Speakers urge land exchange 'for the sake of our children'

By Rose Hooper

McCoy was one of 30 speakers at a public hearing Tuesday night on a proposed land exchange between the National Park Service and the Eastern Band.

The tribe is requesting from the NPS 168 acres of land known as the Ravensford tract, where they say they will build three schools. Additionally, the section would connect two areas of the reservation currently bisected by park land.

In exchange, the tribe would acquire and give the NPS about 218 acres in Jackson County located next to the Waterrock Knob Visitor Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

While Ravensford, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, might contain endangered frogs, salamanders, olive darters, lichen, moss or "whatever," no species is more endangered than the Eastern Band, McCoy said.

Council member Larry Blythe of Wolfetown supported McCoy's position.

"I understand that bugs, butterflies, birds, flowers, trees and plants all need to be assessed as part of the National Environmental Policy Act. But NEPA also needs to assess the human element - our children," Blythe told those gathered at the 40-year-old Cherokee Elementary School.

Speaker after speaker, including Eastern Band Principal Chief Leon Jones, urged officials to endorse the exchange "for the sake of the children." Tribal Council member Marie Junaluska of Painttown community appealed in her native Cherokee language.

Jones, a member of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park board of governors, said he was just as interested in preserving the park "as anybody in this room."

"I lead a nation and as that leader it is incumbent on me to ensure the future of our nation is taken care of," he said. "The only way we will survive is educating our youth.

"Right now my children - I say my children because they are all mine - are going to schools with dilapidated buildings, deteriorating facilities, leaking roofs, crowded classrooms... overall, poor conditions. We must build them new schools," said Jones, emphasizing that Ravensford is the best site for such construction.

"This is all about educating our children," agreed council member Brenda Long-Norville, who represents Cherokee County's Snowbird community. Noting in years past that the Cherokee had to "give up our lands," Norville took it one step further.

"I don't think the tribe should have to offer an exchange," she said. "I think the National Park Service should donate the land to the Cherokee for education."

Many of those who weren't in favor of the land exchange, like conservation instructor Jeremy Lloyd, urged NPS officials to "still help the Cherokee find a solution for their schools."

Acquiring Ravensford also offers the Cherokee a solution for reconnecting bisected areas of the Qualla Boundary, council member McCoy said.

"I can't tell you what a terrible feeling of isolation it is to drive past Ravensford every day... to know that part of our tribal land is cut off from the rest of the reservation," said McCoy, who represents that community."

"Our people need to feel connected; it fulfills a spiritual need for us," said Blythe. "Acquiring Ravensford will tie together a heritage we once owned and need to own again."

"The land belongs to the Creator. He entrusted this land to his children long before white man came," council member Tommye Saunooke of Painttown community said. "There is no better caretaker of the land than the Cherokee."

Exchanging prime bottom land like Ravensford for high elevations of Waterrock Knob is like trading "apples for oranges," said opponent Roger Turner.

But Chief Jones said the park is getting a better deal because the Waterrock Knob area is "pristine" compared to Ravensford, which has already been logged and housed a sawmill operation in the 1920s. Today the tract contains water and sewer lines, roads, transformers and power poles and other development, like the Oconaluftee Job Corps and a NPS housing project.

Ravensford also contains not just endangered species, but new species still being discovered, Turner told the crowd, which numbered about 130.

"We can't manage our natural species by paving over them... none of them occur naturally in asphalt," Turner said. To opponents who claim the land exchange sets a bad precedent, Russell Townsend, deputy tribal preservation officer, said this would not be the first tribal-NPS land exchange.

"You even heard it verified here tonight," Townsend said, referring to an opening statement from Patricia Parker from NPS Director Fran Mainella's Washington office.

"Do these names mean anything to you - Shenendoah in Virginia, Shoshone Territory in Wyoming, the Florida Everglades and California's Death Valley?" Townsend recounted other NPS land exchanges Parker mentioned and urged people to access the NPS website to learn about others.

Tuesday's hearing in Cherokee was followed by one Wednesday night in Knoxville and one tonight (Thursday) from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Blue Ridge Parkway Folk Arts Center in Asheville.

Following the "scoping" process and public comments, which will be taken through Feb. 28, a draft environmental impact statement is expected to be prepared by August. Public meetings and comment will then be held on the draft EIS, with a final decision expected in December.

The NPS has three alternatives: (1) to take no action; therefore, the land exchange does not take place; (2) to approve an even exchange of the Waterrock Knob site for the Ravensford site; (3) or to propose an exchange with restrictions in acreage, use or management of the land.

Written comments can be sent through Feb. 28 to the National Park Service, Southeast Region, Attn: Anita Jackson, 100 Alabama Street SW, Atlanta, Ga. 30303. E-mail responses will also be accepted: NPSlandexchange@saic.com.

Back to Archive: 02/14/02.