Five Minute Remarks by the Honorable Max Burns of Georgia

Five Minute Remarks by the Honorable Max Burns of Georgia

To the U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC

Renaming the U.S. Courthouse in Savannah for Tomochichi Mico of the Yamacraw

Mr. Speaker, there are many members of this body that deserve my state's appreciation for helping bring this long overdue bill to the floor, honoring the great Georgian and Native American leader Tomochichi. Congressman Steve LaTourette, Chairman of the Economic Development, Public Buildings & Emergency Management Subcommittee, and Subcommittee Ranking Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton were both instrumental in helping this bill advance to the floor. I thank them for their bipartisan leadership.

My Chairman on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Honorable Don Young, along with our Ranking Member David Oberstar, can be credited with moving this legislation on a priority track through the subcommittee and committee process, in a non-controversial way, to ensure it was brought successfully and without opposition to the floor of this House. I believe unanimous approval by this body to be of particular importance to the nature of this bill.

This bill renames the Federal Courthouse in my district the Tomochichi United States Courthouse. A glance at who this leader was, and what he accomplished, quickly demonstrates why his name deserves the eternal respect of his fellow Georgians and Americans. Mr. Speaker, I believe Tomochichi to be co-founder of the state of Georgia. And this bill will do much to reawaken the memory of this great man in the hearts of many Georgians, restoring the former public honors paid to this Mico - or chief - of the Yamacraw tribe by Georgia's Colonial leaders and government.

When English General Sir James Oglethorpe first landed on the shores on the Savannah River in 1733 to found the last of the British colonies, he was met by Tomochichi and his fellow Yamacraw at the foot of the bluff on which the city of Savannah was later constructed. And unlike the tragic history of conflict between settlers and Native Americans in the other colonies, Tomochichi brought lifelong friendship to the infant colony, granting the settlers permission to peacefully settle in the area. Among Savannahians, the hospitality of Tomochichi and his tribe are legendary to this day.

But Tomochichi's gifts to our state were just beginning. Thanks to his diplomatic skills, this Yamacraw leader was instrumental in convincing the other Creek tribes in the immediate vicinity to accept the fledgling colony as well. Without this political leadership, Georgia may well have perished in its infancy, with a hostile Spanish administration in what is now Florida intent on turning Native Americans against English settlers.

Tomochichi and family then traveled to England, where they met with the King and Archbishop of Canterbury. Upon his return to Georgia, Tomochichi successfully lobbied his new neighbors to establish the first missionary school among the Lower Creeks, recognizing education as the key to the future, as the two cultures became intertwined.

Tomochichi died at around 93 years old, on October 5, 1739, at Yamacraw Indian Village, just upstream from Savannah. Be before he died, he requested his body be buried in Savannah among his new friends. He was buried with full military honors in the largest public ceremony of the day, with cannons firing a final salute, and his old friend General Oglethorpe serving as a pallbearer. His body was laid to rest in the center of the city's main square, later to become Wright Square, with a traditional Indian burial mound atop his grave.

A century-and-a-half later in the 1880's, some shortsighted city officials allowed the mound to be removed, and another statue placed on the site. Admirers of the great chieftain responded by placing an inscribed granite boulder in honor of Tomochichi a few feet from his remains, but to this day, many believe that we owe our old friend more. Today, this body can help restore the honor and respect due this great American by renaming the Federal Courthouse in Savannah as the Tomochichi Federal Courthouse.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield the balance of my time.