Norwich – The historic Uncas Leap site on the Yantic River will get national attention Wednesday, as a group of federal, Native American, Mohegan and city government officials tour the area to assess whether it should be part of a national study of Native American heritage sites.

The site appeals to the groups, not only for its importance in Native American history, but also because it has potential environmental issues, said City Manager John Salomone.

Representatives from the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals, members of the Mohegan tribe, federal Environmental Protection Agency brownfields official Amy Jean McKowen of the New England Regional office as well as city officials will tour the area starting at about 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The group will start at the Royal Mohegan Burial Grounds at the corner of Sachem and Washington streets. Mohegan Tribal Historian Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel will give a brief history of the burial grounds before the group continues to the Uncas Leap and Yantic Falls.

The group will assess whether the site should be included in an August field trip as part of the Tribal Land and Environmental Forum, Salomone said.

Zobel said the area deserves national and even international attention, "when you talk about episodes of importance in history, looking at the place from ancient roots and the difficult times, when the burial ground was desecrated, to the point where the sides can come together and talk about the site in preservation terms," Zobel said.

The Royal Burial Ground originally encompassed 16 acres, but by the mid-19th century settlers had built houses and planted crops across the grounds, burning the remains excavated by construction. In 1999, the Mohegan Tribe purchased the 3.4-acre former Masonic Temple property and created a permanent tribal memorial.

According to a brief history of Uncas Leap, written by Zobel and Tribal Elder Stephanie Fielding for a new “Walk Norwich Uncas Leap Trail” brochure, the Battle of Sachem Plains on Sept. 17, 1643, between the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes started on the Great Plain and continued to the falls area.

“Uncas made the long jump across the chasm, which was at that time narrower before modern-day erosion,” they wrote. “Some warriors failed to reach the other side, falling to their deaths on the rocks below.”

City officials plan to distribute the brochure to tour participants Wednesday.

In January 2015, Norwich received a $300,000 federal brownfields assessment grant to study possible contamination at the former Artform mill site just below the Yantic Falls dam.

Gary Evans, Norwich director of community development, said an environmental assessment of two small industrial buildings the city took for back taxes several years ago, showed some contamination – including lead paint – but nothing that threatened the river. There is an underground fuel tank on the property.

Preliminary plans for the site call for the city to tear down a decaying brick mill building and to seek grant funding to stabilize an adjacent granite building. No final plans to develop the site have been made, Evans said.

c.bessette@theday.com