MADISON, Wis. (AP) ~ A Wisconsin legislative committee has approved a bill that would require the state historical director to consider evidence for adding land to the state’s burial sites catalog.
Developers need permits to excavate on land listed in the catalog. Republicans introduced a bill two years ago that would have allowed quarry owners to excavate Ho-Chunk Nation burial grounds to prove human remains are buried there.
That bill went nowhere but spurred a legislative study committee to craft a new proposal. It requires the director to consider whether evidence of remains exists before cataloguing a site and establishes a process for challenging decisions and removing sites from the list.
The Assembly Committee on Environment and Forestry approved the proposal on an 8-0 vote Thursday, clearing the way for a full Assembly vote
