Diocese deeds Native burial site to Ojibwe

From The Superior Catholic Herald...
 

More than a century ago, the bodies of nearly 200 Ojibwe were exhumed and moved to make way for an ore dock on Wisconsin Point in Superior.

Indigenous peoples settled seasonally on the land around 400 years ago. The dock, planned by U.S. Steel Company, was never built on the tribe’s ancestral land, which was part of the 3-acre peninsula that stretches into Lake Superior.

The disinterred bodies dated to the 17th century; they were reburied in a mass grave on land adjacent to St. Francis Cemetery.

“At that time, it was not actually cemetery land; the Franciscan pastor noted that the burials could only occur if he had the opportunity to bless the land that was being used on the hillside for the Native graves,” said Fr. Jim Tobolski, pastor of St. Francis Xavier in Superior, who also serves as judicial vicar and vicar general for the Diocese of Superior.

Read the rest of this news story on The Superior Catholic Herald (official publication of the Diocese of Superior) website here...