American Indian Skulls Found in Attic

Group offers help reburying skulls
By
Scott Richardson


http://us.f302.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=srichardson@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON -- Midwest Soarring, a Chicago-based organization dedicated to American Indian preservation, has offered its assistance to Bloomington police Wednesday to insure the proper burial of about 30 American Indian skulls.The skulls were found in a Bloomington attic over the weekend and were part of a collection of the late Dale Fitz-Henry Sr., a Bloomington dentist who died in 1982.They were discovered Sunday in a cabinet in a house at 511 Florence Ave., after the house was sold for back taxes following the presumed death of Fitz-Henry’s son, Dale Fitz-Henry II, in a cabin fire near Carlock last year. New owners of the home made the discovery.Bloomington police took charge of the skulls and assigned Sgt. Henry Craft, who is part American Indian, to track their original burial site, if possible. Some of the skulls bear the notation, "Anderson Lake 1933." Police have no other firm leads.State archeologists said Wednesday they wonder if the reference is to a series of known burial mounds on bluffs above the Illinois River in Fulton County.Joseph "Standing Bear" Schranz, executive director of Midwest Soarring, praised police for the respect they’ve shown the remains thus far, including their refusal to allow the news media to photograph them.But, Schranz worries the skulls could be turned over to the Illinois State Museum and stored if attempts to locate an exact burial site are unsuccessful.The skulls were exhumed before federal and state laws governing their disposition were passed."Simply trading one case for another is not something we want to see," said Schranz, an Ojibwa. "Whether we can trace them or not, we know they are Native American, and as such they deserve a proper burial."Schranz said the discovery was the largest find of American Indian remains he’s recently heard of in Illinois. He was angered one of the skulls was apparently used as an ashtray."The disrespect never ends. It always saddens me to realize people treat us as objects, not as human beings. We are definitely not collectibles," he said.Schranz said the best result would be to rebury the skulls at their original site. If that cannot be determined, Schranz said his organization owns land in Central Illinois dedicated for the purpose.Michael Wiant, executive director of the Dickson Mounds state historical site and a Normal native, said professional archeologists might glean clues to the skulls’ origin from American Indian artifacts, including arrowheads, found with the remains.Dave Blanchette, spokesman for the Illinois Historical Preservation Agency, agreed."Normally in the process of identification, grave goods are critical. They point the way," Blanchette said.The name, "Anderson Lake," made Wiant wonder if it refers to a series of burial mounds university archeologists excavated in the early 1930s.Among them is a well-known site called the Crable Site, which a team from the University of Chicago studied in 1933, said Nick Klobuchar, who maintains the state’s data base of more than 53,000 known archeological sites for the Illinois State Museum.Most of the sites in the region date to the Middle Mississippian era from about 1000 to about 1200, he said.Craft also wondered if "Anderson Lake" refers to Anderson Mounds, which became a state park near Anderson, Ind., in the early 1930s.However, Angie Garcia, interpretive naturalist at Anderson Mounds, said though the park lies on The White River, the park doesn’t have a lake and was never known as Anderson Lake.