The Poarch Band of Creek Indians obtained the site known as Hickory Ground in Elmore County, Alabama in 1984 after receiving federal recognition. According to leadership within the Muscogee Nation, they promised to never disturb it.
The Hickory Ground site in Wetumpka, Alabama, was the final capital of the Muscogee Nation before they were forcibly removed to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. It's considered one of the most sacred sites to the Muscogee people. In the Muscogee language, it's known as “Oce Vpofa” and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The site contained funerary objects and bodies.
In 2012, the Poarch Band sought to expand their casino in Wetumpka and build a 20-story hotel on the site to the tune of $246 million. The Muscogee Nation objected and demanded construction stop.
That kicked off a ten-year legal battle that continued last week when the Muscogee Nation filed a brief in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. They are asking the court to reverse a previous decision and let the case move forward.
Attorney Mary Kathryn Nagle is helping Muscogee Nation with the case. She said the Poarch Band, "broke their promises" to not disturb the site when they acquired the property in the 1980s.
"They exhumed and removed 57 bodies of buried individuals that were Muscogee from the historic sacred ground tribal town and then proceeded to build a casino on top of, well, you know, what was a historic ceremonial ground," Nagle said.
She said the site's disturbance is a failure to comply with NAGPRA, the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act that was passed in 1990 and protects sacred sites like Hickory Ground. Nagle said Auburn University, which was contracted by the Poarch Band, continues to possess the remains that were discovered at Hickory Ground.
"They have claimed that because Muscogee Nation got a lawsuit, they can't repatriate any of those human remains or cultural resources that were illegally extracted from the historic Hickory Ground sites until 'the case is resolved,'" she said.
The Muscogee Nation originally filed suit on December 12, 2012, in the United States District Court, Middle District of Alabama. The district court dismissed the Nation’s claims against the United States, The Poarch Band and Auburn University.
Following a nine-year legal battle, a federal judge in 2021 struck down Muscogee Nation’s suit against the Poarch Band, based on the issue of sovereign immunity.
Now, Muscogee Nation is hoping to have that decision reversed. The nation says the federal government failed in its duties to protect the sacred site.
In a letter dated June 27, 2023, addressed to Poarch Band of Indians tribal chair Stephanie Bryan, current Principal Chief David Hill wrote that, "You made a promise to protect these lands and the MCN ancestors who remain there. A promise that was broken when you removed our ancestors, stored them in boxes, and sent them off to a university to be studied by non-Indian archeologists. Some, still today, sit in a storage facility on site. You have yet to do right by them."
Hill also wrote in the letter that the Hickory Ground site is also significant because it pre-dates the United States, and that members of the Hickory Ground ceremonial site "carried the sacred fire all the way to Oklahoma and re-established their sacred ceremonial grounds near Henryetta."
Nagle said sovereign immunity shouldn’t apply because there is ongoing activity on the sacred site that violates federal law — specifically NAGPRA.
"I think we have strong reasons to say here that Poarch doesn't have special sovereignty interest in breaking its promises to protect Hickory Ground," Nagle said.
Muscogee Nation is not asking for monetary damages. They are asking for the remains of their ancestors to be repatriated and reburied.
Now that Muscogee Nation has filed their brief, Poarch Band, Auburn University and the other defendants will have the chance to do the same and a trial could be set for later this year.
In an interview with the Montgomery Advertiser in 2012, Robert McGhee, who was then a member of the Poarch Band tribal council, told the newspaper that the Poarch Band, “value [s] our heritage and respect our ancestors.”
“We have taken great care to honor history and preserve the past while ensuring the future for our tribe,” he wrote in a response e-mailed to the paper at the time. “It is unfortunate that neither the issue nor our response to it was portrayed accurately, but we understand that these centuries-old wounds are deep and the hurt that resulted from tribes being forcibly removed from the Southeast still remains.”
Then-Principal Chief George Tiger of the Muscogee Nation disagreed and told the newspaper, "we have attempted to convey to the Poarch Band why it is wrong to disturb the peace of our ancestors and burial grounds. However, the Poarch Band does not seem to share our cultural values and respect our traditional ways."
Current Muscogee Nation Principal Chief David Hill wrote in his letter to Poarch Band Tribal Chair that even though the site is held in trust for Poarch Band that, "your relationship with this site is limited to a construct of United States law which is frankly the spoils of the federal war and massacres committed by General Andrew Jackson against the Creek people when we were forced off of our land and onto the Trail of Tears. However, this current legal status cannot be a license to desecrate a sacred holy site which was never yours to begin with."
