Welcome to the
Missouri Mound Adoption Project
Website
The newly formed Missouri Mound Adoption Project (MO-MAP) is a loose coalition of volunteers dedicated to protecting and preserving our remaining prehistoric Native American mounds - one mound at a time. MO-MAP's strategy is to recruit and match one volunteer to watch over one mound.
What does it mean to "adopt" a mound?
It means you've said,
"They may loot or bulldoze every other mound in Missouri, but not this one - NOT MY MOUND!"
Then what?
1) Identify the property owner and educate him/her on Missouri's unmarked burial law (MO-MAP can provide copies of this law). Also instruct him/her that they should never allow anyone to dig into or near the mound - even if they claim to be archaeologists. Vandals often pose as "professional" archaeologists.
2) Contact local government, Mo-DOT, MSD, Ameren, Charter, and other entities that may need to be alerted to the mound's existence & Missouri's unmarked human burial law,
3) Work with the property owner to prevent looting and possibly to restore existing damage (MO-MAP can provide restoration advice),
4) Look into proposing a city and/or county ordinance that would extend existing protections for cemeteries to prehistoric mounded cemeteries (MO-MAP can provide a sample mound protection ordinance).
5) Then what? Who knows? The mound adopter must work with the property owner to decide what's best for their situation: Maintain secrecy or allow public access? GPS mapping? Signage? Fence? Publication?
Advice to Mound Adopters
► Be pleasant - "Here's the law & I'm here to help."
► Be persistent - If you don't save this mound, who will?
► Be patient - It took 4 years of "carrot & stick" negotiations to save Blake Mound - the largest surviving mound in St. Louis.
What does it mean to join MO-MAP?
☺No dues & no regular meetings.
☺Help each other: overcome obstacles, solve problems, recruit labor, recruit specialists...
☺Recruit other mound adopters
Contact Information:
Mark W. Leach, MO-MAP Coordinator
314-313-5715
Saving Missouri's remaining mounds - one mound at a time.