RALEIGH, N.C. — Native American communities across North Carolina continue to celebrate their culture and values. According to the American Indian Center at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, the state is home to eight tribes and four urban Indian organizations.

What You Need To Know

  •  The Cultural Interpretation Plan process began in Dec. 2022

  •  This plan will highlight the stories and histories of Dorothea Dix Park, including Native American history

  •  The Dix Park Conservancy is helping to bring this plan to life

  • The group hopes to have a final plan sometime between March and June 2024

The City of Raleigh recognizes the Dorothea Dix Park site as “broad contemporary” Indigenous land, and the park has held the Inter-Tribal Pow Wow ceremony for three years, showcasing the legacy and culture of Indigenous people living in North Carolina. But Dix Park is planning to honor Native Americans in a bigger way.

Trey Roberts, the community engagement manager for the Dix Park Conservancy, said he and the rest of the team are working on a Cultural Interpretation Plan.

Since the park is on Indigenous land, they are trying to understand the best way to honor the stories of Native American people and make the park a space for storytelling, reflection, connection and healing.

The plan kicked off last December and is expected to take 15 months. There have been planning sessions, events and outreach workshops during the process.

Roberts said he is excited to be a part of the planning and it’s a way he can contribute.

“I can use my resources in the Native community to make sure their voices are a part of the Cultural Interpretation Plan because we do public input; and I made sure to reach out to those communities and those community groups to make sure their input is being included,” Roberts said.

Roberts is a part of the Haliwa Saponi tribe and grew up in Hollister, North Carolina. He said his mother always made sure his family was immersed in their culture. He remembers going to their pow wow in the third week of April.

“It was always this enjoyable moment because you like had family that would come down from up North and it just felt like a big family reunion, and it was like a whole celebration all weekend,” Roberts said.

He actually helped bring the first official pow wow to Dix Park. The Hollister native said it’s one step to telling their story, but the Cultural Interpretation Plan is going to go deeper into telling Native American history, which can be forever seen at the park.

“The park’s history kind of matches the history of America and I just hope that people come in here and it shines as a cultural touchstone that educates people on some of the things that happened in the past, and, hopefully, walk away learning how to be better people and like how to treat people fairly,” Roberts said.

The Dix Park Conservancy is going to have a final plan sometime between March and June 2024.

The interpretation plan will also highlight descendants’ stories from those enslaved at the Spring Hill Plantation, stories from those who lived, worked, and received treatment at the Dorothea Dix Hospital, and it will showcase the landscape changes.