08-22-22 Letter from MN Indian Affairs Council

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AUG-20-97 WED 09:47 AM WOODWARD CLYDE FAX NO, 6125930094 P, 02 Woodward-Clyde Mr. Bruce Polaczyk Hennepin County'Department of Pubic Works December 17. 1996 Page 2 American burials might be affected by the construction. Hennepin County contracted with Woodward-Clyde Consultants to investigate the reports of burials and their relationship to the current CSAH 15 alignment and the proposed construction. Mr.Michael A.Justin acted as Principal Investigator for the duration of the investigations. TASK 1 RESULTS-LITERATURE SEARCH The files at the State Archaeologist's Office at the Minnesota Historical Society were inspected for information on the area. The files consisted of a site form and photocopies of notes taken by T.H. Lewis on May 8, 1883. Lewis created a map of the area showing 20 mounds of various sizes and shapes covering an area of over 1,000 feet along the neck of a peninsula referred to as Starvation Point, later known as Orono Point,and presently,as Brackett's Point. This group has been officially designated as 21I-1E03. The largest of these was 60 feet in diameter and 5.5 feet in height,and the smallest being 18 feet in diameter and 1.0 feet in height. Also in the file were pages from Winchell's The Aborigines of Minnesota (1911),that includes a reproduction of Lewis'map along with descriptive text from Lewis's notes and additional information concerning artifacts and human skeletal remains removed from some of the mounds. Winchell references excavations of several mounds by Robert O. Sweeny,a St. Paul druggist, in 1867. The files also contained references to excavations undertaken at the mound group by the University of Minnesota in 1947.University sources and subsequent publications refer to the mounds us the Halpin Mound Group.Two mounds(Mounds 10 & 11) were selected for excavation. The results of the excavations are presented in a publication of the Minnesota Historical Society, Rurial Mounds of Central Minnesota: Excavation Reports(Wilford,et al. 1969). The University found the size and position of these mounds to be very close to that described by Lewis. W-C staff determined that depending on the amount of development that has taken place since the University's excavations, any remaining mounds should be easily relocated using Lewis' map. - The original site file at the University of Minnesota was inspected and found to contain an undated map of the Lake Minnetonka area that showed CSAH 15 in place,presumably at the time of the investigation in 1947. Also included were a few photographs of two mounds (Mound 1 & Mound 11),one of which was excavated. Unfortunately, there was little information in the photographs to indicate their present location in relation to other features (See copies of photos attached). Because Lewis' map did not photocopy clearly,his notes were retyped(attached)and the map was redrawn to a scale of 1 inch equal to 100 feet(Figure 2). Using information from Woodward-Clyde Consultants J WE13033F.NAAL2 D:)CtI7.C...9GVMN