The Grand Mound, a 25-foot-tall American Indian burial site in the far reaches of northern Minnesota, was designated a National Historic Landmark several years ago.
But it and four other smaller mounds some 2,000 years old have been closed to the public because of state budget cuts in 2002.
Officials at the Minnesota Historical Society are determined now to figure out its fate.
After a series of meetings with various tribal groups, officials said they will decide this fall whether to reopen the sacred site in some way or keep it closed for the foreseeable future.
"The issues are access, and what level of access does everybody feel comfortable with?" said Joe Horse Capture, director of Native American Initiatives at the Historical Society, who noted the sensitivity of the issue. "Out of all of our 26 [historic] sites that we have in this state … Grand Mound is, I guess one would say, probably the most sensitive one."
The mounds sit near the confluence of the Rainy River on the Canadian border and the Big Fork River, about 17 miles west of International Falls. A number of tribes spent time there harvesting spawning sturgeon, said Mattie Harper, the Historical Society's program and outreach manager in the Native American Initiatives department. The site contains different types of burials as people's beliefs and practices changed over time, Harper explained. Members of various tribes have different historical stories from the site, too, she said.
Tribal members have advocated for a range of options, from keeping the site closed to the public while making it available only to those who claim an ancestral relationship, to opening part of the site for education.
"The positions vary widely," said Dennis Olson, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, a state agency that has been following the discussion. "Of course there is, I think, a widely held position that the site is a cemetery site first and foremost. It is a sacred burial site that needs to be treated as such."
