Indian remains found in Jefferson Township

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

By Jane Beathard
Staff Writer

Youths exploring a rugged part of Jefferson Township on Sunday stumbled on what appears to be a Native American burial ground.

The Madison County Sheriff’s Department received a call just after noon indicating the presence of possible human remains on a remote cliff side in the township, according to Sheriff Jim Sabin.

Sabin went to the scene and realized the bone fragments were likely human. He notified the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification & Investigation, county coroner Dr. James W. Kaehr, the Jefferson Township Fire Department and the West Jefferson Police Department.

It didn’t take Dr. Kaehr or the crime scene investigators from BCI long to determine the bones in questions were indeed human and not those of a modern man.

“It’s very clear this is an old grave and not related to any missing person case,” Kaehr said.

“In all likelihood, they’re from an old Indian burial ground,” Sabin added.

He is hesitant to reveal the exact location of the cliff and its cache of artifacts for fear of attracting the curious or looters. Sabin will say that the “find” is on private property and that the owner had no idea of the remains’ presence.

BCI officials are currently processing the artifacts and tools found at the site. They also notified both the Ohio Historical Society and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs of the discovery.

“It’s more anthropology than forensics,” Kaehr said.

The coroner complimented the youths who found the site for doing “the right thing.”

“They did a mature job in handling the grave site. They left the site intact so that the investigation could be completed,” Kaehr said.

He hopes everyone involved will eventually return the remains and the artifacts to the Native American community for proper interment.

That will likely be up to the property owner involved, according to David Snyder, archeology review manager at the Ohio Historical Society.

Ohio law provides that artifacts recovered from burial sites on private property belong to the property owner, he said. At the same time, those sites are protected under the state’s cemetery vandalism statute.

Because the remains are perched on a slope and were probably exposed through natural erosion, it’s possible that more bones and artifacts will be revealed as the soil wears away.

“There are some things that a property owner can do (to preserve the site) that are not terribly expensive,” Snyder said.

Those measures include planting and maintaining vegetation on the slope to help keep soils in place.

Snyder said the society receives two to eight reports a year of unearthed burial sites; another five or six are reported vandalized.

A number of Native Americans were known to frequent the Jefferson Township area in the 18th and 19th centuries. They included members of the Shawnee, Miami, Wyandot, Peoria, Ottawa, Chippewa and Delaware tribes, Snyder added. The remains found on Sunday could belong to any of them.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s sacred ground,” Sabin said. “It’s no different than a modern cemetery.”