05/03/2026
Native American remains buried in Riverview Cemetery
The International Order of Odd Fellows Lodge #107 recently discussed marking the grave containing the remains of Native Americans found in Lake Freeman in the fall of 1993. The lodge owns Riverview Cemetery located in rural White County east of Monticello.
The remains of Native Americans found by an amateur archeologist back in 1993. Dennis Krintz was a mail carrier back then when work on the Oakdale Dam required Lake Freeman to be emptied. “I thought there’s got to be something out there, because you have the bay, which is protected and you have that high spot, which is the island,” said Krintz. He was referring to Ski Island.
Krintz decided to take his son, Chad, to the area near the island to further investigate his thoughts. Sure enough, Krintz’s suspicions turned out to be correct. “We weren’t there for five minutes, when I found scattered bone material,” said Krintz, now retired.
Then they found three vertebrae sticking up out of the ground. “It lay in a fetal position. Their grave would be laid out like an egg shape facing east,” he explained.
The find gave him enough information to contact the proper authorities. Because of new laws, they were not allowed to dig for any artifacts. He called Conservation Officer Bruce Clear. The next day, Clear took another officer with him to see what Krintz had found. They confirmed the find and notified the White County Sheriff’s Department to make sure it wasn’t a recent homicide.
The Sheriff’s Department decided it wasn’t a homicide. Purdue University’s Archeology Department was contacted to further investigate the remains. Purdue sent Matt Williamson, an anthropologist-pathologist, to investigate the find. He decided a dig was necessary to uncover the remains and applied to the state.
In the meantime, the Sheriff’s department roped off the area and guarded it 24 hours a day. The Northern Indiana Public Service Company footed the bill for securing and other expenses. NIPSCO also had to delay the filling back up of the lake.
Purdue performed the dig; Krintz and his son volunteered to assist in it. Several skeletal remains were found. One was a complete individual that was determined to be a female about 45 years of age. Another partial skeleton was found, and it was a female over 21 years of age. The third partial skeleton was very fragmentary and was from an adult. Parts of two other remains were also found. The analysis of the human remains determined they came from 400-500 AD or common era. Many other artifacts and a frontier farm were uncovered in the dig that lasted until mid-November 1993.
The final report by Purdue in April 1996 concluded that 1,400 years ago the village found had about 280 individuals living there. “Their community must have been one of the paramount centers in their world,” it stated.
The village was from the Late Woodland period. It was likely part of the Hopewell culture as they were in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley. They were known for large earthworks, ceremonial mounds and extensive trade networks. They were not referred to as Native Americans. That term is modern label to describe the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Hopewell people called themselves by the name of their local group or lineage, and other cultures had their own distinct identities.
The remains were then given to Riverview Cemetery to rebury.
The board finally decided not to mark the grave with anything permanent as many Native American tribes leave their graves unmarked.
Captions
A simple wooden cross marks the spot of Native American remains at Riverview Cemetery. They are in Section 14 in the last row before the drop off to the Tippecanoe River below. It sits next to the Alexander family grave. The cross is temporary and used only to mark the spot for this photo. Photo courtesy W.C. Madden
