Native American gravesites discovered under church parking lot

Testing is underway on northern Wisconsin’s Lac du Flambeau Reservation, where a Native American burial ground was recently located under a church parking lot.

Human remains found last week have researchers wondering if more bodies will be found outside the Community Presbyterian Church in Lac du Flambeau — and whether a gravesite was knowingly paved over.

A church has been on that site for more than a century, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette, though the parking lot has only been in place for half that time. The burial ground is believed to be less than 100 years old.

Some elders reportedly recall there once being a cemetery in the area. But only the headstones appear to have been relocated, they claim.

“Preliminary Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) tests indicated there may be more than one grave beneath the paved parking lot area,” Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians wrote on Facebook Monday.

The University of Minnesota Duluth’s website says the Chippewa were once “the largest and most powerful tribe in the Great Lakes area.” Its members largely live in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota and Ontario, Canada, according to Central Michigan University, which calls its sports teams the Chippewas.

Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians officials said a large portion of the church parking lot, where further remains may be buried, will be closed while researchers survey the area.

Testing began when a tribal member noticed an odd depression on the parking lot surface. Other tribal leaders were recruited to assist in studying the property, which sits 30 miles south of Wisconsin’s border with Michigan.