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The Muscogee (Creek) Nation has every right to be infuriated with the lack of cultural
agency that they been given under NAGPRA by the Smithsonian Institution. The evidence to
support the most basic claim of cultural affiliation with the ancient people of the Ocmulgee Old
Fields is overwhelming. From all sides, history, anthropology, and Muscogee oral tradition, there
is a narrative which links these people. The linguistic cohesion between known late
Mississippian societies along the Ocmulgee River and modern spoken Muscogee points to a
cultural continuum which is most easily explained by relatively close affiliations. Likewise, by
tracing historically recorded cultural practices, such as burial practices, and oral history, like the
Creek Confederacy’s origin narratives, from early chroniclers to present Muscogee traditions and
stories of their past, a strong argument for a shared cultural patrimony between the Mississippian
period Mound Builders and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation emerges. This line of inquiry, coupled
with modern archaeological research into population distribution over time at Ocmulgee, such as
an expansion of Bigman's recent assessment of pottery sherd traditions on the Middle Plateau,
should83 help to hasten the return of hundreds of culturally sensitive objects to their rightful
guardians, and break down centuries of artificially constructed barriers in the continuity of
Muscogee history.

83 I use “should” here; however, the likelihood of the established position of the Smithsonian Institution is doubtful
to change without a significant outcry of support and demands for more action by the American public as a
whole. As of the writing of this paper, there are currently no discussions of further repatriations between the
Smithsonian and the Muscogee Nation regarding the collections from Ocmulgee.

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