The area was home to several thousand people between 1000 A.D. to 1550 A.D. Today, the 54-acre historic site protects six earthen mounds, a grass plaza, village site, borrow pits and defensive ditch.

Dating to 1000 A.D., Etowah grew from a modest village into a fortified regional capital, ultimately serving as a home to several thousand Native Americans, according to the site’s historic guide.

In the 1960s, hundreds of the found artifacts and funerary items were displayed at the Etowah museum. Human remains were removed from the displays in subsequent years but never returned to tribes.

Butler said some 400 people were disinterred from the funeral mound at Etowah over the course of archaeology there, plus some 187,000 related artifacts, the Department of Natural Resources estimates.

Archeologists, working in a space the size of a small garage, have already found more than 20,000 artifacts, according to a report in today's edition of the Brainerd Dispatch.

Officials emphasize that Etowah Indian Mounds State Historic Site will remain open to the public and school groups. Visitors can watch a 15-minute film, learn about the Indigenous people who lived ...