Fort Myers Beach Mound House Director Adam Knight shocked members of the Cultural & Environmental Learning Center Advisory Board (CELCAB) when he recommended the town close the underground exhibit at The Mound House. It turned into a very heated discussion between Knight and the committee.
Knight said the underground exhibit should be closed due to continued flooding, the costs associated with repairs after every storm, rising sea levels and because it’s unethical to have an exhibit where there are known Indian remains. He made the recommendation after consulting with several outside experts before sharing his conclusion with the CELCAB committee. And that did not sit very well with committee members.
CELCAB Vice Chair Cherie Smith was very upset. She said that without the underground exhibit, “our Mound House will not survive.” Knight shot back and said the underground is a burial, not an exhibit or educational resource. “There are ancestors buried there. We don’t go to other cemeteries and turn them into attractions or have children play or give field trip tours. For us to continue does pose some ethical concerns.” Knight concluded that what the town is doing in the underground is unethical. Committee members were skeptical that it’s been proven that the remains on the site are from any Indian tribe.
Knight did admit that the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Indians did not step forward and file a complaint with the town, but he said through conversations he’s had with the two groups they would support the closing of the underground.
CELCAB member Ellen Vaughn told Knight that to start this process without coming to CELCAB is “unfortunate at best.” Knight responded by saying that he did not reach any conclusion but that it’s only his recommendation to close the underground exhibit. Vaughn pushed back by saying that Knight going to several outside experts first and not alerting CELCAB committee members was disappointing.
Knight said he was following the advice of CELCAB Chair Barbara Hill by seeking out other subject area experts to give CELCAB the full scope of opinions and research. Hill said Hurricane Ian exposed bones we were not prepared for. “Operating the Mound House knowing those bones are there brings everything into question.”
Director of Culture, Parks, and Recreation for Fort Myers Beach Jeff Hague said this is a financial problem for the town now as well. “Every time a storm comes through the underground floods. Over the last two years, it’s been closed the majority of the time. $450,000 worth of repairs were made to The Mound House after Hurricane Ian. The town is looking at spending another $250,000 to fix the electrical from the last storm. Is it a good stewardship of taxpayer dollars? It is a big financial burden for the town” Fort Myers Beach taxpayers kick in $550,000 every year to support The Mound House.
Vaughan said to close the underground off from visitors to The Mound House is wrong headed. When Vaughan said the remains at the facility could be tested to see who they actually belong to, Knight jumped in and said disturbing remains is a Class 3 felony in Florida.
Smith said she’s always been told that the “remains at the Mound House are not from an Indian tribe, that they were remains of people who had been on the mound and that they were white.” Committee members laughed at Knight when he said it’s been proven they are Indian remains from “oral history, linguistics and geospatial analysis.” Under federal law, Knight said, “oral history is an equal validation as DNA testing.”
Smith said you are blowing this all out of proportion, talking to Knight and Hague. “You want to close the underground so you are using ethics as your means to close it. I think it’s a grave mistake.”
CELCAB voted unanimously to explore all options necessary to ensure that the exhibit at the Mound House will remain open in some capacity, given that flooding in the future will continue. They also hope to get a forensic anthropologist to look at the remains that were uncovered with hopes of determining who they belong to.
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