Petition | Help Save the Ancestral Saltwater Geechee Lands on Sapelo Island, Georgia | Change.org

19.3.13

Petition | Help Save the Ancestral Saltwater Geechee Lands on Sapelo Island, Georgia | Change.org: Approximately 97 percent of Sapelo Island is owned by the State of Georgia and is managed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, while the remaining 3 percent of the island is under private ownership.

The Geechee Gullah people are the direct descendants of the slaves of Thomas Spalding who was the original landowner of Sapelo Island and following the conclusion of the Civil War, ownership of designated lands on the island were legally transferred to theses original freed men and women.

In 1983, Georgia law established the Sapelo Island Heritage Authority for the purpose of preserving the culture in the endangered historical areas of Sapelo Island. Since that time a severe erosion of Geechee Gullah culture and heritage has continued to the point that it is in a state of near extinction and extensive, unregulated commercial development of the island, without ethical review or oversight, threatening not only the Geechee Gullah people but also the island’s natural resources and wildlife.