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http://www.thedailytimes.com/dtmainstor/in81400.html
 
 >From the Daily Times:
 
Plan bypasses four Indian grave sites
Monday, August 14, 2000
 
By Iva Butler <iva.butler@thedailytimes.com>
of The Daily Times Staff
 
 
A modification of the Townsend road project that would go around four 
of the grave sites and encapsulate six other graves has been proposed by 
the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
 
A group of about 50 people protesting the roadwork or accompanying 
archaeology project were told about the proposal Sunday by Toye Heape, 
executive director of the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs in 
Nashville.
 
He received that proposal in a letter from TDOT dated July 7. Since 
that time, two more grave sites have been found, bringing the total found 
in the area to 12, said Charles ``Chuck'' Bentz, director of the 
University of Tennessee Center for Transportation Research.
 
U.S. 321 and Tenn. 73 are being five-laned from Kinzel Springs to the 
boundary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The discovery of old 
Native American villages and human remains on the site has led to 
widespread attention to the project.
 
TDOT first wanted to remove the bodies for reburial, but were told by 
members of the federally recognized tribes that once inhabited the area 
that the preference was to leave the graves undisturbed.
 
The tribes, TDOT and the Federal Highway Administration met March 30 in 
Nashville. Tribal representatives said the graves should be 
undisturbed, even if it meant building the road over the top of them.
 
 
`Some kind of chamber'
 
Heape said he has heard nothing from the consulting tribes on the TDOT 
proposal.
 
He also wants to know what TDOT means by encapsulating the graves the 
road would go over.
 
`` Presumably this would be some kind of chamber,'' he said.
 
Heape said that TDOT rarely changes its mind and that the support of 
the local Indian community is the reason they are now proposing to leave 
the graves where they are.
 
The TDOT proposal also states that ``resources and funds will be 
provided for appropriate commemorative and historic markers.''
 
Heape called the Townsend site ``a big, significant archeological 
site,'' that ``can answer a lot of the questions about the Indian occupants 
in this area.''
 
What Heapes said he would like to see is an interpretive center or 
museum that displays the artifacts, not bones, of the former inhabitants 
who occupied the area around 3,000 years.
 
Bentz said the earliest inhabitants probably were transient, whereas 
the
 
Cherokees of the 1600s and 1700s built permanent summer and winter 
homes about 200 feet apart all the way up the valley. Cornfields would be 
between the homes, he said.
 
Some protesters said they did not like the idea of building the road 
over the graves, but Heape said the tribes want them to remain where they 
were placed in death.
 
 
Difficulties ahead
 
Stressing that the most difficult part of the consultation meetings may 
lie ahead, Heape spoke of the natural `` tension between TDOT and the 
Indian community. Their concern is to build the road, not the burial or 
interpretive center.
 
`` For us to get what we want we need to keep on doing what we've been 
doing. I need to have the credibility of the local Indian community 
behind me when I go into these consultation meetings,'' he said.
 
Heape expressed concern that TDOT was asked at the March meeting to 
come back with several alternatives to remedy the grave situation, 
including building a bridge over the area, but now is only considering one 
proposal. ``What we agreed to was look at all the alternatives.''
 
He was also unhappy that there haven't been more consultation meetings.
 
Heape stressed that everything comes back to money.
 
`` America is in the beginning stages of having Native American 
concerns taken seriously,'' Heape told the group.
 
The local Indian community first was part of the Native American Indian 
Movement (NAIM), but disagreements caused that group to splinter off 
into two other organizations, TnAIM and Descendants of Native Americans.
 
Part of the reason for the meeting Sunday was to draw all those groups 
back together.
 
`` Unless we unify and put aside our egos and prejudices we can't 
accomplish anything,'' said Townsend resident James Yellow Eagle. ``We need 
to unify and be a watch dog on this project.''
 
He spoke of people turning on each other and spreading rumors.
 
`` We need to gain our pride back as a people,'' Yellow Eagle said. 
``We're not going to do that unless we become a political body that people 
have to talk to.''
 
Carl ``Two Feathers'' Whitaker, head of NAIM, agreed: ``It's time we 
unite back together and focus. We're only strong when we get together.''
 
Mark Abner of TnAIM stressed the need to be peaceful and avoid any 
violence.
 
Abner said the Native American descendants must speak for the dead 
ancestors.
 
`` Our ancestors are crying out from the graves and we're here for 
them. We need to find a way to build roads and buildings and Wal-Marts that 
don't disturb their journey in the spirit world.''
 

Overview of meeting

As far as the out come of this meeting , TDOT agreed to
Move the Road at 11 A.M. Monday 14 , 2000 ... At least from
the Grave Sites , and 6 Graves Will be EnCapsulated from
harm ... The Official Word < What Ever , That Means > is ,
that 12 Bodies have been found to Date ...
 
 A News Report last month said , " That the property 
where
the Trailers were about to fall off the Bluff , was miss
Survade and belonged to the State , The State then sed the
Properties ... " Tuesday TDOT paid the owners and Moved the

trails at full asseted value ...

Minutes of the Townsend meeting will be transcribed and posted as soon as we can get this done