Muscogee Creek Nation Historic and Cultural Preservation

04/23/2024

Join our team! We have 3 archaeology positions available. Find out more here: https://www.muscogeenation.com/jobs/

11/03/2023

Last week, Historic and Cultural Preservation Department (HCPD) personnel traveled to Chattanooga to conduct preservation activities and attend the Southeastern Archaeological Conference (SEAC). This year, HCPD staff planned numerous engagements with the archaeological community to share our perspectives and defend Muskogean cultural heritage.

The impact of these presentations and discussions are changing the way non-Native archaeologist see descendant communities and treat our ancestors. Because of the involvement of MCN and other Tribes, SEAC has reevaluated its policies and changed course. This month, SEAC members will vote whether to continue to consult with Tribes on using images of their ancestor's funerary objects in the journal or rescind their image policy. HCPD is confident that the tide is changing within the community and creating more space for descendant communities.

Please take a look at the activities HCPD staff engaged in:

RaeLynn Butler, Acting Secretary of Culture and Humanities & Manager of the Historic and Cultural Preservation Department – SEAC Image Policy Panel; NAGPRA Implementation in the Southeast: A Practitioner Update; Native Visions, Native Voices: Living Traditions and What Archaeologists can Learn from Descendants; The Reality of NAGPRA, from a Tribal Perspective

Robin Soweka Jr., Cultural Resources Specialist – Where is the Manual? One Score of Finding the Middle Ground in the Management of Cultural Resources in the Tennessee Valley

Emman Spain, NAGPRA Coordinator – The Reality of NAGPRA, from a Tribal Perspective

LeeAnne Wendt, Tribal Archaeologist – A New Career Path: Working for a Tribal Community

Gano Perez, GIS Specialist – Current and future Collaborative Research at the site of Brown’s Mount (9BI5) in the Ocmulgee River Corridor in Central Georgia, with Carey Garland & Victor Thompson

Turner Hunt, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer – Ocmulgee Muskogean Landscape Project Panel & Poster: Managing Cultural Properties and Sacred Sites on Tribal Lands

11/02/2023

Congratulations to Muscogee Nation's Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Turner W. Hunt, on his recent article published in Preservation, Education, & Research journal titled Building Rapport and the Foundation of Good Partnerships: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Approach to Protecting Cultural Sites in Partnership with Department of Defense Components.

The MCN THPO is featured alongside National and International experts in Cultural Property Protection, including Lt. General Erik Peterson, Deputy Chief of Staff of Programs for the U.S. Army and the first recipient of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield Award for Protection of Cultural Property.

One upcoming result of these partnerships is between MCN and Ft. Moore (Previously Ft. Benning) is that the Access Control Point closest to the old Kvsehtv Tribal Town location will be memorialized in honor of Lt. Col. Childers, MCN Citizen and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

11/01/2023

Come join us Saturday at 2pm for the Council Oak Tree Ceremony 🌳

10/06/2023

Come join us Saturday, October 14th at 10am for this storytelling event! Speakers will tell family stories about the Trail of Tears in the Mvskoke language and then in English followed by a presentation on the history of Mvskoke removal. Box lunches will be served.

07/03/2023

We are hiring! Apply online at https://www.muscogeenation.com/jobs/

06/14/2023

Good news! The Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Library and Archives released our new Digital Archive today!

The digital archive is available to Mvskoke citizens and the public and features a wide variety of historical documents and resources pertaining to Mvskoke history, culture, and language, and includes video and audio interviews from our recent oral history project titled, "A Twenty-First Century Pandemic in Indian Country: The Resilience of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Against Covid-19.”

In January 2021, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Historic and Cultural Preservation Department a $100,000 community-based archives grant to fund the Covid-19 oral history project and the creation of a new digital archive. Supported by Mukurtu (Mook-oo-too), meaning “dilly-bag” or “a place of safekeeping” in the Aboriginal Warumungu language, this Indigenous archival platform created in Australia was selected for its ability to provide a safe space to store and share heritage items, stories, and knowledge. Interactive features of the archive include a comment section to share information or ask questions. Visitors can also set up an account and create a personal “collection” from items found within the digital archive.

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Library and Archives will continue to digitize archival collections and make them accessible on the digital archive.

As we launch the new digital archive, we want to highlight the forty Mvskoke citizens and community members who have shared their experiences with Covid-19 and the pandemic.

Visitors can listen to amazing stories of Mvskoke sharing experiences of hardship, grief, resilience, and survival during the Covid-19 pandemic. The oral histories can also be accessed at the library’s new Oral History Research Station.

According to MCN Oral Historian Midge Dellinger, “The digital archive is a game changer in how Mvskoke people can now access library resources online. I hope people engage with the archive as learners and teachers; it belongs to all of us, and we all have much knowledge to share.”

The digital archive is available at mvskokenationallibraryarchive.org.

For more information please call the Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Library and Archives at 918-732-7733.

06/14/2023

Come support us next Wednesday, June 21st for the Fourth Annual Honor Walk to Protect Sacred Places. Hickory Ground will be providing free t-shirts and lunch, while supplies and food lasts!

05/04/2023

These images are copies of the patent to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation from the U.S Government. The patent is fee simple – considered as the property of the whole Mus[c]ogee or Creek Nation, and “the rights thus granted by the US to the said Tribe for so long as the Tribe exists as a Nation and continues to occupy the country.”

12/19/2022

Prayers to the family of Charles Kelly 🙏🏽✨❤️. Charles was our Cemetery Crew Leader and he lead a 4-man crew that has helped clean up, document, and protect 100s of family cemeteries on the reservation. He was an arborist for 20+ years and served the Nation for 13 years in our department. It was an honor to work with Charles and he will be deeply missed. Prayers to Oce Vpofv and Arbeka grounds.

https://www.integrityfuneralservice.com/obituary/Charles-Kelly

12/17/2022