Our community is moving forward together with the community who started it all for us in Macon – the Muscogee (Creek) Nation (MCN). Downtown Macon will soon feature street signs showing the translation of each street name in the MCN language. 

“It’s hard to fix what’s been wrong in the past, but all we can do is just make it better from here on out,” said MCN Principal Chief David Hill. “Educating who we are as Muscogee people and the language is part of it.” 

Principal Chief Hill, Second Chief Del Beaver, and other leaders with the Nation joined the Macon-Bibb community on Friday, September 13, for the announcement and unveiling street signs.  

“We came up with this idea when we were in Downtown Okmulgee at the Muscogee Nation Festival parade in 2022,” said Visit Macon CEO Gary Wheat. “As we purposefully work to forge a stronger and more restorative relationship with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, I’m proud to say we’ve found a way to showcase that to our residents and visitors.”  

Visit Macon is creating more than 100 street signs to be placed throughout Downtown Macon. The signs were made possible thanks to a donation from the Sheridan Family Foundation. 

“Our two communities are intertwined. We are bound together over the love of this sacred place. We are dedicated to working hand-in-hand to be stewards and shepherds of it,” said Mayor Lester Miller. “We are here today because the fire was lit together and spreading and inspiring others.”

The continued effort to bring the two communities closer is beginning as both work together to expand and advocate for the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park to become Georgia’s first and America’s next National Park. The Park is to be co-managed by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the Department of Interior.  

In December 2022, Mayor Lester Miller signed an Ordinance that was unanimously passed by the Commission to permanently raise the Muscogee (Creek) flag over Macon City Hall. The ordinance, which also places a land acknowledgement on the grounds of City Hall, symbolizes a growing relationship between the Macon-Bibb County Government, community, and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. That ceremony can be watched by clicking here.  

As the former capital of Muscogean culture, Macon-Bibb County and the Ocmulgee River still hold unique significance to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. It is their ancestral homeland and was largely in Georgia and Alabama. The Muscogee (Creek) were removed to Oklahoma during Indian Removal in the 1830s, where they remain today with their headquarters in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. The tribe is currently the 4th largest tribe in the United States with approximately 97,000 citizens.