the assistance of Florida AIM filed
a criminal complaint (#02-007782) with the Lake County Sheriffs Office
claiming a massive violation of Florida's Unmarked Human Burial Law, which
has existed for 15 years without a prosecution.
Florida AIM asks anyone with information regarding this crime to contact the
Lake County Sheriffs Office (352-343-9529) AND the Florida AIM State Office
at (727-826-6960 or AIMFL@aol.com)
Florida AIM also asks our members, supporters and friends to call the Lake
County Sheriffs Office, or email them at sheriff@lcso.org and advise them to
seriously and thorougly investigate this crime and advise them the eyes of
the world are on their actions.
Photographs are available of the site, the racist vile ghouls involved, and
the construction equipment for those interested.
______________________
Update: 2002 January 27
Greetings:
We ask our members, friends and supporters to voice their concerns to the
email address's listed following this press release. Thank You.
*******************************************
AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT OF FLORIDA
136 4th Street North Suite 308
Saint Petersburg, FL 33701
Phone 727-826-6960
Fax 727-550-2207
Email: AIMFL@aol.com
Web Page:http://members.aol.com/Aimfl
National Web Page http://www.aimovement.org
Contact: Sheridan Murphy or Mark Madrid At AIMFL@aol.com, or David W.
Narcomey at DNarcomey@aol.com
For Immediate Release
PRESS RELEASE
FLORIDA AIM FILES COMPLAINTS REGARDING GHOULS
Montverde, FL -The American Indian Movement of Florida (Florida AIM) has
filed criminal complaints regarding the mass desecration of an Indigenous
cemetery in Pine Island, Lake County Florida.
On January 20, 2002 Ms. Diana M. Combs, a Lake County Realtor, was monitoring
the area of Pine Island due to her contention that Ginn Development is
improperly conducting construction activities in excess of what their permits
currently allow. While photographing, what she believes to be improper
activity, Ms. Combs noticed at least ten (10) individuals armed with shovels,
pails, rakes, sifters and the like and the individuals were digging in a
known Indigenous cemetery. The Pine Island Burial site, codified as 8LA58 by
the State of Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, has been documented
as an Indigenous cemetery since 1932. Ms. Combs witnessed the individuals
digging into the earth and removing skeletal remains. Ms. Combs photographed
both the skeletal remains and three (3) of the individuals digging into the
Indigenous cemetery.
Florida AIM remains incensed at the continuing inaction of the state of
Florida Bureau of Archaeological resources and law enforcement to protect
Indigenous cemeteries. Since the passage of the Unmarked Human Burial Act
(F.S.S. § 872.05) not a single (one) individual has been arrested and
prosecuted under the act. There have been two recently publicized cases of
grave robbery with impunity in Florida. In 2000, Volusia County man received
a $50.00 fine for removing at least three Indigenous peoples remains and
associated funerary related objects on at least two occasions from an
Indigenous cemetery within the Cape Canaveral National Seashore. The State of
Florida refused requests by Florida AIM to prosecute the man under state
charges. And in 1994 a Pasco County man was videotaped and four (4)
individuals provided eye witness affidavits-including a Pasco County Sheriffs
Deputy, that the individual was digging into an Indigenous cemetery and
removing human skeletal remains. The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's office
refused to prosecute.
Once again Florida AIM has filed complaints with the United States Attorney's
Office for the Middle District of Florida citing violations of the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (Title 25 United States Code
300 et seq.), and Archaeological Resources Protection Act (Title 16 United
State Code 470 et. Seq.). As well as assisting Ms. Combs in filing complaints
with the Lake County Sheriffs Office for potential violation of Florida's
Unmarked Human Burial Act (F.S.S. § 872.05)
Florida AIM is disturbed by the Lake County Sheriffs Office cavalier
dismissal of the desecration of a site, known for nearly seven (7) decades to
be an Indigenous cemetery. The Lake County Sheriffs Office relies on a report
by Archaeologist Charles Smoke done for Ginn Development, in which Mr. Smoke
makes an assumption that all human skeletal remains were removed from 8LA58
in 1932, and therefore the Indigenous cemetery need not be an impediment to
the development. Florida AIM's position is that 8LA58 as a known Indigenous
cemetery must be afforded the same concerns and protections as a known
non-Indigenous cemetery regardless of the assumptions of an individual paid
to make assumptions that will benefit a developer.
AIM always prefers the dialogue of cooperation to the rhetoric of
confrontation. Florida AIM will continue to urge the developer, Ginn-Pine
Island LLC. to develop Pine Island responsibly and circumnavigate the
Indigenous cemetery known to the State of Florida for seven decades. We will
urge and take legal action if necessary to have law enforcement enforce laws
protecting Indigenous cemeteries. We will not tolerate the blatant, vile
desecration of an Indigenous cemetery. We will take whatever action(s) are
necessary to protect an Indigenous cemetery from being plundered or paved
over. We call upon Ginn-Pine Island LLC, the Lake County Sheriffs Office, and
the Lake County Planning Department to act as human beings and afford these
Indigenous ancestors the right to rest in peace. We hope that in the
twenty-first century the dominant society will finally being to respect the
right of Indigenous peoples to, at least, rest in peace.
-30-
Janet Matthews, Director, State Historic Preservation Officer
Division Director
jmatthews@mail.dos.state.fl.us
James J. Miller, Chief of Archaeological Research and State Archaeologist
jmiller@mail.dos.state.fl.us
secretary@mail.dos.state.fl.us
Update: 2002 January 27
From the Orlando Sentinel:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-lklpine27012702jan2
7.story?coll=orl%2Dnews%2Dheadlines%2Dlake
Past haunts land plans
By Kevin P. Connolly
Sentinel Staff Writer
January 27, 2002
TAVARES -- The records are spotty, but experts think a spot on the
north shore of Pine Island was dug up by an archaeologist in the
1930s.
It may have been excavated again over the years, possibly more than
once. Some of the earliest records describe what was there as a "sand
burial mound."
Was it the grave of a Native American? If so, are there more ancient
remains or historic artifacts hiding on the nearly 1,500-acre
peninsula jutting into Lake
Apopka?
Is it possible to find anything of historic significance on a piece of
property that has been ditched, plowed and mined for years for citrus
and peat?
Those questions and others have fueled more than speculation in recent
months as Pine Island has turned into a battlefield between the
developer of a 500-home
project and a south Lake resident who says graves of her ancestors and
others would be desecrated by the lakefront community.
The developer says there is nothing there. Diana Combs insists there
is.
Combs, a Montverde real-estate agent of Choctaw descent, and her
claims have frustrated the developer, Palm Coast-based Ginn Co., which
owns about
two-thirds of the property and has a contract pending to buy the rest.
Ginn Co. paid for the most comprehensive archeological study ever
conducted on the site as a result of the claims Combs raised during a
rezoning hearing last year.
The result: No burial grounds or artifacts were found, said Storm
Richards, an archaeologist who conducted the study.
State officials have repeatedly said they only know of one Native
American grave site in the area, and it's not on Pine Island. It's on
nearby Hull Island, south of Pine
Island in Lake Apopka.
Richards' findings and the state's reports haven't stopped the
controversy. In fact, Combs' allegations have just hit a potentially
worldwide audience.
A recent posting on the Indian Burial and Sacred Grounds Watch Web
site listed Pine Island as a property "in need of protection."
It says the American Indian Movement of Florida is seeking information
relating to the "robbing of graves" on Pine Island, adding that Combs
was on the property
Jan. 20 and watched 10 people "removing artifacts including skeletal
remains that appear to be human" from the location.
The message described the workers as "racist, vile ghouls . . . " None
of the allegations is true, said Jim Cooper, senior vice president of
Ginn Co., adding that "the
only crime that happened is that Mrs. Combs and other have trespassed
on our property."
As a result of the controversy, Ginn Co. has hired an off-duty deputy
sheriff to patrol the property and keep trespassers out.
"We are going to give her a warning and, if she continues this, she is
going to face some serious consequences," Cooper said.
Search for artifacts
In addition to researching state archaeological records, Richards, the
state-certified archaeologist for Ginn, bored more than 1,000 test
holes, about two times as
many as required for a property of that size, and found nothing even
close to what Combs thinks is there.
It's highly likely that something was there at some point, Richards
said, because areas along Lake Apopka were popular spots for ancient
tribes and others.
But researchers, looters and agricultural operations may have removed
or destroyed what was there, he said.
Based on a review of old state records, Richards said it is possible
archeologists in the 1930s and 1940s dug up the "sand burial mound" at
the site and sent it to the
University of North Carolina and the University of Michigan.
But the records don't say what was buried at the site, Richards said,
adding it could have been pottery. He didn't find anything there.
'It is a burial ground'
But the fact that the site -- known as LA-58 -- exists proves that
more graves are there, even though they can't be seen or haven't been
found, according to Combs'
supporters.
The entire property, therefore, should be preserved, said Shannon
Larsen, a Daytona Beach resident who has worked on such issues for
about eight years.
"From an indigenous person's eyes, it is a burial ground. It will
always be a burial ground," she said. "There are still burials out
there, and therefore it is still a
cemetery."
When Combs first publicly raised her accusations during Ginn Co.'s
rezoning hearing last July, she broke down in tears while telling
county commissioners, "You
don't put subdivisions on somebody's graveyard."
The emotionally charged hearing, which lasted about six hours,
included testimony from Combs' guest, Bobby C. Billie, a
sixth-generation Seminole who is on a
mission to protect Native American grave sites in Florida.
Old maps fueled claims
Commissioners approved Ginn Co.'s rezoning but said the developer must
conduct an archaeological study and preserve any burial grounds.
Later, Combs released
a copy of one of the key documents that led her to believe graves are
in the area.
The map is of previously recorded archaeological sites, most dating
back several decades. The sites are numbered, with each one
corresponding to a report in
Tallahassee. But the information in the old records is often
incomplete or unclear, and recordkeeping hasn't been consistent over
the years.
One of the sites was under County Road 455, prompting Combs to suggest
that a Native American grave site was there, too. As a result, the
county hired a
consultant to investigate the spot, which is where the county was
repairing a failed culvert.
Sarasota-based Archaeological Consultants Inc., noting a report done
in 1993, only found a "small lithic scatter," rock flakes caused by
the creation of stone tools.
Combs disputed the findings and vowed to continue her fight.
Last weekend, Combs said she went on to the property and said she saw
people digging up artifacts and bones. She had a friend, Ron Kurtz,
show commissioners
pictures of what she said was development activity on the property
with bulldozers, a charge the developer denies.
Keeping an eye out
Ginn Co. was putting in wells approved by the water-management
district but never had bulldozers on the site, the developer said.
But the flap prompted Ginn Co. to invite Combs, the media and county
officials to tour the site with Richards on Thursday, a move aimed at
backing up Richards'
findings.
The only bones found during the visit were determined to have come
from animals.
"My staff told me the group [Combs and her supporters] was fairly
discredited," said Sharon Farrell, the county's director of growth
management. "There was
nothing out there."
Ginn Co. representatives have said they will give specific
instructions to keep a watch for artifacts and bones during
development of the property.
If something is found and determined to be Native American remains,
one of the most likely outcomes is the immediate area would be off
limits to development,
officials said. But that wouldn't stop the entire project.
Combs couldn't be reached for comment Friday, but Larsen, the Daytona
Beach activist, said Combs has expressed an interest in pursuing the
issue by contacting
state officials.
"We are working on that, both of us together," Larsen said.
Kevin Connolly can be reached at kconnolly@orlandosentinel.com or
352-742-5917.
Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law.
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