All things considered, the potential to uncover indigenous peoples’ remains or artifacts on the proposed Village Centre commercial site appears insignificant to most people.
With all of the debate about traffic, impact on Cape Henlopen High School and downtown Lewes businesses, and on the wellhead area, artifacts are an issue that seems to get lost.
But not for Jules Jackson, an indigenous peoples’ advocate. She says there should be no development anywhere near known burial sites or where Native American artifacts have been found. “There is no compromise. It’s about basic respect and decency,” she said. “It’s a human value issue.”
Once a find has been made, she said, other remains are likely to be nearby. “You can never be sure an area is 100 percent clear,” she said.
Over time, she said, many sites in the Cape Region have been destroyed by construction, farming and development.
Hundreds of Lewes residents were expected to turn out for a public hearing Thursday, Sept. 10, before county planning and zoning commissioners on a request by LT Associates to rezone a parcel to commercial along Kings Highway and Gills Neck Road. If the rezoning request is granted, the developers plan to build the 320,000-square-foot Village Centre shopping complex on the parcel.
Another public hearing is scheduled at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 29, before county council. Frank Kea, spokesman for developers LT Associates, says extensive research has been done throughout the area, and there are no archaeological sites on the 46 acres where the planned Village Centre would be built.
That is not the case elsewhere on the parcel known as the Townsend property.
Finds over the years
Parcels along Gills Neck Road have a long archeological history. There have been significant, although little publicized, archeological finds on Townsend-owned properties over the past 55 years.
One was so significant back in the 1950s that the renowned Smithsonian Institution had 50 Native American remains removed from the property. The remains are at the Natural Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Kea said Paul Townsend hired other archaeologists to make a complete survey of other parcels, spending $100,000 in the process, and other sites were found in the area of the Senators and Governors housing projects. He said pottery shards and other items were found during their survey.
The housing projects, approved by county officials, will be built on 700 acres with more than 700 housing units adjacent and connected to the proposed Village Centre.
Kea said the areas where artifacts were found will not be designated, at the request of state archeologists, but will be left undisturbed in a natural state. The same was done with the area where the 50 human remains were found back in the 1950s.
Kea said the areas are unmarked to keep out trespassers and amateur archaeologists. Kea said it was two amateur archeologists who were trespassing that discovered the site back in the 1950s.
He said it has not been uncommon for people to trespass on Townsend land in search of artifacts.
Jackson said the finds, and others, including one near Five Points, only prove one thing – the area was home to a large settlement of Native Americans, the first inhabitants of the region.
“The area was one of the largest indigenous settlements on the East Coast,” Jackson said. “There are remains outside the parameters where they say they are.”
She said one could only wonder what would have occurred and what action would have been taken if the remains had been of a European settlement.
One of the major sites, known as the Wolfe Neck site, was nominated in 1976 for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
According to a report filed by state archeologists, excavations at the 132-acre site along the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal indicated an almost continuous prehistoric occupation from 505 B.C. through 330 A.D.
“The early occupation of the site was apparently a small seasonal camp. The later occupation may have been a more permanent village,” the report concluded.
That’s more than 2,100 years before Dutch explorers landed near present-day Lewes, the first Europeans to touch Cape Region soil. Historical records show that the first inhabitants of the Mid-Atlantic region date back as far as 12,000 years ago.
The site was not included in the National Register.
Jackson said officials should take note of what occurred at Thompson Island, located where Rehoboth Bay and the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal converge.
The entire island is preserved as part of Delaware Seashore State Park. Artifacts found on the island date back to 3000 B.C.
Jackson said county officials, developers and planners are paying more attention to what is under the soil.
“It’s been brought to the forefront and they are staring to take it seriously,” she said.
The chiefs of the Nanticoke and Lenape recently testified in opposition to a rezoning and conditional use for an apartment complex off Plantation Road. They say construction of the project would infringe on an existing Native American burial site.
The long-standing lack of interest in indigenous sites is not surprising to Jackson. “It’s gone on for so long, it’s become part of the culture,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s all about money.”---www.capegazette.com