By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

NORTH SMITHFIELD — The evidence keeps mounting, but for Conservation Commission Chairman Donald Gagnon there has never been a question there are ancient Indian burial grounds in the Nipsachuck area off Route 7.

Bolstering that claim is the recent discovery of what a local archeologist believes is the remains of a 700-year-old Nipsachuck Indian girl found at the site. At a meeting of the Town Council last week, Gagnon revealed that preliminary carbon dating testing on the remains found by local archeologist Fred Meli at one of the burial mounds identified bone fragments of a young girl believed to have lived five or six centuries ago.
As a result of that discovery, the Town Council unanimously voted to support Gagnon's request to appropriate $900 for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry testing to more thoroughly investigate the age of other remains found on the site. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry radiocarbon dating is a way for archeologists to obtain radiocarbon dates from samples that are far tinier than that needed for standard radiocarbon dating.
Standard carbon 14 dates require amounts of between 1 and 10 grams of charcoal, while AMS can use as little as 1 to 2 milligrams, and under special circumstances to samples as small as 50 to 100 micrograms.
In standard radiocarbon dating, scientists perform a limited or proportional count of the decaying C14 atoms.
In AMS dating, researchers use an accelerator-based mass spectrometer to count all the C14 atoms, rather than just those atoms which are decaying. AMS dates are therefore more precise and require smaller samples.
The recent test data, Gagnon says, makes it crystal clear that the mounds are Native American burial grounds and not the result of land clearing by early settlers and farmers, as some — including experts for the developers of the proposed Rankin Estates housing development — have contended.
Last month, the Town Council agreed to apply for $30,000 in Preserve America matching grants to fund a detailed archeological survey that will give the town a more thorough understanding of the historic Nipsachuck area and the artifacts discovered at the site last year.
The $30,000 grant will be matched by the town in the form of in-kind services provided by the town and volunteers and several organizations, including the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, North Smithfield Land Trust, Valley Alliance for Smart Growth and Archaeological Consulting Services, Inc., which will conduct the survey for a reduced fee.
Gagnon and other town officials believe that at one time Native Americans occupied 700 to 800 acres in the Nipsachuck area off Route 7. The burial mounds were discovered by members of the Conservation Commission early last year while they were reviewing the potential impact of Rankin Estates, a 122-unit housing development that was proposed to be built on land near the town's western border near the burial ground site.
The town should know by March whether or not the 2008 grant application is approved by Preserve America — a federal grant program that helps communities support and protect their heritage and historic assets.
The piles of stones at the site vary in size and in some cases are stacked like the cairns that are often seen on hiking trails. Others appear to be low pilings of stone. Local historians and members of the Conservation Commission say the site is a documented site of at least two battles of the King Philip's War from 1675-1676.
According to town officials, an additional 124 stone mounds have been identified on sites directly abutting the main site. Many of these mounds are in plain view and some have been vandalized or disrupted.
The site is outside the boundary of the 264-acre parcel the Narragansett Improvement Co. of Providence was seeking to develop the Rankin Estates subdivision. In August of last year, the Planning Board voted to deny the applicant for Rankin Estates to proceed with their Master Plan due to the discovery of the mounds and the results of an initial archeological survey recommended by the state Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission. The discovery of the stone mounds, or rediscovery of the site by the Conservation Commission, has also generated interest at the University of Rhode Island.
The latest survey also satisfies the town's five-year comprehensive plan which, among other things, calls for the town to protect the cultural resources.
Town officials are hoping the survey will help the town define the extent of the resource area, foster a greater understanding of the site and help preserve it for all generations.