Effort to make Ocmulgee Mounds Georgia's First National Park and Preserve reintroduced in Congress
Federal lawmakers from Georgia reintroduced efforts to have the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park be the state's first National Park and Preserve in U.S. Congress.
Sens. Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, as well as Reps. Austin Scott and Sanford Bishop brought the bill back in both chambers.
Similar efforts were made to establish the national park and preserve last year but they did not garner enough support to become law.
'We made unprecedented progress last Congress toward creating Georgia's first ever National Park,' Ossoff said. 'I look forward to working alongside Congressman Scott, Senator Reverend Warnock, Congressman Bishop, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and local leaders to successfully establish Georgia's first national park.'
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The Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve Establishment Act would help preserve the area for its historical importance.
'The area is the ancestral home of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and has been inhabited continuously by humans for over 12,000 years. American Indians first arrived in the area during the Paleo-Indian Period hunting Ice Age mammals,' lawmakers said in a joint statement. 'Around 900 CE, the Mississippian Period began, and Muskogean people constructed mounds for meeting, living, burial, agricultural, and other purposes, many of which remain today and would be encompassed in the new U.S. National Park and Preserve.'
Warnock, Scott and Bishop are among a bipartisan group of lawmakers working to establish the area as the state's first national park, including Reps. Buddy Carter, Brian Jack, Hank Johnson, Nikema Williams, Lucy McBath, Rich McCormick, Mike Collins, Barry Loudermilk, Rick Allen, David Scott and Marjorie Taylor Green.
'Establishing the Ocmulgee Mounds and surrounding areas as Georgia's first National Park and Preserve remains a top bipartisan initiative for all lawmakers and stakeholders involved,' Rep. Austin Scott said. 'The Ocmulgee Mounds are of invaluable cultural, communal, and economic significance to our state, and I am committed to keeping this initiative moving forward.'
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