Post by Okwes on Mar 22, 2007 14:13:22 GMT -5
Poarch Creeks slowly reclaim lost tribal lands
By CONNIE BAGGETT
Staff Reporter
MAGNOLIA BRANCH WILDLIFE RESERVE -- Nearly two centuries ago, thousands of acres of land were stripped from the Muscogee Indian tribes in the Southeast. Along Big Escambia Creek, one tribe is beginning to get the land back.
"We have been purchasing land all adjacent to Big Escambia Creek and four miles along Sizemore Creek," said Billy Smith, the man in charge of the 4,700-acre Magnolia Branch Wildlife Reserve owned by the Poarch Band of Creeks.
"We have land for tribal members to hunt if they want, and we have a campground and tubing on the creek. That's been really popular with the tribe and the public alike."
Smith said all the land along the creek was part of tribal lands before the Indian Removal in the 1800s. Now, a piece at a time, the tribe is buying it back.
"All this land was Creek land once," Smith said. "Once we buy the land now, we can get it into the trust and it will be Poarch Creek land forever."
I drove to the reserve on Friday, a day that started with foul weather, but cleared into the kind of afternoon I dream about. Just across Sardine Bridge on Escambia 27, we found the reserve.
Gatekeeper Tracy Sells said the park opened in May and was a popular camping ground for recreational vehicles and primitive campers throughout the summer. The winter has been slower, she said.
Sells said the park will keep improving, with trails for hiking and horseback riding getting longer. Construction is under way on a cable bridge across the creek to join two segments of walking trails. Tribal members get to enjoy it for free, but members of the general public have to pay a fee for some activities.
Smith said the land was mined for gravel years ago, but the holes gouged into the earth were abandoned. Now, the tribe is working to reclaim the land, planting longleaf pines, stocking the ponds with fish and hoping to increase the population of box turtles. The turtles are a special species to Poarch Creeks, he said, because the shells are used as rattles in ceremonial dances.
The scenery is getting to be beautiful here where clearcuts are beginning to heal over.
I thought of how most everything in life follows cycles, stress to calm, sorrow to joy. The river, stirred up by the storm, will settle in time. Troubles that seem insurmountable will find resolution. Even land lost for 200 years can return to the fold in generations to come.
I turned from the creek and saw, out of the corner of my eye, a white shard. Sure enough, there on the creek bank was a white stone arrow point, tiny but unmistakably a knapped point. The land walked by Creeks before Alabama came to be is theirs again.
By CONNIE BAGGETT
Staff Reporter
MAGNOLIA BRANCH WILDLIFE RESERVE -- Nearly two centuries ago, thousands of acres of land were stripped from the Muscogee Indian tribes in the Southeast. Along Big Escambia Creek, one tribe is beginning to get the land back.
"We have been purchasing land all adjacent to Big Escambia Creek and four miles along Sizemore Creek," said Billy Smith, the man in charge of the 4,700-acre Magnolia Branch Wildlife Reserve owned by the Poarch Band of Creeks.
"We have land for tribal members to hunt if they want, and we have a campground and tubing on the creek. That's been really popular with the tribe and the public alike."
Smith said all the land along the creek was part of tribal lands before the Indian Removal in the 1800s. Now, a piece at a time, the tribe is buying it back.
"All this land was Creek land once," Smith said. "Once we buy the land now, we can get it into the trust and it will be Poarch Creek land forever."
I drove to the reserve on Friday, a day that started with foul weather, but cleared into the kind of afternoon I dream about. Just across Sardine Bridge on Escambia 27, we found the reserve.
Gatekeeper Tracy Sells said the park opened in May and was a popular camping ground for recreational vehicles and primitive campers throughout the summer. The winter has been slower, she said.
Sells said the park will keep improving, with trails for hiking and horseback riding getting longer. Construction is under way on a cable bridge across the creek to join two segments of walking trails. Tribal members get to enjoy it for free, but members of the general public have to pay a fee for some activities.
Smith said the land was mined for gravel years ago, but the holes gouged into the earth were abandoned. Now, the tribe is working to reclaim the land, planting longleaf pines, stocking the ponds with fish and hoping to increase the population of box turtles. The turtles are a special species to Poarch Creeks, he said, because the shells are used as rattles in ceremonial dances.
The scenery is getting to be beautiful here where clearcuts are beginning to heal over.
I thought of how most everything in life follows cycles, stress to calm, sorrow to joy. The river, stirred up by the storm, will settle in time. Troubles that seem insurmountable will find resolution. Even land lost for 200 years can return to the fold in generations to come.
I turned from the creek and saw, out of the corner of my eye, a white shard. Sure enough, there on the creek bank was a white stone arrow point, tiny but unmistakably a knapped point. The land walked by Creeks before Alabama came to be is theirs again.