Recommendations for Mound Maintenance and Visitor Use and Access of the Natchez Trace Parkway Mounds: Final Report

The Natchez Trace Parkway (NATR) Mounds Project has been undertaken by the National Park Service (NPS) in conjunction with EDAW, Inc. The objective of the project is to develop specific guidelines for routine maintenance and for visitor use and access of the pre-European contact American Indian-constructed mounds along the NATR that reflect tribal concerns as much as possible. The NATR is located on the pre-contact and post-contact lands of the Southeast tribes. The NATR runs through the traditional lands of the Chickasaw at its northern end, the Choctaw along its central portion, and the Natchez at its southern end. Of these three groups, the Chickasaw and Choctaw remain as independent, federally recognized tribes, and both participated in the consultation process summarized in this report. Although the Natchez do not survive as a separate, federally recognized tribe or tribes, there are individual Natchez descendants among contemporary Cherokee, Creek, and, perhaps, Catawba and other tribes. The last identifiable political entity of the Natchez was incorporated into the Muskogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. While the Natchez ceremonial town of the Creek Nation is now reportedly moribund, there have been recent efforts by some that identify themselves as Natchez to bring about direct repatriation of remains and cultural items. Under present laws, this is not possible. The interests of the present-day Natchez currently must be represented politically through the Creek Nation in accordance with government-to-government Indian policy.