Cahokia and other mounds threatened by Pollution

Cahokia used to be the central trade route for the native "americans". Its main pyramid mound was larger than the great pyramind of Egypt, in its day. Natives from South, Central, and North America, came here for ceremoney, and trade.
In Lake Mills, WI, there is a sister city to Cahokia.... Aztalan....


heres the email:



Cahokia, Illinois

International Herald Tribune - France

Environmentalists: Planned landfill expansion threatens ancient Indian
burial grounds in U.S.

MADISON, Illinois: An independent pollution-control agency ordered a
hearing Thursday on a planned landfill expansion that opponents fear
may desecrate possible burial grounds near the ruins of a
once-thriving
prehistoric city of up to 20,000 American Indians.

The Illinois Pollution Control Board hearing was sought by the
environmental groups Illinois Sierra Club and American Bottom
Conservancy, who on Tuesday appealed to reverse this St. Louis
suburb's approval to expand the landfill last month.

Suburban Madison would get roughly $1 million (€760,000) a year in
fees from Waste Management Inc., the nation's largest garbage hauler.

Houston-based Waste Management, which owns the towering Milam landfill
in nearby Fairmont City, wants to expand to Madison and considers the
appeal unnecessary because the company says it has met all sitting
criteria.

Waste Management wants to expand the landfill onto land it owns in
Madison after the existing landfill closes, perhaps in six years. The
new site still would require approval from the Army Corps of Engineers
and the state Environmental Protection Agency.

Environmentalists say the expanded site would be within 2,100 feet
(640 meters) of the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site and close to
Horseshoe Lake State Park.

Calling Madison's approval process "fundamentally unfair," the groups
say the landfill would violate Illinois laws that say landfills cannot
not be located in an area incompatible with the surrounding area's
character.

"I think it's unconscionable, so disrespectful to the site, to the
American Indians living today who would see garbage put on top of a
site they consider sacred," said Kathy Andria, the American Bottom
Conservancy's president who also heads the Illinois Sierra Club's
Waste and Recycling Task Force.

The Pollution Control Board did not immediately set a hearing date but
under state law the board's decision in the appeal must be made by
July 11, unless Waste Management waives that deadline, said Connie
Newman, the panel's spokeswoman. Bill Plunkett, a Chicago-based
spokesman for Waste Management, said opponents had ample opportunity
to publicly question the expansion.

"The company exercised extraordinary care, sensitivity and respect in
respect to archaeological issues," he said.

John Papa, Madison's attorney, said he was not surprised by the appeal
from the two groups.

"The city followed the appropriate steps to consider the proposal and
make a reasoned judgment on it," he said.

During a 2005 archaeological survey, Waste Management found a skull
near the projected expansion site. State officials have said the skull
is probably American Indian, but further analysis was needed.

Waste Management's Plunkett said there's no evidence the remains were
of an American Indian.

Believed to have been inhabited from 700 to 1400 A.D., Cahokia was
among the most complex, sophisticated societies of prehistoric North
America. Its enduring collection of mounds served as ceremonial sites,
residences and tombs for Cahokia's leaders and servants. Evidence
retrieved from burial mounds and other sites suggest a hierarchical
political structure, a specialized economy and significant scientific
knowledge, researchers say.

The prehistoric city originally had 120 mounds, and the locations of
109 have been recorded. The state historic site includes about 70 of
the mounds, ranging in height from about five to 100 feet. Many others
have been altered or destroyed by modern farming and urban sprawl.

In 2000, one mound was plowed under to make way for a new subdivision
near Edwardsville.

At its peak around 1100 to 1200, researchers say, the city covered
nearly six square miles and had as many as 20,000 inhabitants. By
1400, the site was abandoned and remained uninhabited until Illini
Indians moved into the area around 1650.

A United Nations agency in 1982 designated Cahokia as a World Heritage
Site, joining the likes of the Great Wall of China, Egypt's pyramids,
the Taj Mahal, Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty.

Contact Information below:

Please email your comments to
Office of Administrator EPA: [email protected]

General Strock HQ Corps of Engineers: you will have to go to the web
site and complete form
[link to www.hq.usace.army.mil]

Carrie V. Wilson
Osage NAGPRA Program Director
Cultural Resouces
223 E. Lafayette St.
Fayetteville, AR 72701
[link to www.thepetitionsite.com]