Muscogee (Creek) Nation presents at national environmental convention

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2017

CONTACT LaTasha Monahwee
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Muscogee (Creek) Nation presents at national environmental convention

TULSA, Okla. — The Muscogee (Creek) Nation (MCN) presented at the 2017 seventh annual Tribal Lands and Environment Forum: A National Conversation on Tribal Land and Water Resources (TLEF) at the Cox Center in Tulsa, Okla.

TLEF is a forum to share knowledge, improve management and protection of tribal lands and human health. It offers opportunities for discussion of budget and policy issues as well as providing training sessions.

Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals Executive Director Ann Marie Chischilly spoke about the size of this year’s conference.

“This conference is really exciting because we have a truckload of people coming in from all over the country. This year we have around 450 folks,” Chischilly said.

Muscogee (Creek) Nation Environmental Services Director James Williams led a tour of MCN and was one of the opening keynotes at the conference as well as MCN National Council Rep. Del Beaver. Beaver was formerly the environmental services director.

“We were able to arrange a tour for them of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and also be one of their opening sessions. We were keynote speakers and so this is really good,” Williams said.

The MCN tour included stops at the Recycling Center, the Mvskoke Dome, the College of the Muscogee Nation and the Mound Building.

“A lot of them [the tours] went to places that have wastewater treatment plants, but on ours we stressed sustainability in building and energy efficiency, and so they were real interested in what we are doing at the tribe,” Williams said. “They were interested in what we are doing at the college with geothermal, with the Mound renovation, with the WIC building being a recycled building.”

Williams said his conference presentation touched on a raised garden bed project, composting, solid waste program and energy efficiency.

“It incorporated some of the buildings where we can do some energy efficiency measures to reduce energy consumption,” Williams said.

Williams said that environmental services are important because everyone is affected. “Anywhere we go the environment is going to touch us, whether we breathe the air, drink the water, have good land to build on, to live on.”