Ancestral lands of the Muscogee in Georgia would become a national park under bills in Congress

By MICHAEL WARREN and SUDHIN THANAWALA
Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia may soon have its first national park. Republicans and Democrats in the state’s Congressional delegation introduced legislation Wednesday to protect some of the ancestral lands of the Muscogee tribe from development. The proposed Ocmulgee Mounds Park and Preserve in the center of present-day Georgia would include mounds and hundreds of other cultural or historic sites of significance to the Muscogee. About 700 acres surrounding seven mounds were declared a national monument in 1936. The boundaries of the proposed park were established in consultation with the Muscogee Nation, which was forcibly removed to Oklahoma roughly 200 years ago.