American Indian groups in Ohio are fighting to save the burial sites and earthen mounds of their ancestors from increasing development. Since many of these sites have already been destroyed, both deliberately and inadvertently, by sprawl, local groups feel it is increasingly important to preserve those sites that are still intact. A descendent of Cherokee and Lumbee ancestry stated that “(m)ounds are part of a very rich, deep and complex history of native people that's tens of thousands of years old. But they've been bulldozed over, dug under or manicured into an 18th green." Local Indian organizations are working as well to improve access to the sacred sites, once used to track lunar movements and perform ceremonies, that have now been incorporated into development projects. Currently, American Indian burial mounds are protected by federal law when they are on public property; however, if they fall on private property, they have no protection.
