News
Group Forming To Protect Native American Sites
By: Fred Kight
Posted on:
A new preservation group is being formed to protect Serpent Mound and other Native American historic sites.
Save Our Serpent is the name and it launches tomorrow with a gathering in Chillicothe.
Geoffrey Sea, of Adena Core, another preservation group, is helping the new one get started. He says they have no beef with the Ohio Historical Society but they want Native Americans to be included in decisions about the sites.
"We're about giving a voice to this diverse community and seeing more of these sites placed under the ownership management and control of the people who would the best caretakers," said Sea.
Kris Foster-Phipps is a former site manager at Serpent Mound and she is the director of Save Our Serpent.
"It's not just Serpent Mound that I'm concerned about, it's all the sites that we here in Southern Ohio, because as our population grows there are not the laws here in Ohio to protect these places," said Foster-Phipps.
Foster-Phipps is also of Shawnee heritage and very concerned with preserving Native American sites.
"So, protecting all of this is very near and dear to my heart," said Foster-Phipps.
Save Our Serpent will begin with a day-long meeting tomorrow at the Veterans Administration Center near Chillicothe.
George Kane is a spokesman for the Ohio Historical Society, which owns Serpent Mound.
He says the Society welcomes Native American planning and preservation input.