The Washington Post - USA (2022-02-13)

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

politics & the nation

BY CHRIS DIXON

macon, ga. — Georgia has no
national park, but with a deal
finalized recently to purchase and
protect an expansive tract of for-
est, swamp and sacred Native
American tribal land, that could
soon change.
Designating a national park ad-
jacent to downtown Macon is a
goal for Middle Georgia conserva-
tionists and Oklahoma’s Musco-
gee (Creek) Nation, whose citizens
were forcibly removed from these
ancestral lands in the early 1800s.
Previously under contract for
industrial development, the 951-
acre Ocmulgee Mounds Expan-
sion Tract lies next to the Ocmul-
gee Mounds National Historical
Park. The purchase is part of a
2019 expansion of the park that
resulted from the John D. Dingell
Jr. Conservation, Management,
and Recreation Act. Signed by
President Donald Trump, the leg-
islation nearly quadrupled the
park’s authorized boundary from
701 acres to more than 3,000. The
area being studied for a national
park holds more than 800 known
archaeological sites, the majority
of them unexplored. The Musco-
gee (Creek) Nation previously
considered the newly acquired
parcel, also known as the Ocmul-
gee Old Fields, one of the most
historically significant unprotect-
ed acreages in North America.
The $5.43 million deal, final-
ized Tuesday, was mostly funded
by the Land and Water Conserva-
tion Fund and was negotiated by
the Open Space Institute, a con-
servation organization that deed-
ed the land to the National Park
Service. When combined with ex-
tensive stretches of land already
under — or targeted for — conser-
vation protection, the national
park could ultimately run for
nearly 60 miles through more
than 70,000 acres along the Oc-
mulgee River.
Changing the Ocmulgee
Mounds park’s designation from a
site of national historical signifi-
cance to a national park and pre-
serve would put it on equal foot-
ing with iconic national parks
such as Congaree in South Caro-
lina; the Great Smoky Mountains
in North Carolina and Tennessee;
Death Valley in California and
Nevada; and Yellowstone in Ida-
ho, Montana and Wyoming.
The effort is being led by Seth
Clark, Macon’s mayor pro tem,
who is directing the Ocmulgee
National Park and Preserve Initia-
tive, a coalition of Middle Georgia
conservation and civic leaders.
Last month, tribal lawyer Tracie
Revis, a citizen of the Muscogee
(Creek) Nation, joined the ON-
PPI’s staff. Her long résumé in-
cludes a stint as the first woman in
the tribe’s history to be chief of
staff to a tribal chief. On a blustery
late January afternoon, the two
led a tour of the focus area.
The Ocmulgee Mounds are part
of the National Park Service’s Oc-
mulgee River Corridor Special Re-
source Study. The multiyear ef-
fort, begun in 2019, relies on scien-
tific research, surveys and public
input to evaluate the corridor for

historical, cultural and ecological

significance along with its suit-

ability to function as a national

park. Should the area meet na-

tional park criteria, Interior Sec-

retary Deb Haaland would make a

recommendation to Congress.

Lawmakers would then decide

whether to send President Biden a

bill authorizing the designation.

(Congress also could send the leg-

islation to the president with no

study.)

The “preserve” designation al-

lows for hunting, fishing and lim-

ited resource extraction — includ-

ing, in this case, clay mining and

logging — provided the activities

don’t jeopardize the park’s natural

value.

“So you can visualize it, down-

town Macon is on one side of the

Ocmulgee River and the park is on

the other,” Clark says while driv-

ing across the Otis Redding

Bridge and into Fort Hawkins, one

of Macon’s oldest neighborhoods.

Reaching an ornate but dilapidat-

ed 1870s-era mansion, he points

out a trapezoidal roof that was

modeled on the nearby Great

Temple Mound. The house was

nearly demolished to make way

for a convenience store but is now

slated to become an independent,

tribal-run Muscogee (Creek) Cul-

tural Center. “It’s one of the most

historically significant houses in

Macon,” Clark says.

Revis points out that the

house’s southern balcony faces a

wide field that leads to an en-

trance of the Ocmulgee Mounds

National Historical Park. She fore-

sees a day when park visitors can

witness a Muscogee (Creek) game

of stickball, considered the pre-

cursor to lacrosse. “We can also

bring our dances here to the peo-

ple,” she says. “There’s a living

history only we can tell.”

The span of continuous human

history along the muddy Ocmul-

gee River runs back 17,000 years,

when Ice Age Paleo-Indians hunt-

ed woolly mammoths with hefty,

stone-tipped spears. Ten thou-

sand years ago, as the climate

warmed and megafauna died out,

Georgia’s Indians shifted to hunt-

ing smaller game and harvesting

seasonal plants along the Ocmul-

gee’s fertile banks. About 2,

years ago, tribes now known as

Woodland Indians lived in small

villages along the river.

In about A.D. 900, tribes from

the Mississippi Valley spread rap-

idly across the Southeast, creating

complex, stratified farming soci-

eties with pyramidal mound

structures. The village at the Oc-

mulgee Mounds site once held a

grand plaza that stood in the shad-

ow of the massive Great Temple

Mound, a nine-story, earthen

trapezoid built of countless bas-

kets of soil carried uphill by thou-

sands of laborers.

The decline of Southeastern

tribes began in the early 1500s,

when diseases spread by Spanish

explorers ravaged Native societ-

ies. As European settlement ex-

panded through the 1700s, tribes

were pushed westward and a se-

ries of conflicts culminated in the

Creek War in 1813, which forced

tribes to give up 23 million acres of

land between Georgia and Ala-

bama to the U.S. government.

Then, in 1826, Georgia’s tribes

were coerced to cede all their re-

maining land and were marched

nearly 1,000 miles to Oklahoma

along the Trail of Tears.

Evidence of the disregard of

Native history is visible at the

Ocmulgee Mounds even today.

Through the mid- to late 1800s,

burial sites containing unknown

numbers of Native remains and

artifacts were destroyed to make

way for railroads that still rumble

past. In the early 1970s, Interstate

16 cut off the Great Temple Mound

from the Ocmulgee River.

Rolling south down Highway

23, Revis points out a few small

pieces of land that the Muscogee

(Creek) Nation has recently pur-

chased in what Tribal Chief David

Hill refers to as the tribe’s home-

land. Jason Salsman, the tribe’s

spokesman, said the national park

effort ranks high on the tribe’s list

of priorities.

Clark navigates a muddy forest

road into the Bond Swamp Na-

tional Wildlife Refuge. Along the

edge of a stunning stand of broad-

based Tupelo trees, he explains

the area’s biological significance.

The Ocmulgee River runs along

the fall line, which separates

Georgia’s uplands from its vast

coastal plain. The flood plain is

home to a small, unique popula-

tion of black bears. Rare Indian

olive, carnivorous pitcher plants

and fly traps take root here, while

more than 200 species of bird

such as warblers, wood storks,

bald eagles and snowy egrets soar

through the trees. Increasingly

rare river cane, a sacred building

material to the Muscogee (Creek),

grows along the riverbanks, while

sturgeon, shad, herring, and

striped and shoal bass ply its wa-

ter.

“My uncles, my grandfather, ev-

erybody grew up bringing me

down here to hunt and fish,” Clark

says. “I’m a really avid fly fisher-

man. I’ve fished Central America,

out West and even the Alps, but

I’ve never caught fish anywhere

like I have on this river.”

Unfolding a map of the Ocmul-

gee Mounds study area, Clark says

that an independent study com-

missioned by the Knight Founda-

tion has estimated that if a nation-

al park and preserve is established

here, the number of annual visi-

tors to the area would grow from

207,000 today to nearly 1.4 million

over the next 15 years. Total park-

related economic activity would

increase from $26.7 million to

$233 million and park-related

jobs would rise from 357 to 3,171,

the organization found.

Foundations for a vast national

park, he adds, have been laid

through local, state and federal

conservation efforts. Tens of thou-

sands of acres from Macon to

Robins Air Force Base south to

Hawkinsville have been protected

through a patchwork of hunting

clubs, state wildlife management

areas and the Bond Swamp Na-

tional Wildlife Refuge. Com-

manders at the base have backed

the park’s expansion farther south

on the expectation that it will

protect from development areas

vital for flight operations.

The idea of bringing these

state-managed hunting and fish-

ing lands under the umbrella of

the National Park Service has

been met with concern from the

ONPPI, Gov. Brian Kemp (R), the

Georgia Department of Natural

Resources and the Georgia Wild-

life Federation, the state’s oldest

conservation organization. Clark

and Mike Worley, director of the

federation, say that, rather than

federal control, they foresee serv-

ice agreements that maintain

state management and could ex-

tend the defined national park

and preserve around Georgia’s

Oaky Woods and Ocmulgee wild-

life management areas to Hawk-

insville.

“There is plenty of precedence

for this in parks like Cape Hatteras

National Seashore, the Santa

Monica Mountains National Rec-

reation Area and the Cuyahoga

Valley National Park in Ohio,”

Clark says. “The preservation of

the Georgia DNR’s management

of state lands is a priority of ON-

PPI.”

Reached by phone the day after

the tour, Worley said that the

Georgia Wildlife Federation was

initially skeptical of the national

park effort — and that many mem-

bers remain so. But the federation

is now taking an active role in

planning. He and Clark noted that

lawmakers such as Reps. Austin

Scott (R), whose district encom-

passes Robins Air Force Base, and

Sanford D. Bishop Jr. (D), who

represents the Macon area, agree

on the park’s importance.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) has also

worked closely with the ONPPI on

the study.

“For 17,000 years, the ancestors

of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation

inhabited these sacred and beau-

tiful lands, which should be pro-

tected for conservation and rec-

reation as a U.S. National Park and

Preserve,” Ossoff said in a state-

ment.

Said Worley of the added pre-

serve designation: “National park

and national monument status in

a lot of cases [doesn’t] include

hunting and angling. So absolute-

ly there’s been both a lot of con-

cern and a lot of interest among

the hunting and fishing commu-

nity to ensure that as this project

moves forward, it does indeed

include every opportunity that’s

available to hunt and fish.”

Worley, Clark and Revis said

they envision a 70,000-acre con-

tiguous swath of hunting, fishing,

biking and hiking areas, should

the national park and preserve

come to fruition.

On Friday, National Park Serv-

ice Director Charles F. “Chuck”

Sams III said: “Acquiring the Oc-

mulgee Old Fields allows the Na-

tional Park Service to tell a more

complete and equitable story of

America’s heritage. This expan-

sion calls the nation to witness the

triumphs and tragedies of the

Muskogean people who are still

here and active partners in the

stewardship of Ocmulgee Mounds

National Historical Park.”

Back at the park visitor’s center,

Revis proudly pointed out photos

on the wall of her family, includ-

ing a large portrait of her Aunt

Addie, who once worked as a cul-

tural ambassador for the park.

“Seth and I talked about it,” she

said. “The opportunity came up,

and I’m here. I’m not here as a

consultant, but truly as part of the

team. It’s an incredible historical

time to give back a cultural voice.”

Tribal land once bound for industry

may be Georgia’s first national park

The area being studied for the park holds more than 800 known archaeological sites, most unexplored

PHOTOS BY KEVIN D. LILES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Seth Clark, left, mayor pro tem of Macon, and Tracie Revis, an attorney and citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, are fighting to create
Ocmulgee Mounds National Park. “There’s a living history only we can tell,” said Revis.

The sidewalk leading to E arth Lodge, which was used by the Mississippians around 1,000 years ago.

The interior of the Earth Lodge, with what the National Park Service describes as its original floor.

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