Copyright © 2000 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

siyo tsalagi ayeli:

Hello Cherokee Nation: Jim Bird here with the latest and greatest information from the Eastern Band of Cherokee (EBC) regarding our Cultural Resources and Historic Preservation news. Important news this week from Cherokee, NC concerns the tribe's Kituwha site, NAGPRA, and NHPA Section 106 stuff.

First and foremost for discussion regards our shared cultural heritage that is the disposition of our mother town Kituwha. Known colloquially as the "Ferguson Fields" property, the EBC will be holding a public forum in the tribal council chamber on 2/9/00. The forum will be divided into three sessions, one in the morning at 10 AM, and the others at 2 & 6 PM. Cultural Resources invites tribal members to call in to the tribe's planning office at (828) 497-4951 before the day of the forum, or toll free at 1 (800) 357-2771 the day of the public hearing so that you can voice your opinion about what the tribe should do with the property. Cultural resources director and THPO James Bird would appreciate your sending a copy of your ideas via email, jbird@pop.wnc.net, so that he can print them off and create a hard copy file to create a visual record of your responses.

Suggestions so far include development of the site for economic purposes, a golf course (yuk), pedestrian and bike trails w/ cultural interpretive signs (OK), picnic tables, waterfront recreation, ethno botanic gardens, recreated village and mound, cultural interpretive center, a depot for the existing tourist steam train, Smoky Mtn. Railroad, with a restaurant, rest rooms, and tourist kiosk w/ cultural interpretation, a bead and breakfast in the existing farm house overlooking the site, and perhaps a portion of the property overlooking the site dedicated to low income housing development. Your support of any of these propositions is invited as well as any new ideas of your own. Currently the tribe leases small acreage to tribal members for garden plots where members raise kitchen veggies and tobacco. Some members suggest that the property continue to be left alone as it is now.

Chief Chad Smith has been notified of the intent of the EBC to entertain development suggestions and has been sent a copy of the site 's phase one archaeology report. Chief Smith has not yet responded in writing to the cultural resources office yet however. The majority of the tribal membership in Cherokee have expressed their desire to maintain the integrity of the site by avoiding extensive ground breaking construction that would adversely impact burials or archaeological resources on the site. Respond to this notice ASAP please.

The EBC became the 21st tribe to acquire NHPA Section 101(d)(2) status on DECEMBER 22nd, 2000. This means that all federal agencies whose activities impact historic and archaeological sites within the Cherokee traditional territory must initiate consultation regarding the impact to those sites. Tribal concerns regarding preservation concerns must be addressed and memorandums of agreement (MOA) developed. This means that these agencies will have to enter into a legally binding working relationship with the tribe. Burials and NAGPRA issues are integral to this process. Currently, the EBC's Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO), James Bird is in consultation with the Tennessee DOT, TN SHPO, and FHA regarding the disposition of human remains discovered in Townsend, Tn. on the HWY 321/73 widening project. James recently discussed the project issue with Allen Richard and Mary Tidwell of he Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) during the Five Civilized Tribes Inter-Tribal Council NAGPRA Committee meeting in Muskogee, OK. Mr. Bird will be attending a consultation meeting with the interested parties to present articles for incorporation into an MOA.

Lamont Laird, Cultural Resources Officer of the Eastern Shawnee, attended the NAGPRA Committee meeting in Okmulgee, Ok. as a representative of the Joint Shawnee Council. Mr. Laird suggested that the Tribes agree to enter into a coalition to make joint repatriation claims in order to overcome NAGPRA institution compliance avoidance tactics that utilize the "culturally unaffiliated" collections designation. Difficult and extensive research efforts necessary to compile data and create complex academic reports to substantiate individual tribal repatriation claims may be avoided this way.

Mr. Laird expressed specific concern about the more than 4,000 sets of human remains and accompanying funerary objects languishing in the University of Kentucky Archaeology and Kentucky State Archaeology Curation facilities. Mr. Bird and other tribal reps in attendance who have participated in the Kentucky NAGPRA consultation were in agreement to Mr. Laird's proposal. Mr. Bird is in the process of developing an MOA that will address this issue and help smooth the way for the interested tribes to repatriate and rebury the Kentucky collections.

Also to this end, the EBC has been improving the working relationships with the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky in anticipation of repatriating and reburying the Kentucky collections. Forest officials have agreed to allow the EBC to perform reburials on the forestlands. This will not only provide a location in a wilderness setting to rebury but also offers a measure of security. Daniel Boone Forest Ranger Jerry Stephens is a member of the CNO and has played a key role as an agent for the EBC's interests regarding NAGPRA repatriation and reburial.

The EBC has been in receiopt of the NAGPRA repatriation notice from the University of North Carolina since September, 1999 and has since repatriated and reburied the largest single collection (58) of human remains in NC at the Warren Wilson site in Swannannoa, NC. Now that we have access to the other collections stored at UNC the EBC is in the process of developing a plan to repatriate and rebury them. A lot work here for the Cultural Resources Department. Enough to develop a separate position for a NAGPRA Officer.

The EBC THPO just completed a Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) grant proposal for an Oral History Project of the Trail of Tears. The project proposes to collect family oral traditions of stories of ancestors who avoided removal or who escaped and returned to the Smoky Mountains. These stories would be used to enhance the Trail of Tears historical interpretation by providing accounts of the Trail of Tears from the voices of the Cherokee people and not through the skewed perspective of outside authorities. The EBC Cultural Resources Department and its Historic Preservation Program is dedicated to presenting the viewpoint of the Cherokee People to the general public in order to help them understand the depth and breadth of our ancestor's Trail of Tears experiences.

More news from the ancestral homeland of the Cherokee next week, stay tuned, stay informed, and stay healthy.

Dedadogohvyi,
Jimi Jisgwa.