Poarch Creek Indian Tribe Pays Homage to Chief Calvin McGhee during the 2024 Festival of Flowers
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The Festival of Flowers was held on March 8-10 in beautiful downtown Mobile, Alabama’s Cathedral Square. Celebrating its thirty-first year, the Festival of Flowers showcases the best in horticulture and design with this year’s theme, “Make Your Mark.” Providence Foundation produced the event, with funds being dedicated to the purchase of advanced medical equipment for USA Health Providence Hospital located in Mobile, AL.
As part of the sponsorship, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Alabama’s only federally recognized Indian Tribe, had the opportunity to showcase a life-sized living sculpture for the event. Multiple departments from the Tribe created the display using native plants, including a sculpture of Chief Calvin McGhee, and designed it to incorporate culturally significant elements of Poarch’s past, present, and future.
The Poarch Band of Creek Indians Festival of Flowers team won the Judge’s Choice Award for their Chief Calvin McGhee display.
Chief Calvin McGhee (1903-1970), a distinguished leader of the Creek Nation East of the Mississippi, is remembered for his role as an activist and visionary. Together with numerous Tribal Elders, he laid the foundation for what has now evolved into the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
The mark these Tribal Leaders and Elders made is still strongly felt today. Their enduring impact enables us to embrace and preserve the Tribe’s culture and traditions, allowing them to freely express their truth as a sovereign Native American nation. Today, the Tribe actively participates in Mvskoke language preservation, traditional stomp dancing, cultural songs, and various other preservation practices.