The Osage Nation took a big step in its preservation efforts to restore a sacred site in St. Louis, about a ten-minute drive from the Gateway Arch. The tribal nation said it now owns the entire Sugarloaf Mound, built more than 800 years ago when hundreds of mounds were in the area called “Mound City.”
Despite the significant progress toward safeguarding the Osage Nation’s ancestral homelands, the tribe’s historic preservation director, Andrea Hunter, said those efforts are far from over.
“We have a significant amount of work ahead of us to remove all the structures from the properties and stabilize the mound,” Hunter said in a statement. “Now more than ever, our office is dedicated to preserving this sacred site while also educating people about our rich history in the St. Louis area.”…