IOWA CITY, Iowa — The National Park Service has shelved a blistering internal report that details a “decade of dysfunction” as the agency allowed dozens of illegal construction projects to cause significant damage to an ancient Iowa burial ground that Indian tribes consider sacred.
Titled “Serious Mismanagement Report,” the document blasts the park service’s failed stewardship of the Effigy Mounds National Monument from 1999 to 2010 and says the case should serve as a wakeup call for agency employees at all levels to avoid similar violations.
Last week, NPS deputy regional director Patricia Trap told a resident who requested a copy of the 15-page report that it didn’t exist.