Macon Magazine

April/May 2025 | maconmagazine.com 69 "These scientists said that there was nothing there. I thought, well, where are the native experts? " ABOVE Butler, right, with other officials from The Muscogee Nation. Swamp. We're very concerned, but also watching what's going on there. There's threats in titanium mining. We also are monitoring projects along the Georgia Coast, near Savannah. The barrier islands are being impacted by sea level rise and erosion. Very important cultural sites that are thousands of years old, some of the most ancient sites in the Southeast are some of these shell rings and shell mounds that are being eroded. Cartersville, Georgia and the Etowah Mounds – we are really working hard to try to get back sacred objects, funerary objects and ancestors that were displaced from there. And so far, they're in 14 different museums across the United States. Logistically, trying to get to those places and get everything back to one place, and to plan the re-burial and everything, has taken up to 15 years. It's a long journey in reaching our goals in some of these areas. What do you think is most misunderstood about Muscogee culture? Either in Macon or in general. I think what's missed or misunderstood is that Muscogee people are still here. Even at the talk last weekend, I did say we're still here. And afterwards, somebody asked me, "Well, what does that mean? We don't see you? You don't see any natives in Atlanta. You're not here." I think that their perception was very literal, if you still live in Atlanta or you still live in Georgia. Unfortunately, that's not [possible] – our homes are now in other places because of the challenges of the past, things that the tribe had to endure. But we do know that we have citizens that live in Georgia. We would try to see if there's any in the Atlanta region, but our citizenship is very protective of that information, too. You can't just say, "Hey, tell me who lives where." I think that there's an out of sight, out of mind type of mentality that if you don't actually know any Native American people in your life, or they're not living in your community, that they don't exist and that they get forgotten. We have really deep roots that span 17,000 years in Georgia. We were the first Georgians. I think that it's hard for people to imagine that kind of time depth, and then maybe feel like we are remnants of the past or view us as museum specimens, or artifacts lost in history. We are here – in a modern and fierce tribal government that is fighting every day for tribal sovereignty. We're protecting our rights on behalf of our ancestors. I think that's no one's fault necessarily, but the K-12 system doesn't really give people full picture of what a tribal nation is. You talk about tribes in the past, how they lived on the landscape, the different tools they used, what they ate, the structures they lived in, but then skip over hundreds of years of history. They're still here today, and I think that being the fourth largest tribe is a pretty big deal out of 574 [federally recognized tribes]. We're very proud of that. When we reached the 100,000-citizenship mark, it was eye-opening. Because I thought when we had our removal, as we have a census of that time period, we really were only about 13,000, which is not that many. It's taken over a hundred years to repopulate, and there hasn't been this many Muscogee people alive on earth since before European contact. I think that that's really history to think about. The impact of 500 years of colonization and how do you still thrive and move forward? I hope that everybody in Macon has a chance to meet somebody from the Muscogee Nation who has a positive impact on their life. So when we're recording this, it is Women's Month, and we are doing this for the Women's. Are there any women that come to mind for you, either historically or mentors in the present day, that you'd like to shine a light on? My grandmother is a survivor of boarding school, and she was a very strong woman. She raised five kids, but over 20 grandkids in her life. She was devoted to being very kind, respectful. She was a leader within her church and always made sure that we were being respectful and honoring our family in the best way that we knew how. I remember growing up thinking that she was the best woman there was, and that if I could just be half the person that she was, that I would be a good person because she was so devoted. She wouldn't do laundry on Sundays because you were supposed to rest. She believed in the tithe. She always tithed, even when it meant not having any money because she was that devoted, and always bringing food and cooking and doing what she could. I loved to go stay with my grandma. Anytime we were at her house,

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