The Birmingham
02/03/04
VIVI ABRAMS
The Alabama National Guard plans to do a more thorough job of consulting American Indian tribes before construction projects that might affect historic land.
The guard recently held a week-long Native American Consultation Meeting in Birmingham to form a new process for the consultation.
Lt. Col. Brian Barrontine, environmental chief for the Alabama National Guard, said the guard has consulted tribes on a limited basis in the past. He said the Department of Defense has not given any clear guidance on how to consult the tribes, a federal requirement.
"We are taking the lead by going out and setting standards," Barrontine said. "We want to go and meet with each and every one of the tribes, share with them what our intentions are and gather their input."
The new process will allow input from all parties on the environmental and cultural impact that any future projects may have. Barrontine said about five months ago a project on Pelham Range in Calhoun County turned up 2,000-year-old artifacts, bits of rock used as byproducts of toolmaking.
"We stopped what we were doing," Barrontine said. "We said, `We want to make sure we consult on this.' Our mission in the environmental division is to enable our training and preserve our history at the same time."
Alabama is the ancestral homeland of many tribes that were pushed out by Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830.
The Poarch Band of Creek Indians is the only federally recognized tribe still in Alabama, but the Poarch and eight other tribes are recognized by the state.
Those tribes are the Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama, the Cherokees of Southeast Alabama, the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama, the Machis Lower Creek Indian Tribe, the Mowa Band of Choctaw Indians, the Piqua Sept of Ohio Shawnee, the Yufala Star Clan of Lower Muscogee Creeks and United Cherokee Intertribal.
Michael Gilbert, executive director of the Alabama Indian Affairs Commission, said the commission will play an advisory role in the consultation process.
"The federally recognized tribes have to be notified," Gilbert said. "The state-recognized tribes don't necessarily have to be notified. But we want to be notified, we want to make sure the tribes are notified."