The Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama won't grant access to its casino site for a ceremony on Thursday.
The tribe spending $246 million on a new Wind Creek Wetumpka. Opponents want to hold a prayer ceremony at the site, which is home to Hickory Ground, a Creek cemetery. “We traveled here from Oklahoma to perform a peaceful ceremony for our ancestors,” Wayland Gray, a member of Hickory Ground Tribal Town, said in a statement. “Their remains may have been excavated, but their spirits remain.” The tribe, however, says it already conducted a ceremony last year. Creek ancestors were removed at the site and reburied. Get the Story: