Muscogee Ancestral Paddle Reclaims Ocmulgee River Homeland

Paddle Georgia Coordinator Joe Cook reports on a journey down the Ocmulgee River with citizens of the Muscogee Nation on Sept. 13. The Muscogee Ancestral Paddle, organized by the College of the Muscogee Nation in Okmulgee, OK, brought some 40 youth and adults back to their homelands in Georgia. It was the first time since removal in 1836 that the Muscogee had paddled the Ocmulgee in these numbers. 

For citizens of the Muscogee Nation, it’s 850 miles and nearly 200 years from Okmulgee, Oklahoma (the current Muscogee capital) to Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Site in Macon, Georgia (the nation’s “capital” prior to removal in the 1830s). 

In 1836, some 23,000 Muscogee Creek were forcibly removed from their homelands and relocated to Oklahoma. They once commanded the rivers and streams of Georgia, paddling dugout canoes from the Piedmont to the coast and beyond. Indeed, British colonists called them “Creeks” because their villages were invariably found along creeks and rivers.

But since removal, the Muscogee have been largely absent from the rivers and streams that still bear the names they gave them: Ocmulgee, Oconee, Chattahoochee, Ogeechee and more.

That changed Sept. 13 when some 40 citizens of the Muscogee Nation, both adults and youth, returned to the Ocmulgee River for a 10-mile journey that encompassed historic Muscogee trading paths, village sites and fisheries.

A Reclamation

Myself and my Georgia River colleagues Andrew Kraft, Kendon Townsel and Rena Ann Peck, along with local history guide Gordon Johnston and safety boaters Dustin Miller and Tom Welander, had the privilege of assisting in the journey. As with all journeys on Georgia’s rivers, it was a bit like traveling back in time, but this one was extra special. The Muscogee were traveling back to another century and to the water they once called home.

“This was reclamation,” said Dr. Monte Randall, president of the College of the Muscogee Nation, who helped organize the event with Sons of Muscogee and Muscogee Youth Services. “I’m sure Muscogee people have paddled that river since removal, but this was the first time our nation has been on that river in these numbers and in this way.”

The venture was part of the Muscogee Nation’s efforts to reconnect tribal members with their homelands and preserve their culture. “We’re in a fight for our lives, culturally,” said Randall. “We’re continuing to reclaim portions of our identity.” 

RaeLynn Butler, Secretary of Culture and Humanities with the Muscogee Nation who also joined the trip, said, “The journey was especially important for the Muscogee youth who participated. It is one thing to learn history in a classroom, but it is something entirely different to paddle the same river that sustained your ancestors and to see the homeland from their perspective.”

The Journey Down River and Back in Time 

The journey began at Popes Ferry, now a stop on the 240-mile-long Ocmulgee River Water Trail, but in 1810, the site of Cullen Pope’s ferry that ushered new Georgians into Muscogee lands between the Ocmulgee and Flint rivers.

Traditional Muscogee blessings were spoken as the paddlers made their way down the boat ramp. Adorned in red face paint and carrying a ceremonial paddle, they hit the water with traditional whoops—known as yake—the same loud calls used during stick ball games and dance ceremonies. Adults called out; youth responded and the flotilla was off, headed down river to Tom Shoals, site of the crossing of Tom’s Path, a Native American trading route.

The paddling was not without its challenges. As the Ocmulgee rushes to the fall line where the rocky Piedmont spills into the sandy Coastal Plain, the river splashes over shoals and ledges, and more than one of the Muscogee time travelers was unceremoniously tipped into the tribe’s traditional ceremonial waters. Prior to removal, the Muscogee rituals would have involved ceremonial bathing in the river.   

Next stop along the route was a fish weir, a place where indigenous people stacked large rocks into v-shaped dams designed to funnel fish to waiting wooden baskets. There, one by one, everyone in the party made fish of themselves, body surfing through the waves created by this ancient structure, perhaps built by the hands of their forefathers.

They saw native freshwater mussels, glimpsed gar and turtles, and further downstream gathered wild muscadines by the handful—all products of the river that echo through Muscogee culture.

A Welcoming Sign

Nearing the end of the journey as the group passed beneath the River North Bridge they were greeted with a homemade sign that read, “Welcome Home Muscogee.” The brainchild of Ocmulgee River Water Trail advocates and long-time Paddle Georgia participants, Kit and Mary Carson, the sign elicited calls of Mvto—“thank you”–from the paddlers.

Said Butler of the welcoming message: “Seeing the sign was an emotional moment. To me it reflected the respect, hospitality and recognition of the community by our return to our ancestral homelands. After spending the day on the river, it felt like an acknowledgement of our enduring connection to this place and to the generations that came before us.”

The sign even inspired one passerby in a vehicle to return to his home and retrieve potsherds he had collected along the river. He scrambled down to the water and flagged down paddlers, presenting the potsherds to the Muscogee, saying he wanted to return them to their rightful owners.

A Muscogee Prayer

Dodging the shallow sandbars beyond the last of the Ocmulgee’s rapids, the group pulled out at Macon’s Amerson Park. Before boarding vans to begin the long ride back to Oklahoma, Randall ended the gathering with a Muscogee prayer, the sounds of the native language echoing across the woods and water.

I closed my eyes. I knew nothing of the meaning of the words, but I was deeply moved nonetheless. I recalled my early childhood playing in the creeks that fed the Chattahoochee River and rafting down the same river as a teenager and the profound impact that those connections have had on my life. The river and creeks formed my sense of place and belonging to a landscape. They were home. I had the fortune of these experiences because my ancestors were lucky winners in the land lotteries of the 1830s, taking ownership of the very land the ancestors of my fellow river travelers that day were forced to leave. It was a visceral confrontation with our unsettling past. How do we right those wrongs?

“The Ocmulgee River Remains Part of Who We Are”

The other thought that ran through my mind along the banks of the Ocmulgee during this prayer was the power and triumph of this return to reclaim and reconnect to home.

“The Ocmulgee River remains part of who we are,” said Butler. “Returning to these waters reminds us that our history is still alive in the landscape, the river and the people who continue to carry the history and culture forward.”

The Creek may have been taken out of Georgia, but the creek can’t be taken out of the Creek. I suspect that is true for anyone who has traveled Georgia’s rivers and called them home. That water is forever flowing through our veins where ever we may call home.