Group seeks access to Poarch Creek casino site for ceremony

Wednesday, February 13, 2013  

The Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama won't grant access to its casino site for a ceremony on Thursday.

The tribe spending $246 million on a new Wind Creek Wetumpka. Opponents want to hold a prayer ceremony at the site, which is home to Hickory Ground, a Creek cemetery.

“We traveled here from Oklahoma to perform a peaceful ceremony for our ancestors,” Wayland Gray, a member of Hickory Ground Tribal Town, said in a statement. “Their remains may have been excavated, but their spirits remain.”

The tribe, however, says it already conducted a ceremony last year. Creek ancestors were removed at the site and reburied.

Get the Story:
Creeks to attempt ceremony at casino construction site (The Montgomery Advertiser 2/13)
'Traditional Creeks' seek access to sacred site in casino construction zone; Tribe declines (The Wetumpka Herald 2/13)

Protest over Poarch Creek casino expansion at sacred site (1/28)