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the skeletal remains; however, they requested two years to perform scientific research on the
bones. The frustration of the representatives from the Muscogee Nation at this insulting delay is
perhaps best relayed by Emman Spain: “They have already had enough time to run any test they
wanted. What reason did they have for keeping the remains of our ancestors if not to run tests?
Tests that, by the way, we can already tell them the answers to. What they ate? We know what
they ate! How they lived? We know that too.”79 After assenting to the time extension, the
National Park Service, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and the Smithsonian Institute agreed that
repatriation would take place by the end of 2017.80

In August, 2017 the Smithsonian Institute, the NPS, the Southeastern Archaeological
Center (SEAC), and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation finished a decades-long, often contentious,
repatriation project. The remains of seven historic Creek individuals, along with several burial
objects, were re-interred in close proximity to the final resting place from which they were
removed almost a century ago. While any repatriation is a small victory to the people who
consider these individuals their ancestors, a much larger problem remains. The repatriations
made represent only a fraction of the total skeletal remains and funeral/ceremonial objects from
Ocmulgee held by the Smithsonian. The remaining “collections” held by the represent
Mississippian, or older, civilizations81, and the Smithsonian is currently using the centuries-old
assertions of anthropologists like Jones, reinforced by work done in the early twentieth century
by Kelly, to argue that no modern Native American Nation can prove cultural affiliation with
these artifacts.82

79 Spain, interview by author, Macon, February 02, 2018.
80 Davis, interview by author, Macon, February 01, 2018.
81 Of note, none of these human remains from Ocmulgee are currently under study or on display at either the

Smithsonian of the National Museum of the Native American. In fact, the majority are currently tucked away in
boxes in various storage rooms, largely forgotten.
82 Davis, interview by author, Macon, February 01, 2018.

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