The Indian Mounds Education and Protection Committee drafted plans to reroute Field House Drive, establish a website promoting the mounds’ history and begin fundraising efforts for the $5 to $6-million project during their second meeting on Friday.
Interim Vice President and Provost Matt Lee and Vice President of the Civil Rights and Title IX office Jane Cassidy attended the meeting.
“The Mounds, to me, have always been a historic part, but it’s only more recently that we’ve really come to appreciate not only their significance as an LSU treasure, but their significance as a national and international treasure which makes this project even more important,” Lee said.
The LSU Indian Mounds, located on Field House Drive across from The Pentagon, are at least 6,000 years old and likely served a religious and social function for the Native Americans who built them.
LSU geology professor Brooks Ellwood believes the bone fragments found in the mounds suggest the structure is one of the oldest man-made structures in the Western Hemisphere, and maybe even the world, but peer-reviewed research has not substantiated this claim.
The Indian Mound committee has been split into three subcommittees: messaging and education, design and fundraising. Chairs of each subcommittee presented further plans.
A website explaining the history and significance of the mounds could be up and running this semester, according to Jewel Hampton, chair of messaging and education. The website will also have a link for people to donate money to the committee’s initiatives.
The subcommittee also discussed communication plans such as making video interviews with students and alumni with Native American heritage about the importance of the mounds, making the mounds a regular stop on campus tours and presenting information about the mounds to local K-12 schools, including augmented reality presentations.
They also discussed the possibility of LSU Athletics mailing information about the mounds’ importance and preservation to their season ticket holders. The mounds have suffered damage on home game days when fans, especially children, play on the mounds.
After numerous incidents of vandalism, including students sledding down the mounds, LSU built a chain-link fence around the historic site to keep students and visitors from further damaging the structure in spring 2021. The committee was formed to find ways to further protect the mounds and keep the site an attractive historical destination.
“Our goals are to inform LSU and the greater community about the historical, cultural and geological significance of the mounds, develop clear guidance on how to respect and protect the mounds and communicate the opportunities and benefits of funding for these initiatives,” said Sibel Bargu Ates, chair of the committee and associate dean of academics at the College of the Coast and Environment.
LSU is planning a path through campus which will be called Tiger Walk, running from north to south across campus, part of LSU’s 2017 master plan looking into development and infrastructure decades into the future.
Gregory LaCour, chair of the design subcommittee, said the path will likely pass the Indian Mounds.
Current plans include moving Field House Drive at minimum 10 feet back to give the mounds more space, with a walkway separating the road from the site. The mounds could be surrounded by a low barrier with bushes in front of it, restricting students from entering.
Seeded meadow native grasses are planned to cover the mounds and will only need to be cut roughly twice a year, reducing the amount of lawn care needed on the mounds, which is contributing to their degradation.
“We hired CARBO landscape architects to help us come up with a concept for the Indian mounds, specifically in how we address the need to preserve them, to recognize them as a sacred space and to give honor to them as well as to allow people to enjoy them from a distance,” LaCour said.
Plans also include a raised viewing platform that will swoop over the barrier, LaCour said.
When the committee last met in November, the plans were estimated to cost $4 million. That number is likely closer to $5 or $6 million now, though nothing will be finalized until tribal leaders approve the drafts.
No committee members were willing to give a timeline of the project’s development. Because of that, Emily Kline, chair of the fundraising subcommittee, said money-raising efforts will be focused on messaging and education until the designs are finalized.
Kline said their most immediate goal is to work with LSU Athletics to have the Indian Mounds website connected to the Athletics website once it goes live.
Both mounds have suffered significant damage due to people climbing on them and lawn care.
Mound A is composed of a mushier type of soil filled with water. As pressure is exerted on the mound, it begins to cave inward, causing the mound to become lumpy and deformed on the surface. Mound A has already been significantly deformed from students trespassing and LSU mowing the grass on it.
Mound B has suffered less damage since it is made of more secure soil, but is still subject to erosion as students walk and slide down it.
