Dr. Troy Smith examines the cairns in Georgetown, TN in June 2019.
Click Here to Read Dr. Troy Smith’s Full Report and Historical Assessment
Dr. Troy Smith is a professor at Tennessee Tech whose focus is Native American studies. He walked the Georgetown site where 15 stone cairns, to date, have been reviewed by two archaeological firms. TVA wants to put a transmission line right in the middle of the discovery. He says this of the site:
"Between the Trail of Tears roadbed and the cairns overlooking Gunstocker Creek, the cultural resources threatened by Project Viper represent a confluence of prehistoric and historic indigenous experience. Perhaps there are human remains beneath those cairns, perhaps instead they serve a ceremonial purpose with their directional alignment having celestial significance, or perhaps they served both purposes at once. In any of those events, the soil around them is sacred to their tribal descendants."
