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attempting to limit the disruption or abduction of sacred artifacts from Native lands (both past and
present), the strongest one yet being the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
(NAGPRA). NAGPRA was adopted in 1990 and seeks to protect undisturbed Native graves and
ceremonial objects and to ensure the return of items that have already been confiscated back to their
rightful guardians.4 According to the National Park Service's NAGPRA information web page,
“NAGPRA provides a process for museums and Federal agencies to return certain Native American
cultural items -- human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony -- to
lineal descendants, and culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations.”5 This
paper focuses on how NAGPRA has affected Ocmulgee National Monument.

Located on 702 acres in eastern Bibb County, Georgia, the Ocmulgee National Monument is at
first glance a refreshing speckle of green in what is otherwise the sea of pavement known as Macon.
When first entering the Monument, visitors find themselves following a winding paved road leading to
a modest parking lot and a small museum. This two story structure houses exhibits, a visitor center, and
a gift shop on the top floor, and a small archive, lab, and administrative facilities on the bottom floor.
Walking past the museum, over a small wooden bridge, and up a gentle green slope leads to the Earth
Lodge, a reconstruction of what archaeologists once thought that a tribal council house should look
like. In reality, this reconstruction is based on a building technique used mainly by some Plains Indian
nations, instead of the earth-embanked, thatched- roof style more common in the Southeast. Inside this
reconstruction is one of many features that make Ocmulgee unique: the original burned clay floor, the
only one of its kind on display anywhere in America, which is thought to be around 1000 years old.6

Continuing down the maintained trail leads hikers over another bridge, this one over railway
tracks, an unfortunate permanent scar on the landscape, and onto the plateau that houses the largest
earthen mound at this site: Mound A, or the Temple Mound. This mound, rising some fifty feet above

4 National Park Service, “National NAGPRA,” accessed February 18, 2016, https://www.nps.gov/nagpra/.
5 Ibid.
6 David, Interview.