Blood Run Site
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| Blood Run Site | |
|---|---|
| (U.S. National Historic Landmark) | |
| Nearest city: | Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Granite, Iowa, and Shindler, South Dakota |
| Built/Founded: | 1300 (possibly built over three millenia) though the site was inhabited regularly for 8500 years in other than mound era dwelling. |
| Architect: | Ho-Chunk, Ioway, Otoe, Missouri |
| Architectural style(s): | Civic, Ceremonial, Effigy, and Burial Mounds. Including a 1.25 miles long snake mound destroyed for railroad fill (1930s). |
| Designated as NHL: | August 29, 1970[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | August 29, 1970[2] |
| NRHP Reference#: | 70000246 |
| Governing body: | Multi-Cultural Indigenous Nations |
Blood Run Site is an archaeological site of a city essentially populated for 8,500 years, within which, earthworks structures were built by Ho-Chunk, Ioway, Otoe, Missouri, and shared with Quapaw and later Kansa, Osage, Omaha (who were both Omaha and Ponca at the time) people. Whereas these earthworks (civic, ceremonial, effigy, and burial) were constructed during the mound city period of the city and of what Euro-American Archeologists have called the Oneota Culture.
Arikira, Dakota, and Cheyenne were regular traders with the city and Nakota/Dakota and Arikira people also regularly resided there in later years, and shared some cultural relationships noted as Oneota as well. The city ruins overlap the Iowa and South Dakota border, near Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Granite, Iowa, and Shindler, South Dakota.[1]
It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.[1]
Its integrity is endangered from gravel quarrying and looting.[1]
The site was substantially looted and areas wholly dismantled and destroyed by Americans during several periods, including: the pioneer-settler period, military statehood, the railroad period--continually into the late 1930s--and by subsequent generations of Native enthusiasts/collectors. A snake mound rivaling the snake mound in Ohio was used for railroad fill. Track was lain directly into the largest mound area and graves and civic mounds were robbed, desecrated, to sell to museums in Europe and in urban America. Whatever didn't fancy the looters went directly to the crusher and was used for road fill and gravel.
Mapped in the early 1700s by French voyagers trading with the city, which was then populated largely by Omaha people, but multi-cultural with shared Native populations noted at that time, about 480 mounds existed and a population of 10,000 Native people was documented in the corresponding census. This was still larger than any Euro-American city grew until the 1800s.
In the late 1800s, 176 mounds were still documented as obviously visible. Today a mere 78 mounds exist. Mostly burial. Some of the burial mounds from this large long-inhabited and Indigenous community settled area, exist in Sioux Falls proper and smaller villages are noted all over the Big Sioux River in the general area. Thus the original city of the area was an Indigenous one.
In the United States, cities that pre-existed Euro-Americans, have been largely destroyed and ignored as cities by historians and institutions of education alike. This practice dates back to the time pre the citizenship [1] [2] and sterilization acts of 1924: see also, the nearby Hiawatha Asylum [3] and other annotations: [of Eugenics.htm], and pre the Native Freedom of Religion Act of 1978 www.cr.nps.gov/local-law/FHPL IndianRelFreAct.pdf (see also Standing Bear, Ponca, who legally battled the U. S. district court of Omaha, Nebraska, to have Indigenous people recognized as human beings by the Euro-Americans and the U. S. Government, 1879). The practice is directly linked to land tenure, colonialism, and Manifest Destiny and lack of respect for the complex and viable Aboriginal civilizations, cultures and social structures throughout the Americas. http://www.flashpointmag.com/amindus.htm.
In 1987 the State of Iowa acquisitions a prominent portion of the site for State Park purposes.
The State of Iowa designates this area a state park.
The State of South Dakota, Game, Fish, and Parks Commission voted to acquisition the area as state park land, in a January 2003 hearing in Oacoma, South Dakota, whereas a couple, The Nelsons, owning a prominent parcel of the land and wanting the state to acquisition so as not to desecrate further and Allison Hedge Coke, author of Blood Run [4] were present. Hedge Coke testified on behalf of the site as a South Dakota citizen and educator, former historical interpreter, author/scholar, and descendant of eastern mound builders. This land has been lobbied for previously in the 1970s and 1980s. Both Iowa and South Dakota have had difficulty raising adequate funds to protect this site of significant world history.
A handful of the 100-year pioneer settlers and their descendants, allowed the massive desecration and erasure of a major area of the city ruins to occur and still have property rights to date.
Under Federal Law the land is accessible by imminent domain as appropriate for National Park Land and historic value of world history.
Under NAGPRA (Native American Graves and Reptriation Act) return of articles looted or inherited will be assisted and made possible. [5]
Also, note: Under the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, assistance in return of American real estate to Native nations is assisted and made possible. [6]
The Iowa State page may be found: [7] and is being updated with corrected information as it is made available.
[edit] References
Blood Run. Allison Hedge Coke. Salt Publications. 2006 UK. 2007 US. [8]
[edit] External links
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