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Smithsonian was able to maintain control of the majority of its collections by manipulating the
existing rules and denying the Muscogee Nation its rightful heritage.

The consultation continued, even as the atmosphere grew ever tenser. When the
discussion turned to a timeline for repatriation, the meeting became downright fractious. While
they acknowledged the need to repatriate the historic Creek burials, when asked one simple
question, the representatives from the Smithsonian were at a loss. The question: Where are the
remains currently housed? When pressed on this issue, the Smithsonian employees admitted that
over the years certain pieces from their collection had been loaned out to various museums and
institutions.75 This news did not sit well with members of the Native American delegation.
Sensing the escalation in hostility, one member of the Smithsonian reassured the group that all
efforts were being made to locate every piece of skeleton in question.76 At this announcement,
representatives from the tribes stormed out of the meeting, among heated comments, to discuss a
united course of action moving forward. After a brief meeting among themselves, the tribal
members returned to the conference room to find that the Smithsonian representatives were
gone.77 It took another ten years before all of the parties came back together to continue the long
road to repatriation.78

Another, more productive, round of repatriation consultations took place at Ocmulgee
National Monument in 2015. During these discussions the groundwork for actual repatriation
and reburial was laid. Though it did not go nearly as unpleasantly as in 2005, this series of
meetings was not without conflict. By this time, the Smithsonian had located and gathered all of

75 Butler, interview by author, Macon, February 02, 2018.
76 Skeletal remains are a complicated topic for members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, they are both sacred parts

of their ancestors and a taboo item not meant to be handled by humans.
77 Davis, interview by author, Macon, February 01, 2018.
78 The disastrous conclusion of this meeting greatly disturbed many tribal representatives; it went so badly that the

Miccosukee tribe of Florida vowed never to take part in a repatriation in Georgia again.

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