Low Country Gullah Culture: Special Resource Study and Final Environmental Impact Statement

摘要

The Low Country Gullah Culture Special Resource Study (SRS) was authorized by Congress to determine whether or not the National Park Service (NPS) should have a role in preserving Gullah culture and if so, what that role might be. The enabling legislation for the SRS was introduced in 1999 by United States Congressman James Clyburn (D-South Carolina) and was authorized in the Interior Appropriations Act of 2000. This act directed the NPS to determine the national significance of Gullah culture, as well as the suitability and feasibility of adding various elements of Gullah culture to the National Park System. The standards used to determine national significance, suitability, and feasibility are listed in greater detail in Chapter 3. Under the guidelines of this study, the NPS was directed: to analyze the multi-faceted components of Gullah culture (known as Geechee in Georgia and Florida) using the established criteria for the study of areas for potential inclusion in the National Park System and to evaluate the resources of the Gullah/Geechee people and cultural landscape for potential national significance and to determine how these resources could be protected, interpreted, and used for the benefit of the Gullah/Geechee people and the general public and to make recommendations to Congress based on those criteria. Special resource studies generally focus on one site or tract of land that is being considered for protection. This study, however, focuses on the life ways and traditions of a living culture in the Low Country and Sea Islands, a semi-tropical area filled with palmetto trees and live oaks draped with Spanish moss that lies along the southeastern coast of the United States.