MACON, Ga. — A national historical park in central Georgia is more than doubling its extent thanks to a recent acquisition of assets that will help “some of north America’s most important prehistoric indigenous mounds. “
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the National Park Service, the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative, the National Parks Foundation, and the Open Space Institute announced the addition of Ocmulgee Mounds to Ocmulgee National Historic Park, noting that the land was in danger of progression. before being with the Land and Water Conservation Fund and personal financing.
The new 951-acre assets are located in the “Ocmulgee Old Fields,” also known as the Macon Reservation, which consist of land retained through the Muscogee (Creek) Nation from 1805 until the Washington Treaty in 1826, which along with other treaties resulted in the displacement of other people from Muskogean to Oklahoma, according to a press release from the National Park Service.
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“These additional assets include some of our most vital unprotected ancestral lands,” David Hill, leader of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, said in the statement. “The Muscogee (Creek) Nation has a long history of preserving Ocmulgee Old Fields- Macon Reservation. We have never forgotten where we came from and the lands around the Ocmulgee River will always be our ancestral homeland, a position we consider sacred and with a rich cultural history.
Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park was established in 1936. Artifacts from all major periods of American history have been found there in the Southeast, he said. Visitors can explore earth mounds, a restored ceremonial earth pavilion, a former colonial trading post, and Civil War Earthworks.
Most of the land will be transferred without delay to the National Park Service as an addition to the park, however, Ocmulgee Land Trust will keep the remaining forty-five acres of wetland reclamation and then donate them to the park service.
“It is our solemn duty and honor to our nation’s ultimate vital lands,” said Chuck Sams, superintendent of the National Park Service. The Park Service will continue to paint with volunteer vendors to maintain culturally significant land related to Ocmulgee Old Fields.
First, assets will be closed to the public, while the park service, with public participation, will identify “effective tactics to maintain integrity and interpret the site, while offering access to it. “
Contributor: Eve Chen, USA TODAY