Destroying and Saving a Sacred Landscape

Destroying and Saving a Sacred Landscape. . , Gilman Mounds, Image credits Top Wisconsin Historical Society WHS-95142. Center WHS-58453. Bottom left Jim Welsh. Bottom center WHS-51985. Bottom right WHS-26882., A damaged mound in northern Wisconsin in 1927., Settlers Find Mounds in Their Way , If mounds stood in the way of urban progress, cities like Madison built over them and used the soil as fill. In the mid-1800s, vandals and pothunters dug open mounds to look for bones and artifacts. Farmers gradually plowed over the mounds in their fields. Around Madison's lakes more than a thousand mounds were destroyed., Parks Help Save Remaining Mounds , The beautiful setting of most mound groups is one reason mounds survive today. Effigy builders usually constructed mounds on scenic heights over water. As Madison grew, those same picturesque places appealed to city residents for parks, and were set aside.,

A Sauk County Farmer Talks About Plowing Effigy Mounds , "We were rather irked by the large number of Indian mounds we had to plow down. There must have been at least 25 on our land… Some were shaped like animals and some like birds, and all were from three to five feet high… I suppose we should not have destroyed them. But they were then regarded merely as obstacles to cultivation, and everybody plowed them down."

, Value of Effigy Mounds , Effigy mounds still matter to people today. All of us can appreciate the beauty, meaning, and faith in the universe that the mounds represent. Current American Indian tribes value them highly and find connections to their own cultures., Sacred Ground , In Dane County, Ho-Chunks lived in a few large villages and used dozens of camps. The Ho-Chunks did not build mounds, but revered them and sometimes used them for burials. Sacred to effigy builders when they were created, mounds are still sacred today. For these reasons, please do not walk on top of the mounds, and treat the area around them with care., How Do You Restore a Mound? , [According to guidelines of the National Park Service, Ho-Chunk Nation, and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.], ❶ Mounds are burial sites protected by law. Get permission from the Wisconsin Historical Society before carrying out work near mounds. , ❷ Remove dead and fallen trees from the mound, and trees that are a potential hazard. Remove trees and brush less than 5" in diameter. , ❸ Remove non-native invasive plants. , ❹ Remove all trees less than 14" in diameter. Remove all dead, fallen, and hazard trees within 5 feet of the mound. , ❺ Remove all trees, regardless of health and size, from the mound and within 5 feet of the mound. , ❻ Restore the native plant community if possible. If stumps are removed, grinding equipment should not penetrate the soil of the mound. , ❼ Mowing should be limited or avoided., The Ho-Chunk Nation has restored a mound group at Kingsley Bend on the Wisconsin River., Mrs. Joseph Mallon, a Menominee from Milwaukee, unveiled a marker at a 1914 ceremony that preserved eight mounds above Vilas Zoo., Ho-Chunk chief O-Wan-Ich-Koh (Little Elk) in 1825 at the Treaty of Prairie du Chien.