OKMULGEE, Okla. — Muscogee (Creek) Nation officials and members embarked on what they call a "Journey for Justice."
The multi-state journey started on Sept. 23rd and will take them to a burial site at the heart of a years-long court battle and then to Atlanta for a hearing.
2 News reporter Douglas Braff met with Muscogee (Creek) leaders to listen to their story of how this all began.
The burial site is north of Montgomery, Alabama, it is called Hickory Ground.
The Muscogee (Creek) claim another tribe based in Alabama desecrated it by digging up 57 bodies and building a casino on the land.
"I saw our ancestors wrapped in newspapers, stored in five-gallon buckets," said MCN Chief of Staff Jeff Fife when recalling a 2006 trip to the site. "They were also placed in a storage cargo trailer, a box-type cargo trailer. There were funerary objects stored in the same manner."
They’ve accused the Poarch Band of Creek Indians of violating an alleged agreement to look after Hickory Ground.
“We're actually unsure where they're located,” Raelynn Butler, the MCN secretary of culture and humanities, told 2 News about the bodies, “because the other tribe owns that land and funded those excavations. We were made aware that they tried to rebury some, but we weren't given time to come down there and participate or have any say in what happened to them. We know that there are large collections of cultural remains at Auburn University that came from these excavations.”
However, the MCN also claims some of the remains are kept in sheds on the casino property.
MCN officials told us Hickory Ground was the final Muscogee national capital before they were forced to leave their homeland for Oklahoma. It also carries immense religious significance.
"No one deserves to be dug up after they've been buried,” said Butler. “We have strong cultural beliefs and respecting the dead, that they need to go back to the earth. And so, for their lifecycle to be disrupted for progress, to put money over people and respect over ancestors to us is not right. … That's why we're on this journey for justice."
12 years ago, the Muscogee (Creek) sued the Poarch and Auburn University, wanting the bodies and artifacts returned to their original location and any development on the property demolished.
Fife remarked, "Some may say, ‘Well, that's history. It's a long time ago.’"
"But I doubt the Department of Interior would allow an economic development plan to be unveiled at Arlington National Cemetery," he added.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta is hearing their appeal this week after another court ruled against them.
“For 12 years, we've been trying to seek justice for those who allowed this kind of desecration to happen,” said Butler. “There are federal laws in place that prevent it from happening. But, somehow, this tribe found a loophole to not only excavate, but build without any regard to letting us know or letting the lineal descendants know.”
We called and emailed the Poarch Band of Creek Indians to offer them an interview. They declined the offer, saying they don't do interviews about pending legal matters.
Instead, in a statement last week they said:
More than forty years ago, our Tribe asked the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma to join with us in purchasing the land in question in our state. They did not take that opportunity. In the years since, they have consistently mischaracterized the condition of the land when we purchased it and our efforts to preserve and honor its historical significance. They have repeatedly made outright false statements regarding the treatment of remains and artifacts excavated from the site, and they have rebuffed all efforts at compromise or cooperation between our Tribes. A federal court has already dismissed all of their legal claims against us, and we look forward to defending that ruling at oral arguments before the Eleventh Circuit next week.
MCN Principal Chief David Hill told 2 News, “When you go back to the original homelands, we get questions of — they couldn't understand why we left such a beautiful place. Well, we wasn't [sic] asked to leave, you know. We was [sic] forcibly removed. And I could see why they fought so hard to keep that land. You go from 23,000 citizens that walked the Trail of Tears — over 18,000, made it here to Oklahoma. They fought for their freedom. And I think in return, that's our job as a tribal government to do our job, to protect what we have back home.”
About 140 people gathered in Okmulgee to start the Journey for Justice.
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