新一代拥护土墩

The college community’s interest in the Native American mounds on campus has waxed and waned over the years. Some alumni may remember them only as the backdrop of groggy 8 a.m. 长途跋涉去上课. Others may have studied them extensively in archaeology courses. But student advocates say that campus-wide awareness of the burial mounds is insufficient, 尽管人们在努力教育他们. Professors and students have worked to raise campus consciousness in the past, slowly but surely spreading the word about the sacred land on which the college stands. Over the past few months, this long-lived effort has accelerated.

许多人都在这一新生力量中发挥了作用. 集体, their work has resulted in some high-profile attention, such as the first official mention of the mounds during the 2018 Commencement ceremony. A student-run group known as the Campus Mound Sustainability and Advocacy Initiative, 简称CMSAI, has led a recent push to spread general knowledge about the mounds among faculty, 工作人员, 学生群体.

他们的努力并没有被忽视. 去年秋天, it was hard to find a restroom on campus without one of the group’s blue flyers taped to the wall. They have coordinated with the Admissions Office to give campus tour guides special training about the mounds’ history and significance, along with many other education and publicity projects. Their goal is to ensure that the mounds and surrounding land get the respect they deserve.

Those not in the midst of mound advocacy might feel a little lost right now. 这些土墩到底有什么意义?

Going back to the fall/winter 2003 issue of this magazine, 威廉•格林, 然后是洛根博物馆馆长, 撰写了一篇题为《菠菜白菜吧》的文章. The comprehensive piece gave a chronology of the mounds and the college’s treatment and preservation efforts over the years. 格林解释说，1点左右,500年前, the ancestors of the Ho Chunk (Winnebago) and other Native American tribal groups built the 贝洛伊特 mounds. Twenty of the 25 original mounds remain on 贝洛伊特’s campus. Some were excavated during the first half of the 20th century, 而其他人则在施工中丧生. However, laws now protect the mounds the same way they do other burial sites.

绿色, 中西部史前考古专家, 送达原件, mid-1980s committee that crafted Wisconsin state legislation to protect all burial sites, 包括成堆. He also served on the 2016 Legislative Council committee that revised and clarified the law.

Those laws reflect the sentiment the CMSAI is trying to cultivate on campus: The 贝洛伊特 mounds are places of burial. They are sacred in ways comparable to a cemetery and should be given that recognition. 作为这个神圣空间的所有者, the school is responsible for preserving and maintaining respect toward the mounds.

履行这一责任的方式多种多样. Campus groundskeepers, for example, use lower impact lawn mowers on the mounds to reduce erosion. For similar reasons, walking and sitting on the mounds is being discouraged. 贝洛伊特’s responsibility, however, is not limited to physical preservation.

CMSAI members believe that an educated campus community is critical to the mounds’ survival. In addition to advocating for including remarks about the mounds during last year’s Commencement (the event is held on the Middle College lawn, 几个土丘的位置), and successfully placing explanatory notes in the event program, students worked to increase dialogue about the mounds. In a panel discussion last fall organized by students in Sex and Power, 一门批判性身份研究课程, two students and several faculty members shared important aspects of preservation and awareness with attendees. CMSAI aims to make events like this commonplace in future semesters.

Others on campus have similar hopes for increasing awareness about the mounds. 人类学副教授Shannon Fie, 谁在2002年加入贝洛伊特, is pleased with the newfound energy around mound advocacy. 她描述了, 在过去的五年里, 学生的兴趣来自校园的许多领域, including the Office of Academic Diversity and Inclusiveness, 批判身份研究课程, 最近, CMSAI. Fie believes the most important aspect of the recent advocacy work is that it is led by students.

詹妮弗Pantelios的19, 带头的学生之一, became interested in advocacy work during a conversation about whether people should be allowed to walk on the mounds during Commencement. 她知道菲和格林的工作, 还有以前的学生, and she wanted to make sure their protective efforts continued. By coordinating with Fie and other students from anthropology and other departments (Pantelios is a geology major), she joined with several other students to form the CMSAI.

校园宽阔, grassroots qualities of the CMSAI seem to be succeeding in changing campus sentiment around the mounds, and members say they will continue to work on improving the college’s coexistence with this sacred landscape.

韦伯·阿诺德在伯洛伊特大学主修人类学. 今年秋天，他将开始攻读J.D. 他是德保罗大学法学院的教授.