Imagine your ancestors’ burial sites being concreted over so to make way for a factory that builds killer flying robots. As surreal as this sounds, that is exactly what could happen as defense contractor Anduril, the Pentagon, and certain State of Ohio offices rush to build the Arsenal-1 factory.

Anduril’s autonomous drones may be flying over northern Pickaway County and southern Franklin County within a few short years. The defense contractor coveted the location for Arsenal-1 because it is adjacent to Rickenbacker International Airport, ten miles south of Columbus.

But the mad dash to build Arsenal-1 might not entirely be about defending freedom. It could be about slipping a fast one past our First Nations, who would demand the project be delayed or canceled altogether if Native American burials were discovered.

Historians and archeologists have repeatedly proven the Scioto River Valley, where Columbus and the Arsenal-1 site reside, was home to a remarkable Native American civilization for thousands of years. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sanctified this history after designating this culture’s earthworks World Heritage status in 2023.

In additional to folklore passed down by settler farmers, maps from over a century ago show Arsenal-1’s location was prominent with earthworks, mounds and living areas (pictured above from the 1914 Archaeological Atlas of Ohio). What’s more, Pickaway County was once named Piqua County to honor the Shawnee tribe which lived there before colonial settlers arrived.

The Ohio Archeological Council, a nonprofit not aligned with the Ohio History Connection, is calling for more research at the site to find burials. The advocacy group Protect Pickaway Alliance is doing the same. Ohio State professor Ross LaRue, who grew up near the property, wanted Pickaway County zoning officials to have archeologists conduct more thorough research, but they rebuffed his pleas and voted to rezone in Anduril’s favor. 

Unfortunately, those who have dismissed the possibility of burials, earthworks and mounds have far greater influence and power than a group of amateur archeologists and historians. CT Realty, the developer building Arsenal-1, told NBC4 they conducted their own archaeological survey and found no evidence of Native American history.

“We’ve done everything, an exhaustive search,” said CT Realty managing partner James Watson.

The Ohio Archeological Council told NBC4 they believe the CT Realty archeological survey was “fatally flawed” because it didn’t utilize advanced archaeological tools such as ground-penetrating radar or LIDAR (mobile laser scanners to create high-resolution topographic maps).

No doubt, out-of-control development in Central Ohio over the previous two decades has desecrated local Native history. Ohio is one of three states that allows the owners of private property to do as they please with human remains and artifacts if dug up during construction on their property.

This cold-hearted law, however, doesn’t apply to federally funded construction projects or those construction projects connected to a federal mission, such as defense contracting.

“If human remains are encountered during construction on a federal project, work must stop in the immediate area,” stated Diana Welling, a State Historic Preservation Officer within the Ohio History Connection, in an email to the Free Press. “The US Army Corps of Engineers would ensure the site is secured and that the county coroner or appropriate authority is notified. If the remains are determined to be Native American, federal law requires the process to proceed under NAGPRA [Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990], including consultation with Tribal Nations before any further work occurs in the affected area.”

The State Historic Preservation Office, by the way, had a third of its staff (12 employees) cut last year after it never received $1.45 million in funding from the Trump administration.

A Section 106 is “good medicine” for Native Americans, but will it be properly utilized for Arsenal-1?

The Arsenal-1 factory is the largest single-site job creation investment in Ohio history, and Anduril hopes to start building its drones by this July with training flights lifting off from Rickenbacker not long after.

According to NBC4, Anduril, with little fanfare, quietly began construction on the five million-square-foot factory this past summer. In comparison, President Joe Biden showed up for Ohio’s previous biggest job creation project, which was Intel.

Native American burials at Arsenal-1 would certainly be an arrowhead in the side of the Ohio GOP which spared no effort bringing killer robots to the heart of it all. JobsOhio gave Anduril $350 million while the Ohio Tax Credit Authority will let Anduril off the hook for $450 million if incentives are met. It doesn’t end there, the Ohio Department of Development is chipping in $92 million.

But again, there’s a catch with the Anduril site. A legal caveat which is “good medicine” for Native Americans. Any federal-related construction project could trigger a Section 106 archeological review as mandated by the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966.

“If a federal or federally-assisted project has the potential to affect historic properties, a Section 106 review will take place,” according to the NHPA Act.

Indeed, the Ohio Archeological Council petitioned both the US Army Corps of Engineers and The State Historic Preservation Office to consider a Section 106 archeological survey at the Arsenal-1 site. Thus, if the US Army Corps of Engineers were to find remains determined to be Native American, then Anduril must comply with NAGRPA and presumably stop construction until further notice.

The question now is, will a Section 106 archeological review be initiated by the US Army Corps of Engineers? Or has the Section 106 already begun? Answers to these questions have been difficult to come by for the Free Press. 

“These types of information requests must go through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process,” stated Kayla Osborne, spokesperson for the US Army Corps of Engineers, in an email to the Free Press.

However, after repeated requests to different sources, Ohio History Connection spokesperson Neil Thompson confirmed to us that a Section 106 archeological review is underway at the Arsenal-1 site, and hopefully ground-penetrating radar will be deployed.

But there’s another catch regarding this Section 106, and this one is not “good medicine.” According to the State Historic Preservation Office: “The State Historic Preservation Office is a consulting party, not the decision-maker. The State Historic Preservation Office may agree or disagree with federal findings and provides its comments for the administrative record, but the federal agency is responsible for responding to those comments and making final determinations under federal law.”

Which makes the Free Press ask, will the US Army Corps of Engineers be on the up-and-up with their Section 106 for a defense contractor?

“The federal agency, in this case, the US Army Corps of Engineers, is responsible for determining whether those investigations are adequate and for making findings regarding historic properties. The State Historic Preservation Office provides comments as a consulting party; it does not issue approvals on behalf of the federal government,” stated Welling, the State Historic Preservation Officer.

The Free Press reached out to the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio (NAICCO), but they respectively declined to respond to this story, stating, “As a humble nonprofit urban Indian center, NAICCO is limited in both capacity and resources.”