Budget cuts hit 2 historic Cherokee sites

Tahlequah, OK

Budget cuts hit 2 historic Cherokee sites

The Vann House in Murray County, Ga., will not be open as often and will be staffed by fewer people because of state budget cuts. (Archive photo)

By Will Chavez
Staff Writer

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – Because of budget cuts, Georgia Department of Natural Resources officials recently announced that operations at two historic Cherokee sites would face reductions starting July 1.

The cutbacks would affect New Echota in Gordon County and the Chief Vann House in Murray County, along with 10 state sites.

GDNR public affairs coordinator Kim Hatcher said both Cherokee sites would be open Thursday through Saturday beginning July 1. Both are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Hatcher said the cuts allow all state historic sites to remain open.

Jack Baker, a Cherokee Nation Tribal Councilor and president of the National Trail of Tears Association, said the CN had heard Georgia planned to cut about 12 percent from its natural resources budget. He said that is why both the CN and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians councils passed a resolution in April during a joint meeting at Red Clay, Tenn., asking Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina to sufficiently fund the historic Cherokee sites.

“We knew likely there was going to be some cuts. What we had been told is that the Georgia Department of Natural Resources would have cuts of about 12 percent, but what they did is cut their historical sites by 39 percent and left the other recreational areas as they were,” he said. “So, the historic sites took the hit for the entire Department of Natural Resources in Georgia.”

GDNR officials said the cuts eliminated one full-time position at the Vann House and two full-time positions at New Echota. The lack of employees at both sites makes it difficult for visitors to understand Cherokee historical significance, Baker said.

New Echota served as the CN capital from 1825-32, when Cherokee leaders were forced by the Georgia government to move the capital to Red Clay, Tenn.

The Vann House was built in 1804 and was the residence of Cherokee leader James Vann and later his son Joseph Vann. The Vanns left the home during the forced removals of the 1830s. The Vann House marked its 50th anniversary as a state park and historic site in 2008.

Gary Greene was a New Echota tour guide and interpreter for eight years. His last day on the job was June 13. He said worked at New Echota because he has “always been interested in the Cherokee people” having grown up in Haywood, N.C., near the Qualla Boundary, home of the Eastern Band.

“I’ll miss the kids and being able to tell them what really happened. There’s so much to the history that I can tell them that they can’t get anywhere else, especially for this area in Georgia,” Greene said. “It (New Echota) means a whole lot more to me than when I started. It’s like a home. I identify with all the people. It has not been all glamour and glory. I swept floors, cleaned restrooms and painted buildings. I have given tours in the rain and frigid cold temperatures. But I told my stories.”

Greene said he hopes to work on a small guide about Cherokee history in Georgia and visit schools to present Cherokee history.

The $18.6 billion fiscal year 2010 budget signed by Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is $3 billion less than the 2009 budget approved in 2009. A nearly 39 percent reduction in state appropriations and 24 percent projected loss of revenue means 12 of 15 state historic sites were affected by cuts.

State officials said the General Assembly could restore funding to keep the historic sites open longer, but that would depend upon whether and how much the economy improves.

Baker said he would like to see restoration of employees and operating days at both historic sites, even if it means the two Cherokee tribes work together to help fund them.

“New Echota is an important site because it was our capital for so many years,” Baker said. “It’s where many decisions were made and where the Treaty of New Echota was signed. So I think it’s important to have the sites operating because they do tell the story of the Cherokee people that were in the area.”

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5 Total Comments (0 Pending Approval)

6/19/2009	These too, will disappear into the dust of history, unless we take charge, preserve and protect them and all other traces of our history. After all, wasn't this the intent of the white man...to erase the Native American.
yonagadoga

6/19/2009	6/19/09 Fri. It is important to maintain these historic sites in order to make the history of the Cherokee people known. Tahlequah's Fort Gibson stockade does not have memorial plaques to honor the Cherokee people who walked, rode and floated to the west on the "Trail of Tears." It is important to document the injustic done to the Five Civilized Tribes with the forced relocation. This is a part of American history that has been shuffled under the rug too long...genocide of the American Indian. The Cherokee people and other 551 American Indian tribes did not have the unity to protect themselves and their history. A guidebook on Cherokee and other tribes history in any area of the United States is important to remind the ones who follow of their existence in the United States first. We need to honor their culture, the language, the food, the art, the dwellings and communities; and the survival under very primitive conditions.
Millie.Sigman

6/19/2009	I am sure if Georgia government office would cut back some of their lavish spending, or share some of their wealth places like the Vann house would not be cutting hours or employees. History is what we need to know and learn from the past. Being a Vann decendent, and work on Vann house throughout the years has been amazing. So much love went into that home. Wado Connie Vann Wheat
agaliha49

6/19/2009	What a shame that historical place's of great interest, are cutting back on employee's, or closing. I pray that both Tribes will come together to help these place's. I just returned from the Eastern Band of the Cherokee's area, and each year, as I go back, I find something new of interest. I have been going to Cherokee, N. C., since I was small, for my mother was born in the Smoky Mountain's. I can find no other place, that I love so much.
irma_cash

6/26/2009	My husbands Granny's name was Louise Vann and she lived in Live Oak, Fl. She was married to Henry Vann who just passed away a few years ago and he was in his 90's. Could they be any relations to the Vanns in Georgia?
cmodom

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