ODANAH, Wis.  Fifty years later, the memories are still raw -- Native Americans protesting in vain as highway workers desecrated one of their cemeteries and hauled away their ancestors' bones to a still-unknown location.

State transportation officials moved toward reconciliation Monday, formally apologizing to the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.

"I regret that it has taken us this long to get to this point, but I am glad that we are finally here," said Frank Busalacchi, the secretary of the state Department of Transportation. "Let me at this time and this place, on your land ... offer an official apology to the Bad River tribe."

Bad River tribal chairman Mike Wiggins Jr. accepted the apology on behalf of the tribe, The Daily Press reported.

"For us as Ojibwa, the formal apology isn't seen as a destination but as a start," he said.

The 1960 disturbance of artifacts and human remains happened at a time when DOT officials and the tribe shared less trust, Busalacchi said. He pledged to work with the tribe to "start the healing process."

People in the community remain deeply impassioned about what happened in 1960, Wiggins said. Tribal elders are still pained by memories of watching as trucks hauled away the sacred contents of family plots, he added.

"As Ojibwa people, we have very long memories and some of the things that happened long ago are still very much resonating with us today," Wiggins said.

He recounted the details at the Bad River Pow-Wow grounds, where Busalacchi and other DOT officials gathered for a ceremony and feast to remember those whose graves were disturbed.

The controversy began in September 1959, when a traffic accident left damage to the old Bad River Bridge. The DOT and tribal government agreed to relocate the bridge.

An initial survey revealed a historical burial ground, so officials relocated the construction to an area further north. By 1960 the work was under way.

"During the excavation of the new highway, there were eyewitness accounts of human remains being exhumed and loaded on the trucks leaving the area," Wiggins said. "Recorded interviews with elders that remember that time indicate that the tribal membership rallied to stop the construction, but to no avail."

The worst part is, no one knows where the remains were taken, he said.

Since that time, Highway 2 remains an unresolved issue. Wiggins noted that in 2001, the DOT began preliminary efforts to reconstruct the highway. Preliminary testing revealed about 90 anomalies in the area that could be graves. The area was subsequently closed off.

The tribe and DOT agreed that reconstruction efforts at the cemetery would be scaled back.

The transportation department and tribal officials have worked together for five years to refine preservation policies, Busalacchi said.

"While we cannot change the past, we will change the future," he said. "We have already started."

Original article at:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-gravesdisturbed,0,4656727.story