I didn’t know my family pilgrimage would take us to Margaritaville. I wanted to know more about being a citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation and I wanted my kids to know their ancestors, our family history, and what it means to be a Native person. And so I set out, with two of my kids, to find the answers in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.
We had been planning the trip for months. We intended to go last summer during the “Muscogee Festival,” part county fair, part pow-wow, part basketball tournament, and what I thought would be the perfect occasion to learn the real Muscogee culture. That trip got canceled because a freak windstorm passed through days before, knocking out power to our hotel, and setting my cousin on a determined mission to repair downed trees and damaged roofs.