Restoration of a Flordia tribal land: Legacy of the Southeastern Lower Mvskogee Creek people

Background/Question/Methods  

This discussion focuses on the Tribes efforts to ensure cultural competency and building trust relationships and how they have developed with Escambia County , other agencies, and local stakeholders, as well as what the future of this relationship will look like as time passes.  Methods focus on printed materials, public outreach, and public conversations with all stakeholders.  The questions focusing on this discussion will investigate:

How did the Memorandum of Understanding and collaborative trust relationships develop between Tribal Liaisons and Federal/ State, and Local agencies.

How overall restoration and development between the tribe and other stakeholders will reach completion.

What the future of the Perdido Bay Lower Mvskogee Creek tribe and the 4.5 acre land stewardship will look like in the future centered on cultural competency and landscape restoration.

Results/Conclusions  

Throughout Centuries, Lower Mvskogee Creek people have been stewards of the landscape located in their traditional lands of Georgia and Florida.  The rich history of the Lower Mvskogee Creek culture includes agriculture, fisheries, architecture, art, complex government and judicial systems, and vast trade and commerce within river and ocean communities as far west as the Mississippi River Valley’s and as far south as Mexico and other parts of the Caribbean.  The Lower Mvskogee Creek people are noted for large architectural cities dating back to 6,000 B.C. (Daniels 2010)(Thornton 2012). With onset of colonization and the arrival of Spaniards in 1540, dramatic population losses from disease caused the Lower Mvskogee nations to severely decline. In 1836 during the presidency of Andrew Jackson;  many of the SE tribal people under the influence of a judicial decision called ”Johnson V McIntosh”, (garrison 2009) were rounded up and walked to Oklahoma, the Mvskogee Creek people being part of that journey.

In modern times Lower Mvskogee Creek people have worked hard to change the history which has affected their cultural responsibilities and focus within the South Eastern United States.  The Perdido Bay Lower Mvskogee Creek Tribe has successfully collaborated with Federal Agencies, State and Local Governments, and other environmental and public agencies and groups to regain some of the landscape within which they originally lived.  Through diligence and hard work the tribe was able to obtain and steward 4.5 acres of land associated within the “Jones Swamp Nature Preserve” a 1300 acre diverse ecosystem in conjunction with Escambia County as part of the Northwest Florida Greenway Project.