TNCIA recognizes historic tribes of Tennessee

At its 4 December 2004 meeting at Chucalissa in Memphis, the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs approved a resolution "TO RECOGNIZE HISTORIC TRIBES OF TENNESSEE", suggested by the Advisory Council on Tennessee Indian Affairs:

WHEREAS: The history of the land called "Tennessee" began with the indigenous people of this continent; and

WHEREAS: Many places in Tennessee are still called by the names originally given to them by the First Peoples, including Chattanooga and Ootewah from the Muscogee (Creek) people, and Soddy (Tsati) and Tellico from the Cherokee people, and Sewanee from the Shawnee people, and Red Bank and Running Water from the intertribal-US period; and

WHEREAS: The indigenous people of Tennessee were, in large part, removed from Tennessee by imported diseases, indigenous forces allied with the new United States of America, and ultimately by US government policy and military in the 1830s; and

WHEREAS: The indigenous people of Tennessee still remain in the land, and the children of the indigenous people removed from this land still maintain a connection to their interred ancestors and to the land that created them; and

WHEREAS: Many monuments and burials of the indigenous people of Tennessee still remain on and in the land, momuments and burials which need continuous vigilance in order to safeguard them, including Chucalissa Village, Pinson Mounds, Mounds Bottom, Old Stone Fort, Moccasin Bend, Red Clay, and the original Tanasi village site; and

WHEREAS: It is fitting and just to recognize the indigenous people of Tennessee as the First People of Tennessee and to extend to them as Nations the recognition of the State as interested and involved parties in the future of their ancestors and the land; and

WHEREAS: Federal mandates including the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA Section 106) direct interaction with appropriate representatives in order to satisfy federal consultation requirements; and

WHEREAS: The State of Tennessee acknowledges its own interaction with representatives of these tribes in order to preserve the history of the First People of Tennessee;

THEREFORE Be It Resolved That the State of Tennessee recognize the historical Nations of Indigenous People that first inhabited and named this land, including but not necessarily limited to:

1. the Yuchi Tribe of Oklahoma
   
2. the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Oklahoma
   
3. the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town, Oklahoma
   
4. the Kialegee Tribal Town, Oklahoma
   
5. the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, Oklahoma
   
6. the Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas
   
7. the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana
   
8. the Poarch Band of Creek Indians of Alabama
   
9. the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma
   
10. the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina
    
11. the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians of Oklahoma
    
12. the Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma
    
13. the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
    
14. the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Mississippi
    
15. the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma
    
16. the Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
    
17. the Loyal Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma;
    

and

That the state Commission of Indian Affairs and the state Division of Archaeology and the Governor's Archaeological Advisory Council are directed to interact with the Historic Preservation Officers of these tribes and nations to better protect, preserve and interpret these sites for our future children.