A bitter battle between two tribes over sacred land, on which one built a casino

WETUMPKA, Alabama (AP) – At the peak Muskogee National Park Power, thousands of people filled the tribe’s vast territory on the lush banks of the Coosa River in what is now Alabama.

Oce Vpofv or Hickory Ground was a town, a ceremonial site, a burial site and the last tribal capital before the Muskogee were forcibly expelled from the southeast. Oklahoma on the Path of Tears.

Today, the Wind Creek Casino and Hotel rises in its place, 20 stories above the winding river. The project is at the center of a long-simmering dispute between two tribal nations. The Muscogee Nation are descendants of people who called the land their home, and Alabama's Poarch group of Creek Indians is a separate tribe that shares ancestry with the Muskogee and built the casino after gaining ownership of the site.

The Muscogee Nation claims that the Poarch Creeks of Alabama have no historical ties to Hickory Ground and illegally dug up the remains of Muscogee ancestors to build the $246 million casino. The Poarch Band claims it too has ancient ties to Hickory Ground and has worked to preserve much of the historic site. The excavation of the graves and development of the historic site have fueled a dispute that has destroyed the relationship between the two tribal nations. Their historical connection has only added to the deep sense of betrayal the Muscogee of Oklahoma feel over the development of their former tribal capital.

“They dug up my ancestors, put them in boxes and built a casino right over my family's burial site,” said George Thompson, a mekko, or traditional chief, of the Muscogee tribe.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Atlanta will hear oral arguments on Wednesday in the Muscogee Nation's appeal of the dismissal of a lawsuit against the construction of the casino. The lawsuit also names federal officials and the university that have conducted archaeological work on the site.

The 80,000-square-foot casino and the long-running legal battle surrounding it underscore how much colonization changed the lives of the Muskogee people and demonstrate the limitations of the modern U.S. legal system in dealing with tribal grievances.

A painful story

Once one of the largest tribal nations in the Southeast, the Muscogee territory includes parts of what are now the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. After the Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830, the United States forced the Muscogee to abandon their capital. The Muscogee collected ashes from their most sacred ceremonial fire at Hickory Ground and took them along the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. There they placed them in the fire of a new ceremonial ground, one of several that still burn today. The graves of their ancestors were left behind to return to nature as intended.

Some Muscogee families from about 130 miles south of Wetumpka were allowed to stay, some because they had fought on the side of the United States in the Creek War of 1813-1814. Their descendants later founded the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.

The Poarch Band acquired a portion of the Hickory Grounds in 1980 with the help of a historic preservation grant. The transfer of ownership included a 20-year preservation agreement to protect the integrity of the site.

“The pride of the Creek people of Oklahoma in their heritage and their connection to their original homeland can only be strengthened. There is still a tribal town in Oklahoma called Hickory Ground. They will be pleased to know that their homeland in Alabama will be preserved,” the Poarch Band wrote in a 1980 letter to an Alabama state agency requesting grants for preservation. The Poarch Band gained state recognition in 1984 with the support of their Oklahoma cousins.

Then a struggle began to develop the land.

A bitter fight

Members of the Poarch Band deny the Muscogee's allegations, saying they too have ancestral ties to Hickory Ground and that their work has protected important parts of the historic site, such as the ceremonial grounds found during the university's archaeological survey.

“We couldn't control what had already happened to the land, but we preserved the sacred land and the 17 acres of land around it,” said Stephanie A. Bryan, tribal chair and executive director of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.

Bryan said that while the dispute had existed long before her tenure as tribal chairman, the Poarch had tried in vain to reach an agreement with their Oklahoma cousins.

She called the appeal an “attack on our sovereignty” and said one tribal nation wanted to dictate what another should do on its land.

“I am very interested in Creek history and the sacrifices our ancestors made to get to where we are today. When another tribe attacks the sovereignty of a tribe, that is not the way we can grow together as Indian country. That makes me sad,” Bryan said.

Poarch Tribe officials said they decided to rebury the excavated remains in 2012 after the two tribal nations failed to reach an agreement.

While Muscogee believes that not all of the remains were returned and may be languishing in boxes, Bryan said that “all of the remains received by the Poarch Band of Creek Indians were reburied.”

Thompson said she was not consulted about the reburial.

Lawyers for Auburn University wrote in court filings that the university is neutral in the dispute between the two tribes and will comply with any decision the court makes.

An unforeseen circumstance

The federal office of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act says the law does not address the excavation of ancestral remains on land controlled by one tribe but historically associated with another. Several tribal nations across the country have been forcibly removed from their homelands, and in some cases another tribal nation later took control of them. In comments to the federal office, other tribal nations have expressed concern that a similar situation could happen to them.

“When they wrote NAGPRA, no one would have thought another tribe would do something like this,” said RaeLynn Butler, Muscogee Minister of Culture and Humanities.

The fight could soon lead to a skirmish in Congress. The Poarch Band is currently supporting a bill by Alabama Congressman Jerry Carl that would give the tribe a way out of a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court decision that only tribes recognized by the federal government before 1934 could hold land in trust for tribal purposes, such as casinos. The Muscogee Nation and other tribal nations oppose the bill, claiming it would harm their legal position and that of other tribes seeking the same remedy. Carl disputes that.

The Hickory Ground dispute has caused widespread resentment among tribal citizens in Oklahoma, where “poarch” is often a slur. Questioning the cultural or political validity of the Poarch Band is a common refrain on ceremonial grounds in the Muscogee Nation. The tribal council also passed a resolution withdrawing its support for federal recognition of the Poarch Band.

“They knew what they wanted back then,” said Jeff Fife, a Tvstvnvke, or warrior, for Hickory Ground and chief of staff to the paramount chief of the Muscogee Nation.

“They didn't want our language. They didn't want our culture or tradition. They wanted money.”