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Moccasin Bend, Chattanooga Tennessee

Read articles on the legislation here. This page has links to articles which give the history of the process.

The Issue

Moccasin Bend is a 925 acre river bend area at Chattanooga which individuals are fighting to preserve for a variety of reasons. They have formed a group and have a webpage at Friends of Moccasin Bend Park. Marches and other awareness-promoting events have been held.

Human history at Moccasin Bend extends back to the Paleo (Stone Age); it has also a Late Woodland burial mound complex.

Online Sources for Reading:

Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park

The Chattanooga Intertribal Association page on Moccasin Bend gives their position on Moccasin Bend and their estimation of its vital importance.

The Chattanooga Tribal Association notes Moccasin Bend was recognized in 1984 on the National Register of Historic Places as an Archaeological District; recognized 1986 as a National Historic Landmark; and recognized 1993 as a Native American Burial Ground by the Chattanooga Intertribal Association. They give it as one of the most important Native American sites inside any major U.S. City; that it represents the historical Native essence of Chattanooga; and that it is the last vestige of Native American culture in the area since the Removal of the Five Civilized Tribes with the Trail of Tears.

CITA (Chattanooga Intertribal Association) has also links to news articles on Moccasin Bend and Tennessee Archaeology in the News gathered from Tennessee Archaeology Net.

The "Mounds of the Southeast" website has a page in which the mounds at Moccasin Bend are described extensively.

Redman has also a page on Moccasin Bend.

Contacts: Contact the Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park at fmbnp@chattanooga.net

Update: A November 21, 2000 news article, Moccasin Bend Park Plan Needs More Time, by Pam Sohn for the Times & Free Press News states, It took 10,000 years for the history of local habitation to unfold on Moccasin Bend. But it could take a few more years for the Bend's history to include a national park. U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp told Friends of Moccasin Bend on Monday evening that he can't take a bill to the House seeking the Bend's inclusion into the National Park Service until there is full consensus and commitment locally on the future of the mental health hospital and the golf course there. "We've run into obstacles," Rep. Wamp said. "We have to have consensus in the community and also with the city and county governments here."

Update: A 2001 29 January article, American Indians concerned about Bend park proposal, reports that, Local American Indians say they were left out of discussions by U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp to add 896 acres of Moccasin Bend to the national park system. "I don't think any of the Indian representatives have been consulted about it," Toye Heape, director of the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs, said Friday. The article goes on to report that while many American Indians back efforts to make Moccasin Bend a national park, they're unhappy with Rep. Wamp's compromise proposal which doesn't include the land upon which the Moccasin Bend Public Golf Club is currently located. Rep. Wamp says he was concerned about a petition from golfers to keep the leased public course open and possible costs to reclaim it. American Indians say they believe there are historic burials beneath the course which make it sacred to them. A U.S. Park Service report in 1999 had recommended closing the golf course on the site as an incompatible use for a national historic and cultural park, but since then the Park Service has agreed to grandfather the golf course indefinitely. Next week, two members of the Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park and Vicky Karhu, liaison to the Five Civilized Tribes Intertribal Council, plan to travel to Oklahoma to discuss the park proposal with the Creek and Cherokee Nations.

Update: 2001 3 Feb, Indian nations back Bend plan, Chattanooga, Kathy Gilbert for Times Free Press. Five American Indian nations agreed Friday to support legislation proposed by Congressman Zach Wamp, R-Chattanooga, to add Moccasin Bend to the federal park system...Last week, Rep. Wamp said he planned to move quickly on the park legislation. His proposal excluded a 156-acre parcel owned by the city and county and leased to Wes Brown through 2005 for the Moccasin Bend Public Golf Course. A 1998 National Park Service study recommended the golf course property be included in the park. The park service still stands by that recommendation, said Pat Reed, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park superintendent. Tom Kunesh, a member of the Chattanooga InterTribal Association, protested the golf course's exclusion. But the Five Civilized Tribes said the park was too critical to hold out for perfection.
NOTE: In this article, Kathy Gilbert writes: "A 1998 National Park Service study recommended the golf course property be included in the park. The park service still stands by that recommendation, said Pat Reed, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park superintendent." But the 2001 29 Jan article by Kathy Gilbert on Moccasin Bend stated : "A U.S. Park Service report on the Moccasin Bend park plan released in March 1999 recommended closing the golf course and the state's Mental Health Institute on the site as 'incompatible uses' for a national historic and cultural park. Since then, the Park Service has agreed to grandfather both the hospital and golf course indefinitely. Park Service officials said Moccasin Bend is too important an archaeological site to let concerns about closing the hospital or the leased golf course become a sticking point."

Update: 2001 13 March, Bill would make Moccasin Bend U.S. park , By Mary Fortune, Staff Writer, The Chattanooga Times Free Press. (Picked up from email list submission crediting Tom Kunesh.)

A new chapter in the long history of Moccasin Bend will unfold today as U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., introduces legislation to create a 911-acre national park on the peninsula just across the Tennessee River from downtown Chattanooga.

"This is going to be a major step for the city of Chattanooga, for history, for interpretation, for education," Rep. Wamp said.

The legislation, which would preserve and showcase part of Moccasin Bend's rich archaeological history, has been years in the making and is the product of compromise among diverse groups, Rep. Wamp said.

As they wrangled over national park boundaries, local officials were eager to protect the Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute and the Moccasin Bend Public Golf Club. But American Indian groups and a 1998 National Park Service study proposed closing the hospital and the golf course within 10 years and restoring the land.

Rep. Wamp said the legislation he will introduce today tries to please all sides by leaving the hospital and the golf course as they are -- for now.

"We've carefully done this to try to protect all the interests of the local community, to respect and attempt to support everyone's viewpoint," he said. "I think this is a real consensus product." Tom Kunesh, spokesman for the Chattanooga InterTribal Association, called the plan a failure.

"It's the whole landmark that's endangered, not just bits and pieces of it," Mr. Kunesh said. "And (the plan) excludes over 100 acres of land that is of historical significance. On those two issues, (Wamp) fails." Under the proposal, the Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute is to remain open but would become part of the park if the hospital were to close.

"It is grandfathered in under its current use indefinitely, as long as it continues to be a mental health center run by the state," Rep. Wamp said.

The golf course, owned jointly by Chattanooga and Hamilton County, is not included in the national park. But the legislation stipulates that if the city and county were to get out of the golf business, the federal government would be given the option to absorb the site into the park. Two new parcels of land are included in the park plan: A 14-acre tract near Hamm Road would be purchased to become the gateway to the park and the site of an interpretive center, and a 97-acre parcel from Rock-Tenn Corp. will trace the Trail of Tears and the Federal Road designated in 1807.

The project could cost around $30 million, Rep. Wamp estimated, but this legislation does not get into the particulars of cost, he said.

"You can raise a lot of that money from the private sector, and we're going to encourage that," he said. "That's one reason I didn't want to throw numbers out there to scare people away.

"This is the kind of community that if we get this legislation signed, you'll see some of our best and brightest emerge. We'll have friends coming out of the woodwork saying they want to be part of this."

AMERICAN INDIAN INPUT

In January, as the bill was being crafted, local American Indians said they had been left out of discussions about the park legislation, and they objected to the exclusion of the golf course from the plan. In February, however, the Intertribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes wrote a letter to Rep. Wamp pledging their support for the legislation.

"We are pleased the proposed boundary includes the property owned by the state of Tennessee that contains the mental health hospital," the council wrote. "We prefer the National Park boundary include what we consider to be hallowed ground contained in the golf course. However, we believe at this time that the goal of creating the park is the most important objective."

The letter was signed by representatives of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, the Chickasaw Nation, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.

POSSIBILITIES FOR A NATIONAL PARK

The potential for tourism and education at the Moccasin Bend site is significant, said Mickey Robbins, president of Friends of Moccasin Bend, a nonprofit group devoted to pursuing national park status for the area. "It could potentially have the impact almost of a Central Park in New York City, where it has hiking trails, interpretation, enormous social value and huge economic value," Mr. Robbins said. "It takes almost 1,000 acres that has sat there and done nothing, and it's creating jobs, it's creating visitorship, economic value from tourists, educational value for the schools."

But reaching consensus on the plan to create a national park on the land has been tough at times, said Bob Hunter, a vice president of Friends of Moccasin Bend.

REACHING AN ACCORD

In November 2000, Rep. Wamp met with the group and delivered an unpleasant message: A lack of agreement on how to move forward with the park plan was holding up the creation of Moccasin Bend National Park. "We had worked for five years on trying to reach consensus, and we were met there at that meeting by Congressman Wamp with the message that, in fact, we don't have consensus," Mr. Hunter said.

"That was a very hard pill for (me). I felt a little discouraged at that point," he said.

But the group took that opportunity to come up with a way to move forward, he said.

"On each point the congressman wanted consensus on, we set out in little task forces to try to bridge all those gaps," Mr. Hunter said. "There will never be 100 percent consensus. There are just too many details. But I am really enthusiastic about the consensus we have."

BILL'S FUTURE

Hamilton County Executive Claude Ramsey had not seen the legislation Monday, but he voiced his support for creating a national park on Moccasin Bend -- as long as the golf course and the hospital are protected.

"I haven't changed my position that I'd like to see a national park over there, but we must protect the community assets of the hospital and the golf course," he said. "I think as long as the two of them are protected, we've got a chance to move forward."

The bill has garnered the signatures of all nine members of Tennessee's congressional delegation and that of U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga. Rep. Wamp said he is confident Tennessee's senators also will support the measure.

In a survey of 407 Chattanooga voters earlier this month, 28 percent said they think Moccasin Bend should be made into a national park. Thirty-one percent said the land should be left undeveloped, as it is now.

The survey was conducted for the Chattanooga Times Free Press by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. of Washington, D.C.



Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html


Update: 2001 17 March, Bend plan proponents worry over consistency, Mary Fortune, staff writer for The Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Update: 2001 14 June, To Be A National Park Or Not? Moccasin Bend plans up in air , Ebony Hall WDEF-TV.

By Ebony Hal WDEF-TV, News 12 Jun 14, 2001 To be a national park or not? Plans to make the Moccasin Bend a national park are on hold. The National Park Service says it won't support a park with both a mental hospital and a golf course on site. Officials favor closing both facilities within 15-years.

Ray Cherry has played golf at Moccasin Bend for 20-years. He knows it's rich in history but wonders how much of that history has disappeared over time. The Friends of Moccasin Bend National Park have the same concerns. Jay Mills says the Bend needs to be preserved as a national park before more development displaces its artifacts.

"Moccasin Bend is an incredible concentration of rich cultural resources that span from the earliest people of this continent through all the epics of Native American history," Mills tells News 12.

But how much of that history is undisturbed? Both nature and man have had an impact. Land behind hole three is what's called an area of archeological concern, but Cherry recalls when representatives from the Creek Nation in Oklahoma came to see it. He says they were disappointed, telling him they could see no indication an Indian mound ever existed there.

"In their opinion," he says, "90% of what was here us gone, because it had been a farm, and they don't know where the other 10% is."

Cherry thinks years of farming alone could've robbed the land of its history and artifacts- artifacts that he believes are long gone.

He and about 5000 other golfers have signed a petition to keep the golf course open. He says they play about 50-thousand rounds there each year.

Show them the money...

Could a national park in Chattanooga bring with it millions of dollars each year? Jay Mills thinks so. He spoke about the park at the Chattanooga Rotary Club today. Mills believes the national park would draw new attention to the city. With that attention comes people ready to spend their money.

"It would have a $21-million impact annually, ongoing to the economy. That's because of the synergy that it has with the aquarium and other attractions," he explained.

However, Cherry wants proof it could make that much money. He doesn't believe that's possible without piggy-backing the popularity of the Tennessee Aquarium.

Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law.

Update: 2001 14 June, Wamp Sees Chickamauga Dam Lock Replacement, Moccasin Bend As National Park, August 21, 2001

Update" 2001 7 Sept

Via TN Indian Affairs Mailing List:

> From:
> To:
> Subject: Schedule Update on Committee on Resources
> Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 16:15:50 -0400
> SCHEDULE:
>
> The Parks Subcommittee has announced a markup meeting for Tuesday,
>September 11, 2001.
>See:
>http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/schedule.htm#top

Tuesday, September 11, 2001
10:00am in 1334 Longworth House Office Building (Walter B. Jones Hearing Room, Live Audio Available.)
Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation & Public Lands
Markup on:
H.R.980, To establish the Moccasin Bend National Historic Site in the State of Tennessee as a unit of the National Park System.
-------------
Bill "Markups"
Once hearings are over and if there appears to be a majority in favor of the bill, the committee or subcommittee usually will have a "markup" meeting on the bill. Here members vote on amendments and final passage of the bill. In the House, every Member may only vote in committee if he is present at the meeting. Previously, "proxy" votes were allowed. Every member has one vote. Such "markup" meetings must be open to the public, except if a majority by a roll call vote decide otherwise. If a significant number of amendments are added to a bill, the committee may decide to report a "clean" bill with a new bill number, or it may report the original bill favorably with one single "amendment in the nature of a substitute." It can happen that a committee may report a bill "unfavorably" to the House. This means that a majority of the committee are opposed to the bill, but for some reason, they want their colleagues to have the opportunity to vote the measure up or down.
-------------
Time to slam! the Resources Committee members with email and phone calls in support of Moccasin Bend National Park as Native Americans and the National Park Service have proposed it: -all- 956 acres of the complete National Historic Landmark, not a dissected and picked-over archaeological carcass thrown to us by golfers and Rep. Zach Wamp.
Please express your highest concern that
(1) Moccasin Bend's cultural and historic significance is 99% Native American, and
(2) local Native Americans have been the most outspoken advocates of its protection and salvation, and
(3) the only Native American testimony to Congress to date has been from a non-resident of Oklahoma, and
(4) the local (Chattanooga, state) Native American voice is not being heard at the hearings.
(5) This bill should -NOT- be passed until local Native Americans have been heard and involved in the legislative process.

Express yourself! to ...
http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/107cong/assign07.htm#parksmem
Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation & Public Lands
1333 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-6207
(202) 226-7736
fax: (202) 226-2301
web: http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/parks
e-mail: parks.subcommittee@mail.house.gov
Republicans
Mr. Joel Hefley, CO-05, Chairman
Mr. Elton Gallegly, CA-23
Mr. John Duncan, TN-02
Mr. Wayne Gilchrest, MD-01
Mr. George Radanovich, CA-19
Mr. Walter Jones, NC-03, Vice Chairman
Mr. Mac Thornberry, TX-13
Mr. Chris Cannon, UT-03
Mr. Bob Schaffer, CO-04
Mr. Jim Gibbons, NV-02
Mr. Mark Souder, IN-04
Mr. Mike Simpson, ID-02
Democrats
Mrs. Donna M. Christensen, Virgin Islands, Delegate, Ranking Minority Member
Mr. Dale Kildee, MI-09
Mr. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, American Samoa, Delegate
Mr. Frank Pallone, Jr., New Jersey 6th
Mr. Tom Udall, NM-03
Mr. Mark Udall, CO-02
Mr. Rush Holt, NJ-12
Mr. James P. McGovern, MA-03
Mr. Anibal Acevedo-Vila, Puerto Rico, Resident Commissioner
Mrs. Hilda Solis, CA-31
Mrs. Betty McCollum, MN-04

-= March to ¡Save Moccasin Bend! =-
sunday, 30 september 2001 10am
from Moccasin Bend Mental Health Hospital
to the Federal Building downtown.
Save Moccasin Bend! t-shirts available: $10

Update: 2001 26 Sept

House panel passes Moccasin Bend bill
http://www.timesfreepress.com/2001/sep/26sep01/webMOCCASINBEND.html Wednesday, September 26, 2001
By Andy Sher, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Legislation creating a new national park on Chattanooga's historic Moccasin Bend passed a House subcommittee here Tuesday, but the bill continues to draw opposition from some Democrats and the National Park Service.

Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said he has "bent over backwards" to compromise and warned that if opponents prove "unreasonable," "we'll just have to move the process forward without support from some people."

The Chattanooga lawmaker said he remains hopeful the measure will pass the House. He said he hopes the Senate acts on the measure next year.

Earlier Tuesday, the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and Public Land approved the bill, which would create a national park on some 900 acres rich in historical significance for American Indian culture, Spanish exploration and the Civil War.

But the panel's ranking Democrat, Delegate Donna Christian-Christensen of the Virgin Islands, took the side of National Park Service officials.

Park Service officials contend park boundaries should include the state-run Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute, the public Moccasin Bend Golf Course and the privately owned WDEF AM radio towers.

Delegate Christian-Christensen said all three facilities are "inconsistent with protection of the area" and would be phased out within 10 years under the Park Service plan. She said Rep. Wamp's bill instead establishes a national historic site "that will be riddled with inconsistent uses that may be continued indefinitely."

The bill passed on a voice vote with Delegate Christian-Christensen voting no. Although the Virgin Islands is not a state, the House Parliamentarian's office said that under House rules established in the 1870s, territorial delegates can vote in subcommittees and committees. They cannot vote on the House floor, the office said.

A member of the panel, Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn., is a co-sponsor of the bill and voted in favor of it. He told colleagues the National Park Service is "not always perfect, and Rep. Wamp's bill is a lot better plan than what the National Park Service has come up with."

Melissa Kuckro, a legislative affairs specialist for the Park Service, said later that officials want guarantees the hospital and golf course will become part of the park at some point.

"Our concern is that we, for the rest of time, will have a unit that is only partially complete, and we would like to see in the legislation something more than what's here right now that gives us more assurance," she said.

Under one compromise included in the bill Tuesday, the Park Service would be able to acquire the mental hospital, golf course and radio towers -- should they ever become available -- without having to come back to Congress.

Chattanooga and Hamilton County own the golf course. It is leased to a private company. The lease expires in 2005.

Todd Womack, Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker's spokesman, said the city and county get a set percentage of the golf course's net profits, which last year resulted in $51,178 each for the city and county. Mr. Womack said the city has not made any decision about whether to extend the lease in 2005. The bill approved Tuesday also removes approximately 13 acres of WDEF property from the proposed park site.

WDEF AM/FM and WDOD AM/FM General Manager Gary Downs said the property needs to be omitted from the park. Mr. Downs said the four WDEF towers have been on Moccasin Bend since 1949. Relocating them is "totally impractical and virtually impossible," he said.

Just one week after Rep. Wamp lobbied for their support, Chattanooga and Hamilton County governments signaled support for the park Tuesday. Members of the City Council passed a resolution Tuesday supporting the creation of the park. Hamilton County commissioners discussed a similar resolution at their agenda session Tuesday. They will vote on it today. Meanwhile, Rep. Wamp said he remains optimistic that a Bush administration moratorium on new park acquisitions will be lifted next year. The administration has directed the Interior Department to resolve a backlog of park maintenance and repair issues.

"We're working to be first in line when that moratorium is lifted," Rep. Wamp said.

Staff Writers Judy Walton and Duane W. Gang contributed to this report.

E-mail Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com

(From TN IND Affairs list)

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