WETUMPKA, Alabama — At the height of Muscogee power, thousands of people filled the tribe’s vast territory on the lush banks of the Coosa River in present-day Alabama.
Oce Vpofv, or Hickory Ground, was a town, ceremonial site, burial ground, and the last tribal capital before the Muscogee people were forcibly expelled from the Southeast to Oklahoma on the Tear path.
Today, the Wind Creek Casino and Hotel rises 20 stories above the winding river. The development is at the center of a long-simmering dispute between two tribes. The Muscogee Nation are descendants of people who called the land home and Alabama’s Poarch Band of Creek Indians is a separate tribe that shares ancestry with the Muscogee and built the casino after it took ownership of the site.
The Muscogee Nation claims that the Poarch Creeks of Alabama have no historical ties to Hickory Ground and illegally excavated the remains of Muscogee ancestors to build the $246 million casino. The Poarch Band also claims ancestral ties to Hickory Ground and has worked to preserve much of the historic site. The excavation of the graves and development on the historic site have fueled a dispute that has devastated relations between the two tribes. Their historical connection has only exacerbated the deep sense of betrayal that the Muscogee in Oklahoma feel over the development of what was their tribal capital.
“They dug up my ancestors, put them in boxes and built a casino right on top of my family burial ground,” said George Thompson, a Mekko, or traditional leader of the Muscogee Nation.
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Wednesday in the Muscogee Nation’s appeal of the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the casino’s construction. The lawsuit also names federal officials and the university that conducted archaeological work at the site.
The 80,000-square-foot casino and the associated protracted legal dispute underscore how colonization changed the lives of the Muscogee people and demonstrate the limitations of the modern American legal system when it comes to addressing tribal grievances.
Once one of the largest tribes in the Southeast, the Muscogee Territory encompassed parts of present-day Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. After the Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830, the United States forced the Muscogee people to abandon their capital. The Muscogee gathered ashes from their most sacred ceremonial fire at Hickory Ground and carried them across the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. There they placed them in the fire of a new ceremonial ground, one of many that still burn today. Leaving behind were the graves of their ancestors, to be returned to nature as they were meant to be.
A few Muscogee families living about 130 miles (209 km) south of Wetumpka were allowed to remain. Some of them fought on the U.S. side in the Creek War of 1813–14. Their descendants would later form the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
The Poarch Band acquired a portion of the Hickory Ground in 1980 through a historic preservation grant. The transfer of title 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 ties to their original homeland can only be strengthened. There is still an existing Hickory Ground Tribe town in Oklahoma. They will be happy to know that their home in Alabama is being preserved,” the Poarch Band wrote in a 1980 letter to an Alabama state agency requesting funds for preservation. The Poarch Band received federal recognition in 1984 with the support of their Oklahoma cousins.
Then a struggle arose over the development of the country.
When the protection agreement expired in 2000, the Poarch Band brought in archaeologists from Auburn University to conduct an archaeological excavation and study of the site. The towering resort — one of several casinos in the Poarch Band’s portfolio of properties inside and outside Alabama — was later built on the site and opened in 2013.
Thompson, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said he and others visited the construction site and burst into tears at the spot where our ancestors once lay in peace, with bulldozers and piles of dirt.
The Muscogee Nation believes 57 sets of remains were removed during the excavation. The tribe says it has never received a full inventory of what was removed from the Poarch Band of Auburn University, and claims some remains are still being improperly stored.
The Poarch Creeks say they have worked to protect the area from commercial development.
“Members of Poarch Creek have ancestral ties to this historic Creek town, as do members of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma,” a Poarch Band spokeswoman wrote.
The Poarch Band says the Auburn-affiliated archaeological study and other work done contradict Muscogee Creek’s accusation that the Poarch have broken their promises to protect Hickory Ground. The Poarch Band says 17 acres have been set aside for preservation, an area that includes the sacred ceremonial site that both tribes can “visit, offer prayers and pay homage to their ancestors.”
Poarch Band officials say they decided to rebury the excavated remains in 2012 after an agreement could not be reached between the two tribes.
Fifty bundles of remains and grave objects were wrapped in cloth and placed near the ceremonial ground, they said. The Muscogee Nation and Thompson said they were not consulted about the reburial.
Attorneys for Auburn University wrote in court documents that the university is neutral in the dispute between the two tribes and will abide by the court’s decision.
The federal office of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act says the law does not address the exhumation of ancestral remains on land controlled by one tribal nation but historically connected to another. Several tribal nations across the country have been forcibly displaced from their homelands, and in some cases, another tribal nation would later take 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 ever thought another tribe would do this,” said RaeLynn Butler, the tribe’s historical preservation officer.
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 to circumvent a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled that only tribes with federal recognition in 1934 could put land in trust for tribal uses, such as casinos. The Muscogee Nation and other tribal nations oppose the legislation, arguing that it would prejudice their lawsuit and other tribes seeking the same legal remedy. Carl disputes that.
The Hickory Ground dispute has created widespread resentment among tribal citizens in Oklahoma, where “Poarch” is often considered a dirty word. Questioning the cultural or political validity of the Poarch Band is a common refrain on ceremonial grounds across the Muscogee Nation. The tribal council also passed a resolution withdrawing support for federal recognition of the Poarch Band.
“They knew what they wanted then,” said Jeff Fife, a Tvstvnvke, or warrior, for Hickory Ground and chief of staff to Principal Chief of the Muscogee Nation.
“They didn’t want our language. They didn’t want our culture or tradition. They wanted money.”