Abstract
Rather than exploring how indigenous people have been alienated from resources by environmental policies, this paper explores how indigenous peoples have worked with environmental organizations to use the broad protections provided by environmental laws to protect cultural resources. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, along with other concerned groups, partnered with environmentalists in opposing the destruction of the endangered snail darter’s critical habitat by the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Tellico Dam. The dam had been opposed by a shifting alliance of Cherokees, local farmers, trout fisherman, and environmentalists since it was announced in 1963. A previous lawsuit by this coalition delayed the project from 1972 to 1974 under the National Environmental Policy Act. The Endangered Species Act provided this coalition with a powerful tool for opposing the destruction of burial grounds and sacred village sites throughout the lower Little Tennessee River valley. The coalition of environmental organizations, Cherokees, and others was ultimately unsuccessful in stopping the dam from being built, but was successful in establishing a strict precedent for the enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit also created a space for the Eastern Band to negotiate for the return of Cherokee remains and halt the removal of any additional burials. In this situation, the strategic support of environmental regulation enabled the Eastern Band to exert some degree of control over the fate of cultural resources in the valley, and also demonstrates the significant role American Indian peoples played in one of the seminal events of the environmental movement during the 1970s.
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Notes
Zygmunt Plater is an exception to this, and has a forthcoming book detailing his involvement in the case that discusses the participation of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Other works have discussed the case in relation to Cherokee history, but generally have focused on the opposition to the dam, without delving into why some Cherokees supported it (Mathiessen 1984; Finger, 1991; Awiakta 1993, Nabokov 2006).
NAGPRA requires all federal agencies and public or private museums (excepting the Smithsonian, which has is governed by a similar law) that have received federal funds to catalog, and, if requested, repatriate remains and other cultural artifacts to authorized tribal governments.
It is unclear from the documentary record whether or not the EDF ever contacted the Eastern Band about joining the lawsuit, but they were never listed as a named plaintiff in the case. Following their initial opposition in the 1960s, the TVA helped the Eastern Band in a downtown renewal project, which may have temporarily improved relations between the two. However, once the EDF’s suit appeared to be successful, the Eastern Band’s tribal newspaper began including a number of stories condemning the project.
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the Newberry Library’s Consortium on American Indian Studies, the American Indian Studies Workshop and the History Department at the University of Minnesota, as well as the Office of Cherokee Studies and Department of History at Western Carolina University for financial support. I would also like to thank Gary Carden, David Dickey, and Zygmunt Plater for sharing their time and experiences with me over the past few years, and the staffs at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, the McClung Museum, the University of Tennessee’s Special Collections, the Southeastern Branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, the Cherokee Nation Archives, Western Carolina University, and the TVA Corporate Library for providing assistance throughout this process. My wife, Shanna Hoff-Gilmer, also provided ample assistance during the editing process; finally, Laurie Richmond and Beth Rose Middleton for all of their hard work putting this special issue together.
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Gilmer, R.A. Snail Darters and Sacred Places: Creative Application of the Endangered Species Act. Environmental Management 52, 1046–1056 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9989-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9989-0