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Snake Mound: Community works against Toronto council to protect burial mounds

Work on shoring up the Snake Mound site took place this summer.

Much progress has been achieved during the summer of 2011 in the work to preserve the Snake Mound, one of 57 remaining ancient Iroquoian burial mounds in Toronto's High Park in danger of destruction from BMX bike activity. In April, a meeting was set up between the Taiaiako'on Historical Preservation Society (THPS) and Toronto City Councillor Sarah Doucette where she was presented with information about the Snake Mound, and that the City of Toronto's main archeologist Ron Williamson, who is working under a suspended license.

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in her own words

Haudenosaunee sites of cultural importance damaged in Toronto's largest park

Watersnake Mound, a burial site for 3,000 years, in Toronto's High Park. Photo: Catherine Tammaro

Rastia'ta'non:ha, Seneca Nation man; wolf clan and supporters, sit amid a circle of fallen red oaks cradled within the confines of manmade hillocks and valleys on a beautiful High Park afternoon. This sensitive, natural habitat has been stripped of grass, the manmade dips and high points of this once beautiful environment lie barren and desolate. A dead tree stump at the top of the mound stands sentinel to the desecration, large oaks, birch and aspen over arch the place in seeming sadness.

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