By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
Once again, a bill that would place 76 acres of land containing several Cherokee historic sites in eastern Tennessee in trust for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) has passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Historic Lands Reacquisition Act, H.R. 548, passed the House on Tuesday, Feb. 7 by a unanimous voice vote.
A bill that would place 76 acres of land containing several Cherokee historic sites, such as the Chota Memorial pictured, in eastern Tennessee in trust for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Historic Lands Reacquisition Act (H.R. 548) passed the House by a unanimous voice vote on Tuesday, Feb. 7. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photo)
“For the fourth Congress in a row, the House passed my bill to return 76.1 acres of sacred land to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians – correcting a historic wrong when the federal government forcibly took their land,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), said in a statement.
Rep. Fleischmann, who introduced the legislation on Jan. 26, added, “It is on these 76 sacred acres the Cherokee people have honored the birth and life of Sequoyah, one of the most influential and important Native Americans to have lived. It is essential that the land is returned to the Eastern Band of Cherokee, so the legacy of Sequoyah and the Eastern Band is taught for generations to come. I hope my colleagues in the Senate recognize the crucial importance of returning and preserving this sacred land and act quickly to send the bill to President Biden for his signature.”
The bill was received in the Senate, read twice, and referred to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Tuesday, Feb. 7.
Principal Chief Richard G. Sneed told the One Feather, “We are pleased with the passing of the Historic Tennessee Lands bill that would take the Overhill towns of Tanasi and Chota into trust. This is the fourth time a version of this bill has passed. Unfortunately, the previous bills died in the Senate as a result of opposition from our own North Carolina Senators. We are hopeful that will not be the case this time around, and instead, that a promise by the federal government to take the land into trust will be fulfilled some 40 years after the fact.”
According to language in the bill, the 76 acres includes approximately 46 acres at the site of the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, around 18.2 acres which includes the Chota Memorial and the Tanasi Memorial, and another 11.2 acres known as “support parcel”. Also included in the bill are permanent easements for the Chota Peninsula, which includes 8.5 acres, and the Chota-Tanasi Trail which has 11.4 acres.
Charlie Rhodarmer, Sequoyah Birthplace Museum director, noted the importance of the area, “Tanasi was the first Cherokee capital in what is now this area of east Tennessee. It was set up by Moytoy of Tellico in the late 1720s/1730s. Moytoy was the first ‘emperor’ (spokesman) of the Cherokee. By 1753, Chota had become the mother town of the Overhill. During the eighteenth century, Chota was the political and cultural capital of the Cherokee Nation. It was known as a peace town.”
He added, “Chota was the longest existing Cherokee capital in the east before the Removal. Chota is center stage for Lt. Timberlake’s visit. Timberlake wrote his memoirs of his visit to the Cherokee Overhill, which gives us an incredible insight into Cherokee life in the mid-eighteenth century. By 1788, the Cherokee had moved their capital south to Georgia.”
The bill prohibits both Class II and Class III gaming from being conducted on these lands.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) would still maintain some authority over the lands. The bill states, “The Tennessee Valley Authority may temporarily and intermittently flood the lands subject to this Act that lie below the 824-foot (MSL) contour elevation and the road access to such lands that lie below the 824-foot (MSL) contour elevation.”
Subsections (f) and (g) in Section 5 of the bill outline more on the Tennessee Valley Authority. “(f) Right of Entry. – The lands subject to this Act shall be subject to a reasonable right of entry by the personnel of the Tennessee Valley Authority and agents of the Tennessee Valley Authority operating in their official capacities as necessary for purposes of carrying out the Tennessee Valley Authority’s statutory program for river control and development. (g) Entry Onto Land – To the extent that the Tennessee Valley Authority’s operations on the lands subject to this Act do not unreasonably interfere with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ maintenance of an appropriate setting for the memorialization of Cherokee history or culture on the lands and its operations on the lands, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians shall allow the Tennessee Valley Authority to enter the lands to clear, ditch, dredge, and drain said lands and apply larvicides and chemicals thereon or to conduct bank protection work and erect structures necessary in the promotion and furtherance of public health, flood control, and navigation.”
Previous versions of the bill included H.R. 2088 (117th Congress) which passed the House by a vote of 407-16, H.R. 453 (116th Congress) which passed the House by a unanimous voice vote, and H.R. 146 (115th Congress) which passed the House by a vote of 383-2. All of these bills died in the Senate.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on Feb. 24, 2022 on the previous bill (H.R. 2088), identical in language to the current bill. The report states in part, “The Act would require TVA to submit revised maps of those lands to the Congress and would prohibit certain types of gaming on them.”
The report then states “that compiling the information to revise the maps of the lands taken into trust would cost about $30,000 in 2022.” It adds, “…CBO expects that any increase in direct spending for mapping would be treated as an operating expense and recovered quickly in TVA’s rates for electricity. Thus, CBO estimates that the net effect on direct spending would be negligible.”
According to the report, the Department of the Interior would incur administrative costs to take the land into trust but that those “would not be significant”.
