Sky Ride Opening Nears Despite Concerns Over Burial Ground

CLARKSVILLE, Mo. (AP) _ An Oklahoma-based Indian tribe is fighting with a Missouri man over land where the tribe's ancestors are buried. <br/><br/>Bill McMurtry wants to reopen a sky ride in Clarksville,

Wednesday, May 23rd 2007, 2:36 pm

By: News On 6

CLARKSVILLE, Mo. (AP) _ An Oklahoma-based Indian tribe is fighting with a Missouri man over land where the tribe's ancestors are buried.

Bill McMurtry wants to reopen a sky ride in Clarksville, Missouri, about 70 miles north of St. Louis. The ride is similar to a ski lift and was a popular attraction in the 1960s and 70s as it carried people on brief rides over the valley with a view of the Mississippi River.

But the platform for the ride is built on a burial ground of the Sac and Fox Nation and the tribe wants to keep the ride closed.

As McMurtry plans to reopen the ride this summer the Sac and Fox are hoping a Missouri state law making it a felony to knowingly disturb an American Indian burial ground.

Sandra Massey with the Sac and Fox says the burial mound is already desecrated and says she can't understand why no one understands that the law is being broken.

Sac and Fox tribes lived in eastern Missouri and western Illinois in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The government eventually got the land and the tribe left the region in the 1830s before splitting into Oklahoma and Iowa.