The Muscogee Nation

Tag: Macon

  • Ancestors at rest: Repatriation at Ocmulgee

    by: Amanda Rutland/MCNPR

    MACON, Ga. — It was a cool morning with clouds floating heavy overhead. The hum of a backhoe penetrated the quiet as it broke the earth to prepare for the task at hand.

    Members of the National Parks Service, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and other tribal nations gathered Aug. 30 to repatriate 113 individuals back to Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, Ga. As the ceremony started MCN Historic and Cultural Preservation employee Emman Spain said the proceedings would be simple and respectful.

    “There is no ceremony that is supposed to happen because it has happened and we have to do things like this,” Spain said. “Because we don’t know these ceremonies and talking to a lot of our elders and a lot of our cultural advisors, they told us, ‘you know it may be disrespectful to start trying to make things up’.”

    Spain asked that no photos or video be taken in order to protect the site. He invited anyone who wanted to help or participate to do so.

    HCP Manager RaeLynn Butler explained that this repatriation was not a regular type of funeral.

    “These remains have been in limbo for a long time. They were dug up in the ‘30s and this is one of the largest archeological sites in the southeast,” Butler said. “Some of those remains went to the Smithsonian and some went to the National Parks Service and over the last 15 years, have been working to get those back into the possession of the tribes.”

    Butler explained this was a joint repatriation and it could not be said that this was only for one tribe.

    “These are our relatives and at one time we were all one tribe in this area,” Butler said. “We feel that our relatives need to be respected and back into the ground where they came from.”

    NPS and tribal employees began carefully unloading gray containers, the size of filing boxes, from a vehicle and placing them in a neat line next to the burial area.

    The seemed like the box couriers were ants making lines back and forth to the nest, efficient and with purpose. It was extremely quiet as they worked, like Nature was holding her breath.

    One person lifted the lid off a gray box and removed a small bundle wrapped in a white soft cloth. She handed it gingerly to someone else who placed it inside the burial area.

    “There is no coffin, there is no caskets, but they have been wrapped in all natural fiber cloth so they can go back to the soil,” Butler said.

    Soon there were white bundles laid out in rows, which was a stark contrast to the red dirt surrounding them. The parcels varied in size, but each one was an individual, an ancestor.

    After the 113 bundles were placed, the lead individuals took shovels and began to cover them with the red earth. After a layer of soil was established, shovels were offered to anyone that wanted to help.

    Shovels migrated through different hands they took turns. It was a serious occasion, but also an uplifting one to know that these Mvskoke people can once again be at peace.

    “It is for them to continue their journey,” Spain said.

     

  • Muscogee (Creek) Nation and National Parks Service bring ancestors home

    PRESS RELEASE

     

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    August 30, 2017

    CONTACT Neely Tsoodle
    PR Manager
    P.O. Box 580
    Okmulgee, OK 74447
    (918) 758-6599
    NTsoodle@muscogeenation.com

    Muscogee (Creek) Nation, National Parks Service bring ancestors home

    MACON, Ga. — The Muscogee (Creek) Nation took part in a repatriation ceremony on Aug. 30 to return more than one hundred ancestors to their homeland at the Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, GA. This is the largest repatriation the tribe and the National Park Service at the Ocmulgee National Monument have ever seen.

    The remains of 113 people and more than 42-thousand funerary objects were returned to what historians, tribal and cultural leaders called “sacred ground” during a private ceremony at an undisclosed and secured area at the park.

    NPS along with tribal cultural leaders from Muskogean tribes from Oklahoma and Florida have worked on the repatriation for more than 15 years. In 2005, the MCN requested the return of the remains and funerary objects from the Smithsonian.

    Many of the remains were separated after archeologists removed them from the site around 1930 during one of the largest archeological digs in U.S. History. In 1990, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) passed and allowed tribes to reclaim ancestral human remains and objects.

    NPS Superintendent Jim David has worked at the Ocmulgee National Monument for 20 years and it has been one of his largest goals to see the remains, along with their possessions, placed back in their rightful place.

    “To see something that I’ve been dreaming of that I’ve been hoping for this long? It got to me, I got very emotional,” said David. “I am not an archeologist, but to me having these human beings sitting in museum drawers, museum boxes, to me makes no sense whatsoever. These people need to be back in the earth where they came from, probably never should have been removed to begin with.”

    MCN Historic and Cultural Preservation Manager RaeLynn Butler echoed David’s sentiment.

    “There’s so many of our ancestors on shelves. It’s important that in a respectful way we put them back where they belong,” Butler said.

    Butler said the repatriation was about reuniting ancestors with their possessions as they complete their journey.

    “Loved ones are buried with some of their favorite possessions that were important to them, “ said Butler. “It’s not necessarily to bring them back to Oklahoma, but to put them back from where they were taken from. As tribes, we feel it is our job of historic preservation to make sure we are protecting our resources and our sacred ground and artifacts. We felt the tribes should be the lead on how this would happen,” said Butler.

    Members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Council, Second Chief Louis Hicks, Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and Florida, Thlopthlocco Tribal Town and Kialegee Tribal Town representatives were all present for the ceremony.