Author: Alice Clark, Department of Plant Sciences
Treasurer- Tennessee Chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta
Each semester, Gamma Sigma Delta participates in a workday to help clean up the Native American Interpretive Garden here on campus. Members participate in a wide variety of activities, such as weeding, mulching, raking leaves, and other basic horticultural tasks. These workdays are a fantastic way to come together and serve the community.
The Native American Interpretive Garden is a cooperative effort between The University of Tennessee and The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians.
The goal of the project is to honor the Native American tradition dating back to 644 A.D. when the Woodland People used burial mounds as a way of burying and honoring their deceased. Additionally, the project is designed to enhance educational opportunities and the aesthetic beauty of the Indian Mound Park by adding additional native plants and interpretive signs.
The original design developed by Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design Professors Hendrik van de Werken and Don Williams has been updated and enhanced by Sam Rogers, registered landscape architect and associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences. Thanks to the early efforts of Professors van de Werken and Williams, the Indian Mound was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
