A New National Park to Reclaim Indigenous Land | Tracie Revis | TED

In February of 2021, I landed in Atlanta, Georgia. To be back in Georgia, the ancestral homelands of my people gave me very mixed emotions. At that time, I was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I was serving as Chief of Staff to the Principal Chief of the Muskogee Creek Nation, the tribe who's indigenous to this area. And we were in Georgia that day for a meeting in Macon at the Oatmogee Mountains. This area of Macon grew up along the beautiful Oatmogee River. This area has over 17,000 years of human history and was the former capital city of our tribal towns, the Atlanta of its day.

2021年2月，我抵达了美国乔治亚州的亚特兰大。回到乔治亚州，我的祖先的故乡，给了我非常复杂的情绪。那时，我住在俄克拉荷马州的塔尔萨市，担任穆斯科基溪族酋长办公室幕僚长一职，这个部落是这个地区的土著人。那天，我们在乔治亚州马肯市的奥特莫吉山举行会议。马肯的这个地区沿着美丽的奥特莫吉河发展起来。这个地区拥有超过17,000年的人类历史，曾是我们部落城镇的首都，是当时的亚特兰大。

Now you would think that to be back in the homelands would bring feelings of peace and joy. But for many of us, there is still a deep rooted hurt connected to this land. A hurt that comes from knowing that your family were forcibly required to leave their homes. Yet everywhere you go in this state, you see our words, our language, that serve as a blueprint to this state etched on this landscape. Those like, Tawalaga or Dawalaga, Tybi or Dobby, Koita, Muskogee, Oatmogee. They serve as a whisper from our ancestors who are once here.

现在你可能会认为回到祖国会带来平和和喜悦的感觉。但对许多人来说，仍然存在一种与这片土地紧密联系的深刻伤害。这种伤害源自于知道你的家人被迫离开他们的家园。然而，在这个州的任何地方，你都可以看到我们的语言，它们像图纸一样铭刻在这片土地上。像Tawalaga或Dawalaga，Tybi或Dobby，Koita，Muskogee，Oatmogee。它们像是我们曾经在这里的祖先的低语。

Agalasen, Ujihaw, Ujihaw, Kedaw, Tracy Rivas, SAT, Sahay Saflani, SAT. Good morning. My name is Tracy Rivas. I am a Uchi woman and of the Muskogee Creek Nation. My Uchi name is Sahay Saflani. I am Dawalah, Oof Clan and come from the Polecat Ceremonial Ground. And you are all on my family's ancestral lands. Lands that I and others are working to reclaim.

阿加拉森，乌基哈，乌基哈，凯达，特雷西·里瓦斯，SAT，萨海·萨夫拉尼，SAT。早上好。我叫特雷西·里瓦斯。我是乌基族妇女，属于穆斯科基克里克族。我的乌基名字是萨海·萨夫拉尼。我是达瓦拉，乌夫氏族，来自臭鼬仪式场地。你们现在都在我家族的祖地上。这些土地是我和其他人正在努力要求回归的。

Now all too often, indigenous stories often have stories of colonization and forced removal. The Trail of Tears or the Road of Misery removed tens of thousands of indigenous people from their ancestral lands. The violence of the 1830s Indian Removal Act did not end when we made it into Oklahoma. And for many of us, removal is not that far removed. Its impact has stretched throughout generations. My grandmother, my father, my aunts and uncles were all sent to the government run Indian boarding schools. My grandmother, whose first language was Uchi, was only allowed to speak English in these schools and had to relearn her native tongue as an adult.

现在，很多时候，土著故事中常常有殖民化和强迫迁移的故事。眼泪之路或痛苦之路将成千上万的土著人从他们的祖地上赶走。1830年代印第安人迁移法案的暴力行为并没有在我们进入俄克拉荷马州时结束。对我们许多人来说，迁移并没有那么遥远。它的影响延伸至几代人。我的祖母、父亲、姑妈、叔叔都被送进了政府管理的印第安寄宿学校。我的祖母，她的第一语言是乌齐语，在这些学校里只能说英语，而且必须在成年后重新学习她的母语。

Now to be clear, we call these building schools, but they really serve as a place to silence the community and to steal the future culture from generations. And as the first generation of my family to not have been sent to these government run schools, I still did not escape the impacts of this trauma. But back to Georgia. So that day, we are at the Oat Mogi Mountains National Historical Park and we began to walk out to one of the mountainsides. And as we cross a bridge, immediately my heart skips a beat and I smell a medicine or a plant that we still use today and our annual ceremonies are eophane or our green corn.

现在清楚了，我们把这些称为建筑学校，但它们实际上是用来压制社区，窃取未来文化的地方。作为我家族中第一代没有被送去这些政府管理学校的人，我仍然无法摆脱这种创伤的影响。但回到乔治亚。那天，我们在燕麦莫基山国家历史公园，开始往山边走去。当我们穿过一座桥时，我的心跳加速，我闻到了一种草药或植物的味道，我们至今仍在使用，而我们的年度仪式是eophane或我们的绿玉米。

And immediately I am transformed because I know in that moment that my ancestors are still here. And it was like taking a black and white photo and turning it into color. It was vibrant and real and it was now. And as we began to walk out to another mountainside, I hear a voice inside of me that says, what would it feel like to ever live back in these lands, to be here in the homeland? And as we walk a little further into another mountainside, I hear another voice that says, we need to create a relationship with this community and we need to heal together.

我立刻就改变了，因为我知道那一刻我的祖先仍然在这里。就像把一张黑白照片变成了彩色一样。它是充满活力和真实的，而且是现在的。当我们开始走向另一个山坡时，我听到内心里有个声音说，如果能永远在这片土地上生活会是什么感觉，要在祖国待在这里吗？当我们走到另一个山坡时，我听到另一个声音说，我们需要和这个社区建立关系，我们需要一起疗愈。

Fast forward. One year later, I am now living in Macon, Georgia. I proudly serve as the director of advocacy to the Oat Mogi National Park and Preserve Initiative. I work every day to bring the tribal voice back to these lands and to make my nation, my tribe a co-manager all while creating Georgia's first national park and preserve. In September of 2022, the Oat Mogi Mountains had its first visit ever from a secretary of the interior who happened to be Secretary Deb Haalen, the first indigenous secretary.

快进。一年后，我现在住在乔治亚州梅肯市。我自豪地担任燕麦莫吉国家公园和保护计划的倡导主任。我每天努力将部落的声音重新带回这片土地，使我的国家、我的部落成为共同管理者，同时创建乔治亚州的第一个国家公园和保护区。2022年9月，燕麦莫吉山首次迎来了内政部长的访问，恰巧是首位印第安内政部长黛布·哈伦。

And that day, she's in Georgia to look at some land that we had just acquired and we were donating toward the expansion of the park. And as we go to look at this piece of land that is a very sacred piece of land, it was slated for industrialization. This land that was very sacred had been raped, over mined, stripped all the way down to the silt. And that day, I watched the secretary bend down and place her hand on the ground on an erosion scar. And it was in that moment that I knew that she understood what I had come to understand.

那天，她来到乔治亚州看一块我们刚刚获得并捐赠用于扩建公园的土地。当我们去看这块被商业化规划的土地时，这块土地非常神圣，曾被掠夺、过度开采，被剥夺到泥土都被剥离的地步。那天，我看着这位秘书弯下腰，将手放在一个侵蚀痕迹上。就在那一刻，我知道她明白了我所理解的事情。

And as we begin to walk back, she says, they are still here. Your ancestors are still here. And the land will bring back who and what it needs to heal it. To which I can only reply, yes, ma'am. If my journey has taught me anything, it's that if you take care of this land, it will take care of you. This land that brought me home, in the state of Georgia, we have zero federally recognized tribes.

当我们开始往回走的时候，她说，他们仍然在这里。你的祖先仍然在这里。大地会吸引回来需要愈合的人和事物。我只能回答，是的，女士。如果我的旅程教会了我什么，那就是如果你呵护这片土地，它也会呵护你。这片让我感到回家的土地，在佐治亚州，我们没有一个被联邦承认的部落。

But in the city of Macon where we have now created a relationship, we are seeing ourselves beyond the landscape. As we reclaim our names and our words, we are seeing ourselves in a part of the culture.

但在我们现在建立了关系的梅肯市，我们看到了自己超越了风景。当我们重新拥有我们的名字和话语时，我们发现自己是文化的一部分。

Recently, we passed legislation in the city that requires that our tribal flag, our sovereign flag permanently fly over City Hall. Thank you. And a land that we are never meant to return, this is extremely powerful.

最近，我们在市内通过了一项法律，要求我们部落的国旗、主权国旗永远飘扬在市政厅上空。谢谢你。这座我们永远不应返回的土地，这是非常有力的。

Today, as we continue to heal a community, this land is healing us. And with that, I say thank you. Madot.

今天，当我们继续治愈一个社区的同时，这片土地也在治愈我们。因此，我要说谢谢。马多特。 （即今天，我们在努力治愈一个社区的同时，也被这片土地治愈。谢谢。）