HANOVER, Ill. -- Preston Duncan pointed to the jutting hilltops above the Apple River.

"I've been up on the tops of those hills. I went up there to fast," he said.

Duncan returned to the area Sunday to dedicate the Wapello Land Preserve and Indian Village Site.

Speaking on behalf of his fellow members of the Meskwaki Nation, Duncan thanked the local volunteers who set aside the land of his ancestors for preservation.

But he asked that those in the country who have the bones of his ancestors, "sitting in cardboard boxes on a shelf" return them to the land. To return them to the earth in a place like the Wapello Preserve, where a burial mound lays protected under native grasses.

"Our people were human beings," he said. "The spirits still have feelings."

The Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation in 2006 purchased the 79-acre tract of land on the banks of the Apple River near Hanover, Ill.

Archeologists have found American Indian artifacts dating back to 1050 A.D. Evidence suggests that two distinct

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groups, the Woodland and Mississippian cultures, merged together to create a new culture at the site. Some estimate that 2,000 dwellings dotted the banks of the Apple River.

Local residents as far back as the late 1800s were aware the earth held historical secrets. Local artifact collectors combed the fields while farmers plowed corn and beans over a burial mound for more than 100 years.

When the University of Illinois sent crews to excavate the land in 2003, archeologists realized the vastness and significance of the site.

Today, native plants and prairie grasses thrive on the site. A hiking trail winds through the preserve, and foundation members hope to install more descriptive signs for visitors.

State archeologist Phil Millhouse said crews will keep short grass on the burial mound in the center of the preserve to keep it protected from looters, who have scavenged from other mounds using tall grass for cover.

The burial mound was battered and flattened throughout the last century by farming, though it may hold artifacts or human remains.

No human remains have been found on the site, and archeologists have no intentions to disturb the mound.

"There's no way we're touching that," Millhouse said.