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Removal Act brought this guardianship to an end.
Although it took a few years to fully enforce, this act permanently removed the Ocmulgee

region from Muscogee ownership. This land, which the people of Ichisi town, the Creek
Confederacy, and finally the Muscogee Nation all held sacred, was never willingly relinquished
because each society knew it as the home of their ancestors. Without the protection of their
Muscogee descendants, the mounds at Ocmulgee, along with their entombed residents, were
vulnerable to American exploitation.

After Indian removal, a series of destructive events unfolded at the ancient mounds along
the Ocmulgee River. In the 1840s, and again in the 1870s, construction for the Central Railway
tore through two of the largest mounds at this site.53 The first rail line cut through the edge of the
Lesser Temple Mound, while the second round of rail excavations removed a large portion of the
northerly slope of Funeral Mound. Along with the environmental damage done by these rail
works, several sets of human remains along with their funeral objects were taken from the site.54
The catastrophes did not end with the 19th century. In 1933 the Smithsonian Institute, funded
through the Civil Works Administration (CWA), started an unprecedented archaeological
excavation at the Ocmulgee site. Arthur Kelly spearheaded this project.55

While the work at Ocmulgee employed the very latest in archaeological tools and
techniques, the methods used remained primitive in nature. The approaches taken at the
Ocmulgee excavation rewarded behavior that today is considered grave robbing, actively seeking
burials without regard for the dignity of the dead. Beyond the character of the work itself, the
makeup of the work force also proved suspect. In all, the Smithsonian excavation unearthed over

53 Schnell, ed, Antiquities of the Southern Indians,159.

54 Schnell, ed, Antiquities of the Southern Indians, 159-162.
55 Arthur Kelly “A Preliminary Report on Archaeological Explorations at Macon, Ga.,” 2-3.

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