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Congressional committee wants answers about Effigy Mounds debacle

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Monument leaders desecrated native lands

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A U.S. congressional committee is seeking more information about decades of mismanagement at Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeast Iowa. 

Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the House natural resources committee, sent a letter Tuesday to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell seeking a briefing by Sept. 9. 

The Republican from Utah says it’s troubling that mismanagement went on for two decades at the monument with “little to no oversight” by the National Park Service. 

Bishop’s letter comes in response to a National Park Service report that said the agency itself was “astonished” by what happened. 

One superintendent oversaw an illegal $3.4 million building spree that erected a boardwalk system through sensitive American Indian burial sites. Another stole the monument’s collection of ancient human remains and hid them in his garage for decades. 

Host of WIZM's La Crosse Talk PM | University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point graduate | Hometown: Greenville, Wis | Avid noonball basketball player and sand volleyballer in La Crosse

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  1. Katie Burken

    September 5, 2016 at 5:51 pm

    I’m deeply disappointed that anyone would even consider taking the remains of native peoples home with them. Not only is it disrespectful and illegal, what would one even do with them? Why would someone feel the need to take them home just to keep them in their garage? The boardwalks may not appear to be as distasteful as the pilfered remains, but it shows terrible disregard for the culture of the native people who once lived here. I’ve always supported what the National Parks represent and enjoyed what they are able to teach people, so to me, having this happen in Iowa’s only National Park is not only disappointing, but a disgrace to our state and undoubtedly an insult to the native peoples who have occupied this land for centuries, especially to those who made these sacred mounds. I truly hope that everything possible will be done in an attempt to right this wrong.

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