Nemadji Wisconsin Point Burial Tour

This tour take you on a brief walk through of the St. Francis Catholic Cemetery next to the Nemadji, Superior, Wisconsin Cemetery. At the St. Francis Cemetery at the South end bluff over seeing the Nemadji River the remains of over a hundred Ojibwe burials from Wisconsin Point, about 2 miles away were dumped in 1915 when a developer was challenged from building on the site of the Ojibwe burial grounds by the Fond du Lac Banks of Lake Superior Chippewa. The site continues to erode and be used as a dumping ground by cemetery workers with the remains being exposed each year.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Nemadji
• Nemadji Cemetery
• Superior Wisconsin
• Ojibwe
• Wisconsin Point
• burials
• Chippewa
• artifacts
• DeMain

[nandehi]

OR - talk to the cemetary keeprs.. Maybe this has been done already. It would be a great project for both the white and Native communities to do together. Many whites dont agree with how the native population is disregarded in SO many ways. Again, my apologies for how this was/is handled by these people..

[nandehi]

mukwah1111 - would a white mans graves end up like this - some have.... BUT - I agree this is a disgrace.... my heart aches that this has been left to ruin by whites and natives alike. I think its horrible that they were EVER MOVED in the first place. They should have been left where they were lain in the first place.... I am so sorry for the disrespect that was shown to your people -

Does anyone think that this would be a good project for the native youth?

[st3v3h4py]

I grew up hearing about this history from my mother, and I remember her first cousin telling us about the erosion and exposure of the remains way back in the mid '90s

[NancyToday]

Georginia, thanks for sending me this video.

[NancyToday]

I'm so glad you are mindful of this area. It seems, as irreverent as it may be at the time of dumping, that the brush will actually stabilize the ground and afford a deeper burial for the remains. If enough of it is put on there, it will of course become soil over time.

[sunkawakanska]

THANK YOU PAUL

BLESSINGS

ALEX

[mukwah1111]

Those eroded disturbed graves are still sacred and chi miigwetch for doing your best to clean it up and lay tobacco for those who remain there. Would a white mans graveyard EVER come to such ruin ???? NEVER ! It's sickening and heartbreaking to see this.

[mukwah1111]

It was white clergymen who imposed their will to have people buried on so-called "consecrated" grounds. Men on the bottom of the social ladder were paid slave wages to dig those graves & if the deceased or their families were not deemed "deserving by that "man of God" they were refused buriel rights. And which white man invented the stone tablet to make a profit from the families of those who passed on? The funeral business is a trillion dollar money making industry & still elitist ! Ugh !

[mukwah1111]

I agree tamarama the condition of the burial ground is a disgrace. The local native need to state their case & stand their ground to demand respect & sensitivity to their ancestors Speak to local newspapers, radio stations, TV stations to get their attention & force them to be accountable ! That situation is just not acceptable. In the original time our people were placed on platforms to face the sky or in some tribes buried on land that was part of the community & considered sacred.

[tamarama2012]

very disturbing & disgusting that developers have no respect for our ancestors....