Muscogee Creek Nation renewed its legal fight against the Poarch Creek Band of Indians on Friday with a federal appeal alleging the tribe, along with Auburn University, improperly removed graves from a sacred site to build a casino in Alabama.

The tribal nation alleges that the construction of the Wind Creek Casino and Resort in Wetumpka occurred at Hickory Ground, a sacred site and capital when federal troops forced the Creeks out of Alabama. Workers removed 57 sets of human remains and the artifacts buried with them and stored some of them in containers without proper ventilation or temperature control, according to a lawsuit the Muscogee Nation filed in 2019. A federal judge threw out the lawsuit in 2021.

Today the Muscogee Nation asked the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta to reinstate the case against the Poarch Creek, Auburn University and several federal officials.

The Alabama-based Poarch Creek tribe failed to meet its obligation to ancestors of the Muscogee Creek Nation, said David Hill, the Muscogee Creek Nation’s principal chief in a letter sent last month to Stephanie Bryan, the Poarch Creek tribal chair.

“You made a promise to protect these lands and the MCN ancestors who remain there,” the letter said. “A promise that was broken when you removed our ancestors, stored them in boxes, and sent them off to a university to be studied by non-Indian archeologists. Some, still today, sit in a storage facility on site. You have yet to do right by them.”

Alabama is the ancestral home of the Creek nation and Hickory Ground is one of its most important sites. It was the tribe’s last capital before removal on the Trail of Tears, a brutal march to Oklahoma that claimed countless lives.

The mekko, or chief, of Hickory Ground relocated the settlement to Oklahoma. Members of the tribe marched more than 800 miles to the new location, according to the appeal.

“Although violently and forcibly removed from the sacred ground where they held ceremony since time immemorial, the modern-day members of Hickory Ground have kept the traditions, culture, and ceremonies of their Muscogee ancestors alive at the present-day Hickory Ground on the Muscogee Reservation in Oklahoma,” the appeal said.

The dispute between Muscogee Creek Nation and Poarch Band has been simmering for decades. When the Alabama tribe first built a bingo hall on the site in 2001, it unearthed remains and funerary objects. Archaeologists from Auburn University surveyed the site and helped store and remove some of the ancestors and objects, according to the complaint.

A spokesperson from Auburn University said they had no comment on the appeal.

Muscogee Creek Nation objected to plans to study and rebury the remains at another location. The appeal includes allegations that Auburn University violated the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which requires federally funded museums and universities to return ancestors and items buried with them to their descendants.

According to court documents filed in 2020, the Muscogee Creek believe that burial grounds are sacred and should not be disturbed. Hickory Ground Mekko George Thompson is the named plaintiff in the lawsuit.

“Four or five years ago, had an uncle that passed,” Thompson said in response to emailed questions from AL.com. “And he even told me that his grandpa was buried at Hickory Ground. So that means, we have a close connection there.”

In court documents, Muscogee Creek have alleged that Poarch Band Creek Indians do not have a direct connection to Hickory Ground and instead originate from land further south, near Atmore.

“That’s where our people came from,” Thompson said. “That was our aboriginal homeland. And growing up, our younger people, know that desecration or digging up a burial site is not the thing to do. Our tribal towns make up the Muscogee Nation. And that’s where we came from.”

The appeal seeks to stop further development of the land that is part of Hickory Ground and to have the Wind Creek Casino torn down. It also seeks to have remains returned to Muscogee Creek Nation.

“Although the Trail of Tears separated Mekko Thompson and the members of Hickory Ground Tribal Town from the final resting place of their relatives, the protection and preservation of the original Hickory Ground site remains of paramount importance to their spirituality, religion, and general mental health and well-being,” the appeal said.

Hickory Ground was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The Poarch Creek Band of Indians acquired the land the same year, in part with federal preservation grant funds, according to the appeal. In 1999, the Poarch Creek requested that the National Park Service delegate its preservation duties to the tribe and soon began planning to build a bingo hall that later expanded into Wind Creek Casino.

Muscogee Creek Nation first filed a lawsuit in 2012, but officials told the two parties to work out a compromise. That failed and the lawsuit resumed in 2019.

“The federal government refused to do its job and allowed Poarch to use federal funds to violate federal law,” said Mary Kathryn Nagle, an attorney representing the Muscogee Creek Nation. “Likewise, MCN asked Poarch to abide its promises to protect Hickory Ground. But Poarch, and Auburn University, refused to listen, and instead chose to engage in conduct that violates federal law and continues to cause serious, ongoing harm today to one of the most sacred and historic sites in the United States.”

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson dismissed the lawsuit in 2021. The Poarch Creek Band of Indians have qualified immunity because they are federally recognized tribe that cannot be sued for developing their land, according to his opinion.

Robert Miller, an expert on Indian Law at Arizona State University College of Law, said civil law offers broad protections against lawsuits for tribal governments. Thompson ruled that sovereign immunity applied in this case. Muscogee Creek Nation has argued that immunity doesn’t apply because Poarch Creek violated the National Historic Preservation Act.

“We fight for so many things, it’s just troubling when tribes fight among each other,” Miller said.

Poarch leaders could not be immediately reached for comment. Stephanie Bryan, the Poarch Creek tribal chair, issued a statement in 2019.

“It deeply saddens us, as extended family to the Muscogee Nation, that they have taken this unwarranted action against us,” Bryan said. “We have attempted to preserve historical remains in a suitable manner. In that effort, we have had numerous conversations with the Muscogee Nation and Hickory Ground Town in an attempt to balance the historical interests with the current use of the property. We wish that as family we could have reached a mutual understanding, and we continue to hope that we can move forward together.”

Reporter Mike Cason contributed to this story