Workers with the Madison Parks Division recently removed a century-old marker placed directly on top of an indigenous burial mound near Lake Wingra and Edgewood University as part of a broader effort to protect sacred sites, according to The Cap Times. City officials coordinated with the Ho-Chunk Nation and Wisconsin Historical Society to remove the marker, according to The Cap Times.
Madison Parks adopted a maintenance policy for burial mounds in parks after consulting with the Ho-Chunk Nation, said city parks deparment west parks supervisor Chad Hughes in an emailed statement.
“We have also worked to educate our entire staff on the importance of these sites, most recently by having representatives of Ho-Chunk and the Wisconsin State Historical Society speak to us,” said Hughes in an email.
Wisconsin State Statute 157.70 prohibits the disturbance of burial mounds and cemeteries, requiring a minimum 5 ft. or 10 ft. buffer, according to the Wisconsin State Legislature. The City of Madison Parks Division enforces a stricter 20 ft., no-soil-disturbance buffer around burial mound perimeters, according to the email from Hughes.
The Madison Board of Park Commissioners has received direction from representatives of the Ho-Chunk Nation on how to properly maintain individual mound systems, Hughes said in an email statement. This procedure provides guidelines to assure that the mounds are treated with utmost respect and managed in a responsible manner that protects their integrity, according to Hughes in the email.
The burial mound near Edgewood University has featured a plaque placed by the Wisconsin Archaeological Society in 1915, according to an emailed statement from PR & Communications Specialist with the Wisconsin Historical Foundation, Kendall Poltzer.
Marking Ho-Chunk Burial mounds was common practice by the Wisconsin Archaeological Society and other groups in the 1900’s as a way to educate the public, according to Poltzer’s email statement. In the past decades, there has been pushback against the practice as partnerships between state governments and Native Nations have developed, according to Poltzer’s email statment. These plaques are now understood to be intrusive to sacred burial complexes and should be removed, according to Poltzer’s email statement.
“The Ho-Chunk have requested that markers be removed, they’ve been involved in planning conversations with land owners/managers, and are often on site for the removals,” said Poltzer in an email. “The Office of the State Archaeologist (OSA) has worked with the State of Wisconsin/State Fair Park, City of Milwaukee, Madison Parks, and others to discuss the archaeological considerations related to removing these markers from mounds throughout the state.”
There are at least a dozen monuments and plaques on burial mounds throughout the state of Wisconsin, according to Poltzer. OSA advocates for the removal of any plaque that is on a mound or within 15 ft. of an extant mound, according to Poltzer’s email statement.
The monuments pose a risk to the wellbeing of the mounds, resulting from members of the public walking on them to read the information, some of which is outdated. There are more plaques in the Madison area that should be removed, but this action must be initiated by the owners of the land, according to Poltzer’s email statement.
“Extant mounds, and the areas where mounds once were, are sacred spaces that need to be respected,”said Poltzer in an email. “The state’s burial preservation law protects these sites, and we encourage members of the public to do their part in respecting and protecting these areas.”
