THE PEOPLE OF THE BUFFALO:
A SOCIO-CULTURAL ASSESSMENT OF INHOLDERS
ALONG THE BUFFALO NATIONAL RIVER

by Kent Anderson
page five

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER TWO: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BUFFALO NATIONAL RIVER
CHAPTER THREE: THE PEOPLE OF THE BUFFALO RIVER
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSIONS
ENDNOTES
SOURCES
PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CHAPTER FOUR:
CONCLUSIONS

This investigation of the Buffalo National River was the fourth independent study of inholdings done by this author. In no other study was the mistreatment of inholders greater than that discovered in this location, In no other report, with the possible exception of the experience of inholders in the Mount Rogers National Recreation area, was the action of the government against a minority of its people more devastating. A peaceful and productive community of people with a cultural heritage whose roots precede the Civil War has been literally pushed away from the River they had cared for and loved.

Much of the report, as the reader may have noted, might be labeled "past history" and for this reason a professional historian was hired by the Institute for Human Rights Research. As history, the purpose of the report has been to document a previously-unrecorded human experience; a story of a people which has not been told before, and it is the hope of this historian that readers of this report have learned about the problems facing inholders within our National Park System. Most Americans probably have not been aware of inholders and their special problems in relation to the federal government and these investigations may provide new insights into human rights.

What appears to be especially baffling to someone who has looked at the history of the Buffalo National River was the seemingly unnecessary and unremitting haste with which the Land Acquisition Office moved aside the local population. After the passage of the BNR Act in 1972, the threat to the River in the form of a dam had been removed. "Floaters" were then assured of continued use and pleasure along the River, The following decade, though, saw a tone of urgency whereby many very elderly inholders were confronted by Land Acquisition Officers and other Park officials who demonstrated an absurd unwillingness to wait as if the presence of elderly inholders and small cattle farmers were somehow immediately threatening to the well-being of the River and to the enjoyment of those tourists who come to the Buffalo River, Words such as ''mission'' and "mandate" were often used by the Land Acquisition Officers as if they were conducting a military operation against a known enemy. Many land use options such as "lease-backs'' and scenic easements were not clearly explained to inholders. Fee simple acquisition was the "mission" of the LAO. All in all, there was a callous insensitivity shown up and down the River by the National Park Service to the local residents.

Part of the problem may have been due to the structural organization of the NPS in the area. There was a definite separation between the LAO from the Office of the Superintendent for the Buffalo National River. In fact, a Land Acquisition Officer told this researcher, "I don't work for the Superintendent." If it is actually true that on the NPS organizational chart for the BNR, there is no line of authority between the Superintendent and the LAO, then an organizational blunder has been committed. Logic would tend to dictate that the Superintendent, hopefully, would care very deeply about what the Land Acquisition Office was doing since it would be he (or she) who would have to live with the result of its actions, long after the LAO had closed. Another possibility remains which is purely speculative; namely that Superintendent's Office was deliberately put at a distance from the work of the Land Acquisition Office in order to claim noninvolvement or to deny responsibility of LAO action at a later date.

A spokesperson for the office of Senator Dale Bumpers told this historian that she believed she had seen an improvement in inholder-Park Service relations in very recent times. In a relative sense, this is true. Following the stewardship of Lorraine Mintzmeyer, who has since departed from the Buffalo National River, there has not been a Declaration of Taking used along the Buffalo in over two years and for whatever restraint has been shown by the National Park Service recently, much of the credit must go to Senator Bumpers. In another sense, though, events may appear calm recently because there are so few inholders left along the Buffalo River and the few who remain are quietly and patiently awaiting their long-overdue trials for "just compensation" for the loss of their land. So much of the damage to the people has been done already. In publicizing the past, it is the purpose of this report to, hopefully, prevent such violations of human rights in the future as occurred along the Buffalo River in the past several years. 1

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