Hickory Ground, also known as Otciapofa (or Odshiapofa, Ocheopofau, and Ocheubofau) is an historic Upper

Muscogee Creek The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek or just Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language; English: ), are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsElmore County, Alabama Elmore County is a County (United States), county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 87,977. Its county seat is Wetumpka, Alabama, Wetumpka. Its ...

, United States, near Wetumpka. It is known as Oce Vpofa in the

Muscogee language The Muscogee language (also Muskogee , ), previously referred to by its exonym, Creek, is spoken by Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole people, primarily in the US states of Oklahoma and Florida. Muscogee was historically spoken by various constitue ...

; the name derives from and . It is best known for serving as the last capital of the National Council of the Creek Nation, prior to the tribe being moved to the

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

in the 1830s. It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on March 10, 1980.

Archaeological site

The 33-acre archaeological site, ( 1EE89), is outside Wetumpka on the lower

Coosa River The Coosa River is a tributary of the Alabama River in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The river is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, ac ...

, north of where it joins the

Tallapoosa River The Tallapoosa River runs U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 27, 2011 from the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United Sta ...

. It is a former village with a ceremonial ground, burial grounds, and refuse sites.

History

Hickory Ground, or Otciapofa, was established by Muscogee Creeks (which at the time included those who would later form as the Poarch Band of Creek Indians) from Little Tulsa, located on the

. The site was documented during historic times by

William Bartram William Bartram (April 20, 1739 – July 22, 1823) was an American naturalist, writer and explorer. Bartram was the author of an acclaimed book, now known by the shortened title Bartram's ''Travels'', which chronicled his explorations of the S ...

in the 1770s and

Benjamin Hawkins Benjamin Hawkins (August 15, 1754June 6, 1816) was an American planter, statesman and a U.S. Indian agent. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States Senator from North Carolina, having grown up among the planter elite ...

in 1799. The town was home to several thousand Muscogee, including Billy Weatherford who is an ancestor of Poarch Band members, and served as the last capital of the National Council of the Creek Nation from 1802 until 1814. During the

Creek War The Creek War (also the Red Stick War or the Creek Civil War) was a regional conflict between opposing Native American factions, European powers, and the United States during the early 19th century. The Creek War began as a conflict within th ...

, the inhabitants who were not fighting in the war were confined at nearby Fort Jackson. After the end of the war, they were allowed to resettle the site and remained there until 1832, when they were forcibly removed to the Indian Territory. The site was rediscovered in 1968 by archaeologist David Chase of

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

. The rediscovery was not made public until much later, when plans to build apartments on the site were announced. Through the efforts of the

Alabama Historical Commission The Alabama Historical Commission is the historic preservation agency for the U.S. state of Alabama. The agency was created by an act of the state legislature in 1966 with a mission of safeguarding Alabama's historic buildings and sites. It consi ...

and the

Poarch Band of Creek Indians The Poarch Band of Creek Indians ( ;) are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans with reservation lands in lower Alabama. As Mvskoke people, they speak the Muscogee language. They were formerly known as the Creek Nation East of the Mi ...

, the site was acquired in early 1980 through

matching funds Matching funds are funds that are set to be paid in proportion to funds available from other sources. Matching fund payments usually arise in situations of charity or public good. The terms cost sharing, in-kind, and matching can be used inter ...

of $165,000 from the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation ...

and

tax break Tax break also known as tax preferences, tax concession, and tax relief, are a method of reduction to the tax liability of taxpayers. Government usually applies them to stimulate the economy and increase the solvency of the population. By this f ...

incentives for the previous owner. Excavations in 1988 and 1991 found evidence of occupation at the site during five distinct cultural periods, ranging from the

Early Archaic Early may refer to: Places in the United States * Early, Iowa, a city * Early, Texas, a city * Early Branch, a stream in Missouri * Early County, Georgia * Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort Music * Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...

(8000–6000 B.C.) to the historic Muscogee occupation. The members of Otciapofa tribal town, which included ancestors of current Poarch Creeks, formed part of the Muscogee Creek Confederacy in Alabama, prior to their forced removal to

during the 1830s. After resettling in Indian Territory, the members of Hickory Ground established another town of that name near

Henryetta, Oklahoma Henryetta is a city in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 5,640 at the 2020 census. History Hugh Henry established a ranch on Creek Nation land in 1885. He soon found a deposit of coal, which he began using to fuel th ...

Chitto Harjo Chitto Harjo (also known as Crazy Snake, Wilson Jones, Bill Jones, Bill Snake, and Bill Harjo; c. 1846 – April 5, 1912) was a leader and orator among the traditionalists in the Muscogee Creek Nation in Indian Territory at the turn of the 20 ...

belonged to new Hickory Ground, where the

Crazy Snake Uprising The Crazy Snake Rebellion, also known as the Smoked Meat Rebellion or Crazy Snake's War, was an incident in 1909 that at times was viewed as a war between the Creek people and American settlers. It should not be confused with an earlier, bloodle ...

of 1901 was launched.

Controversy

In August 1980, the property was granted to the Poarch Band. It was placed under a 20-year easement that limited development of the property. The site became part of the Poarch Band's reservation lands in 1984, when they became a

federally recognized tribe A federally recognized tribe is a Native American tribe recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs as holding a government-to-government relationship with the US federal government. In the United States, the Native American tribe ...

. Following the expiration of the easement, the Poarch built a Native American bingo hall at the site from 2001 to 2002, which required the excavation of the bingo hall site and exhumation of Muscogee graves found there. The

Muscogee (Creek) Nation The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large group of indigenous peoples of the South ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

called construction at the site "deplorable" and claimed that many burials were disturbed during the initial building phase. This commercial development of the site for a bingo hall was also opposed by other tribes, from both inside and outside the state; the Alabama Historical Commission; Alabama's delegation in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

, which introduced legislation in a failed attempt to stop it; and roughly 50 Poarch members, who wrote letters to the Alabama Historical Commission. The July 2012 announcement of a $246 million expansion to create a 20-story hotel and casino at the site caused further outcry from the Muscogee Creek Nation and the threat of legal action. The Poarch denied that the historic site itself was affected by their development, stating in a news release that it was "protected land that is not part of a casino expansion." The dispute over the development of Hickory Ground is part of a wider disagreement between the Poarch Band and the Oklahoma Muscogee about cultural identity, tradition, and authenticity. The ''Montgomery Advertiser'''s article of August 21, 2012, stated: Robert McGhee, a member of the Poarch Band tribal council gave no indication that the group planned to halt construction and disagreed with Tiger's charge that the group lacked respect for cultural values. "We have taken great care to honor history and preserve the past while ensuring the future for our tribe," he responded by email to the Advertiser. "It is unfortunate that neither the issue nor our response to it was portrayed accurately, but we understand that these centuries-old wounds are deep and the hurt that resulted from tribes being forcibly removed from the Southeast still remains." On October 12, 2012, the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes, including the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole Nations, unanimously adopted a resolution supporting efforts to halt the desecration of Hickory Ground. On December 12, 2012, the Muscogee Creek Nation and the Hickory Ground Tribal Town filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama to stop the casino development. The lawsuit alleges that the excavation of Muscogee Creek human remains and funerary objects from Hickory Ground violated the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and other federal laws. On May 14, 2015, Poarch Creek Chief Legal Officer Lori Stinson testified before the Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs and responded to misleading allegations on the issue of Hickory Ground. Stinson commented that the decisions to develop Hickory Ground for tribal economic endeavors were prompted by other legal and political problems regarding the sovereignty of American Indian nations. The Poarch Band had no land in trust besides the lands at Hickory Ground. Stinson also notes that the Poarch Band purchased the lands in 1980 to avoid them being sold to a "big box retailer," further mentioning that before the Tribe purchased the lands, "the property had been flooded by the Coosa River and farmed for more than a century, and decades of commercial development surrounded the tract," including a housing subdivision, a Winn-Dixie, multiple restaurants, Alabama State Roads, Elmore County buildings, and various businesses. Stinson emphasized that tribes have to build an economy to exercise sovereignty, and responded that the Tribe will continue "to preserve our tribal history and culture while undertaking projects that assure the financial stability of our tribal government and economic security for our people."https://docs.house.gov/meetings/II/II24/20150514/103445/HHRG-114-II24-Wstate-StinsonL-20150514.pdf The multi-story hotel is now open on the site.

Notes

References

External links

''Back to Nature: The Battle for Hickory Ground''
video by

Sterlin Harjo Sterlin Harjo (born November 14, 1979)Sam Lewin, , ''Native Times News'', reprinted in ''Canku Ota'', May 24, 2004 (article gives his age as 24 in 2004). is a Native Americans in the United States, Native American filmmaker from Oklahoma. He is ...