Created in the mid 1980s, CFI focuses attention and resources on identifying and protecting former Native American occupations sites in the Southeastern United States.

Following is a timeline that details the work of the organization since its creation in 1986:  

1987 – Began public education programs designed to educate the residents of Northwest Georgia about the intensity and importance of archaeological sites in the area. The Foundation formed relationships with landowners in the Coosa River watersheds to help detect and report artifact looting activities and human burial desecrations.  

1988 – Raised funds and sponsored a University of Georgia summer field school at the Leake Site in Bartow County – a major ceremonial and political center during the Middle Woodland Period (100-400AD).  

1989 – Sponsored a second year of excavation and laboratory work at the Leake Site. In partnership with the University of Georgia, the Foundation also won a grant from the National Park Service to conduct archaeological surveys of the Etowah River Valley near Cartersville, Georgia.  

1990 – Completed a third year of field and laboratory research at the Leake Site. This project confirmed the origins of the ceremonial mounds dating to 100AD. Research also determined the nature of the Late Mississippian (1450-1550AD) component of the site and its relationship to the 16th Century Spanish expeditions of Hernando DeSoto and Tristan De Luna. Those expeditions contributed substantially to the dramatic changes to the cultures and populations of the Indigenous people of Georgia and the broader environs.  

This same year, the president of the Foundation served as chairman of the Georgia DeSoto Trail Commission. This year of 1990 marked the 450th anniversary of the DeSoto expedition’s travels through the Southeastern United States. Appointed by the Governor of Georgia, the Commission was tasked with helping bring public attention to this important historical event and its devastating impact on the Indigenous people of the era.  

1991 – Collaborated with UGA to gain a second grant from the National Park Service to conduct an additional archaeological survey in the Etowah River Valley. The 1989 survey revealed an unexpectedly heavy density of sites per square mile, and the second survey recorded additional sites not found during the earlier investigations.  

Began substantial collaborations with Native American groups in Georgia to find legislative mechanisms to discourage looting of Indigenous burials and occupation sites. 

Participated in the Cherokee Indian Homecoming event at New Echota Historic Site and also in South Carolina Archaeology Week.  

1992 – Co-sponsored another round of University of Georgia archaeology field schools. This excavation work, co-sponsored by the National Geographic Society, focused on the King site, a 16th Century village situated on the Coosa River west of Rome, Georgia. 

Working closely with multiple Indigenous tribal members, CFI led the effort to draft landmark Georgia legislation to protect human burials and archaeological sites in the state. The legislation passed with no changes to the Foundation drafts.   

1993 – Co-sponsored a final year of research work at the King site with the University of Georgia. The site has the distinction of being the only completely excavated site from the early European contact period, and thereby provides significant information about the devastating impact of Europeans on the Indigenous cultures of the 16th Century. In other research activity, the Foundation sponsored academic research of the early historic period of the Muscogee-Creek people in Georgia.  

Assisted local Georgians in acquiring and distributing more than 2,000 pounds of clothing to children at the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. 

Formulated a plan under which the Gordon County Commission applied for funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the construction of multi-use trails that would link important historic and prehistoric sites in the county as new public parks.  

The connected park plan, submitted under the Transportation Enhancement Activity (TEA) provisions of the ISTEA program, received the highest ranking among 64 projects reviewed by the Georgia TEA Panel, and the project received $3 million - the maximum award allowed under the program at that time.  

In 2004, James Langford, president of the Foundation and later head of the Trust for Public Land in Georgia, proposed the same pedestrian multi-use path model as a way to morph an Atlanta transportation plan into a connected park system that became the Atlanta BeltLine, the highly acclaimed urban renewal project that will continue to transform Atlanta for many decades into the future.  

1994 – Acquired GIS technologies (cutting edge technologies at the time) to assist the University of Georgia Department of Anthropology in accomplishing sophisticated mapping and analysis of information gathered from the King site. 

Other accomplishments in 1994:  

• Arranged and financed advanced laser mapping equipment for a State-led excavation project on Mound A at the Etowah Indian Mounds site. The excavations revealed very elaborate construction techniques of the original ramp and steps to the mound created sometime during the period 1100-1300AD.  

• Assisted the Society for Georgia Archaeology in launching the inaugural “Georgia Archaeology Awareness Week”. That “week” has now grown into Georgia Archaeology Awareness Month - celebrated and promoted each May by SGA. 

• Began the start-up phase of an educational project called the “River Corridors Initiative” which soon outgrew the Foundation sponsorship and moved on to be funded by other larger environmental groups. The initiative focused on preserving the natural environment and water quality within river corridors in Georgia. A high percentage of all archaeological sites in Georgia exist within one mile of all rivers in Georgia.   

• Governor Zell Miller appointed the president of the Foundation to serve as a private citizen on the State History Museum Commission – consisting mostly of state legislators and state agency directors – to define how best to design, build and operate a state museum of Georgia history and prehistory.   

1995 – Assisted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the Gordon County Sheriff’s Office in investigating the accidental discovery of human remains at a construction site near Calhoun, Georgia. This was the first test case of the new legislation drafted by the Foundation and passed by the Georgia Legislature. Later in the year, the Foundation helped conduct a five-day course to teach GBI agents how to locate and excavate human remains.  

Foundation officers participated in two study committees of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s planning project called Vision 2020, a planning effort to help define how the Atlanta Region will grow over the period 1995-2020.  

1996 – CFI organized and co-hosted with the Native American Consortium a historic summit of tribal leaders representing 26 American Indian tribes from all parts of the United States. The meeting was held at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta and featured attendance by former President Jimmy Carter and other Carter Center officials. The summit included discussions on a wide range of topics including education, health promotion, economic empowerment, and cultural preservation.  

CFI also worked with Gordon County officials and local community groups to propose and define historic zoning within the County. Helped organize opposition to a development of an expressway interchange near New Echota, the capital of the Cherokee Nation prior to the removal of the Cherokee from Georgia in 1839.  

1997 – In partnership with the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, the Foundation sponsored and hosted large meetings in Northwest Georgia of U.S. Senate and Congressional staff members, State of Georgia agency directors, local government officials, Chamber of Commerce officers, and regional tourism directors. The purpose of these meetings was to educate these leaders about the value of natural and archaeological resources in the area and to encourage their participation in programs aimed at protecting and promoting these resources.  

1998 – The president of the Foundation was appointed by Georgia Governor Zell Miller to the Georgia Board of Natural Resources which oversees all functions of state government related to environmental protection, historic and prehistoric preservation, state parks and historic sites, recreation, coastal resources and wildlife management.  

Other projects in 1998: 

• Began work as a co-producer of a documentary film project, “Our Landscapes”, which tells the stories of individuals who have powerful attachments to the land and are striving to preserve landscapes or ways of life associated with land. Co-producer and director, Barbara Ettinger, is an award-winning creator of documentary films. Filming took place in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, New Mexico and Arizona.  

• Received a large multi-year grant by the Educational Foundation of America and hired Dr. John Worth as first full-time staff member to help move the organization forward with structured educational programs. Dr. Worth hired other full-time staff members and organized a team of volunteers to assist with programs and processing of cultural materials recovered from archaeological sites.  

• Initiated a long-term education and research project at a 16th Century site on the Coosawattee River, the Thompson site. Moved the Foundation headquarters to the historic landmark Crane Eater House located on Red Bud Road east of Calhoun, Georgia.  =

• Launched intensive field and classroom education programs largely focused on K-12 schoolchildren. Working with the Northwest Georgia Archaeological Society, CFI involved parents of schoolchildren and the broader public in classroom and field instructional sessions.  

• Acted as project manager for Whitfield County for the restoration of the historic Chattageeta Mountain railroad tunnel in the town of Tunnel Hill, Georgia. The end result was a completely restored tunnel that acts as a historic educational facility for self-guided tours. The construction and opening of this tunnel in 1849 provided the railroad link from Atlanta to the Tennessee and Ohio River valleys that made Atlanta the transportation hub and economic power that it is today.  

• Began collaborations with Chieftains Museum in Rome, Georgia on a series of archaeological investigations and a range of educational programs for school and general public audiences.  

1999 – CFI acted as the lead negotiator for the acquisition of several hundred acres of the Resaca Civil War Battlefield – the first major engagement of Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign of 1864. The Battle of Resaca resulted in more than 5,500 total casualties for both sides combined. The battlefield property was ultimately purchased by the State of Georgia and is now managed by Gordon County as a historic park.  

2000 – The Foundation completed its third year as a major archaeology and cultural educational organization in the United States. During the three-year period 1998-2000, the Foundation taught more than 20,000 children and adults in classrooms and in the field – more than any other such organization in the US during that period. To accomplish such work, the Foundation staff trained more than 100 volunteers to assist in overseeing the field and laboratory activities of the organization.  

2001–2012 – CFI continued its work as: 

• A provider of classroom and field educational programs for schoolchildren and the general public.   

• A resource for local landowners trying to understand the nature of cultural resources on their properties and how to preserve the resources from damage due to looter activity or normal agricultural land alteration impacts.  

• A host for archaeological field schools conducted by the University of Georgia and Kennesaw State University.  

• A provider of field laboratory settings for the testing and improvement of new archaeological technologies such as ground penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetometry.  

2013-present – CFI provides a variety of services that include: 

• Conducting or facilitating public educational programs for the Northwest Georgia Archaeological Society, K12 school classes, and non-profit historic preservation organizations in Atlanta and North Georgia.  

• Acting as a consultant to a variety of organizations, including the Atlanta Braves, on issues related to fostering good relations with Indigenous tribes and helping dispel stereotypes about Indigenous cultures. 

• Providing technical support to cultural resource management (CRM) firms, universities, and other non-profits regarding cultural materials and sites in North Georgia. This includes acting as a paid sub-contractor for investigation of sites and evaluation of materials.  

• Interacting with the public as a subject matter expert and preservation advocate within relevant social media groups.