The Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma wants to “consult” with the College of Charleston about its proposed dormitory on a former city-owned potter’s field, a tribal spokesman told the Charleston City Paper.
The tribe believes the college’s intentions to build the dormitory on an 18th century burial ground could desecrate the graves of its ancestors, a violation of a federal law that protects the human remains and cultural artifacts of indigenous people, the spokesman said.
The tribe hopes to have a meeting with the college in about a month, said a spokesman in the tribe’s Okmulgee, Okla, office who asked not to be identified.
Any indigenous person, including a Muscogee, who died between 1790 to 1807 in Charleston would have been interred in the burial ground, the tribe said in an October letter to the college.
“There is no way to say that there is not a native person buried” in the ‘Strangers and Negroes Burial Ground,’ she said. The burial ground is bounded by Coming, Vanderhorst and Calhoun streets. Some maps also show St. Philip Street as the eastern boundary.
After a series of colonial-era wars between native Americans and South Carolina colonists, the surviving members of the Edisto, Kiawah, Stono and other tribal groups joined other tribes like the Muscogee in Georgia and Catawba in upper South Carolina. The federal government then pushed the Muscogee and other tribes west in the mid- to late-1830s, the spokesman said.
Another spokesman for the Catawba Nation in Fort Mill who also asked not to be named said the tribe is aware of the college’s proposed dormitory. The Catawba’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office “is doing their due diligence,” said the spokesman, who said she could not provide further details.
In an email to the City Paper, the college said it is “aware of the (Muscogee) letter and has acknowledged receipt to the Muscogee Nation. The college’s project team is working with subject matter experts on next steps.”
State approval necessary
The college needs permission from the S.C. Department of Environmental Services (DES) to remove portions of an asphalt parking lot at 106 Coming St., the former headquarters at the YWCA of Greater Charleston. Removing the asphalt is necessary for additional ground-penetrating radio tests to determine whether human remains are in the ground. A previous test was inconclusive. The DES approval is also needed to demolish the YWCA building.
Anna-Catherine Alexander, the Preservation Society of Charleston’s director of advocacy initiatives, said the DES should require the college to “engage in meaningful consultation with Native American tribes before acting on the permit request. This should include immediate and direct response to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s request for consultation as a federally recognized tribe.” Indigenous remains are likely at the property, she said.
Between 4,600 and 12,000 individuals may be interred in the former city-owned burial grounds, according to a report prepared for the college. The deceased also include poor Whites, Africans newly arrived on slave ships, travelers and orphaned children.
The college’s administration has so far held two meetings with a newly formed Community Engagement Council. Some of its members are part of Protect and Respect the Bodies, a coalition of individuals, organizations and faith groups that oppose the dormitory project. The next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 8.
Who has a say?
Biological anthropologist Michael Blakey, one of the nation’s leading experts on the handling of human remains, said people who suspect they could be related to those buried in the cemetery are not the only ones who should have a “large say and the final say” in what happens to the human remains.
Anyone who cares about the most ethical approach to handling the remains are part of the descendant community, Blakely said after he lectured recently at Emanuel AME Church on Calhoun Street.
Blakey is a professor of anthropology, Africana studies and American studies at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. He was the lead investigator in the 1990s for the analysis of remains of mostly enslaved Africans who were discovered at a federal construction site in Lower Manhattan. The site is now the African Burial Ground National Monument. It is estimated that the site holds the remains of 15,000 to 20,000 Africans and people of African descent who were buried between the 1690s and 1794.
While he was in Charleston, Blakey met separately with Charleston Mayor William Cogswell and College of Charleston president Andrew Hsu during meetings arranged by the PSC’s president Brian Turner.
“I wanted them to hear (Blakey’s) expertise,” Turner said. “The care of the dead is an essential act of human service.”
The college has said it purchased the Coming Street property because it needs more on-campus student housing. Before the purchase, the college knew the YWCA property was on the site of an old potter’s field.
“I have the impression that President Hsu understands that was a mistake,” Blakey told the City Paper following his lecture.
In an email to the City Paper, Hsu wrote: “We understand how complex and sensitive this site is, and we continue to believe that the college is best positioned to develop this site in a manner that respects its cultural heritage and earns the pride of the community.”
Hsu also said: “The college agrees with Dr. Blakey that the descendant community should play an important role in determining the manner in which human remains are treated as well as the content and design of the site’s memorialization.”
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