Tupelo, Miss., to help build road for Chickasaw heritage center

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) – Northeast Mississippi’s largest city is aiding the symbolic return of Indians who were evicted from the region nearly 200 years ago.

The city of Tupelo recently agreed to spend $20,000 to help build a road accessing land where the Chickasaw Inkana Foundation plans a heritage center.

The foundation preserves historic sites associated with the Chickasaw Indian nation. The center would be on 162 acres adjoining the Natchez Trace Parkway. It would need a road accessible to construction and commercial traffic, which is banned from the Natchez Trace.

The Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau pledged $1 million toward the center in 2016.

Chickasaws lived in northern Mississippi and adjoining parts of Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky until they were forced westward to Oklahoma following the Indian Removal Act of 1830.