protect the great trading path

Also known as the Occaneechi Path, The Great Trading Path arose from a constellation of minor footpaths through the rolling hills of North Carolina’s Piedmont region. It was like an ancient highway, but even greater: a site of trade, cultural exchange and human burials for those who died along their journeys across the Southeast.

The Great Trading Path was selected for the World Monuments Fund’s 2025 Watch List, a rare honor that elevates endangered heritage sites worldwide, and supports the communities defending them against destruction and erasure.

VISIT THE TRADING PATH'S WATCH LIST PAGE

Surviving segments of the The Great Trading Path remain sacred sites to the Occaneechi community, yet recent industrial and commercial development threatens further erosion of this land’s cultural and ecological integrity while obstructing access to our ancestral landscape.

Insufficient recognition of the Path’s significance and the Occaneechi community’s marginalization in local and state decision-making processes compound these challenges.

*Photos by Roderico Y. Díaz, Iximché Media

CHECK OUT OUR TRADING PATH BLOG POST

Indigenous community members have been campaigning to demand that the City of Mebane take steps to formally consult and include our communities in land-use and city planning, and to recognize our historical and cultural contributions in meaningful ways.

SIGN OUR PETITION

stop buc-ee's gas station

Texas-based gas station chain Buc-ee’s is on a warpath to build 120-pump 64,000 sq. ft. gas stations across the country. North Carolina is their latest target.

After a year-long fight, community members booted Buc-ee’s from Orange County in 2021. Developers then slinked across the county line into Alamance, with a proposal to pave over 32.5 acres of the historic Occaneechi Trading

Path in Mebane, NC.

Despite mass public opposition, outcry by Occaneechi Saponi tribal citizens and warnings by health experts, the Mebane City Council approved the project.

7 Directions of Service and our partners in public health and environmental justice are exploring every avenue to stop Buc-ee’s from moving forward.

Timeline

December 2023 Mebane Planning Board, tasked with advising the city on development projects, votes against the Buc-ee’s proposal. Over a thousand community members write to the Mebane City Council asking them to block the project.

January 2024 Mebane City Council votes unanimously to approve the Buc-ee’s gas station, dismissing widespread opposition to the project and alarming data by health and environmental justice experts.

why we oppose

Environmental harms

Desecration of the Occaneechi Trading Path

Studies show emissions from the concentration of just 200 running vehicles can create harmful conditions for breathing. Buc-ee’s 25,000 estimated daily visitors will result in an air pollution hot-spot. The location is home to multiple schools, a church and low-income neighborhoods, and is already overburdened with heavy air pollution from semi-truck emissions and Stericycle, a medical waste incinerator.

Just 10 gallons of petroleum has the potential to contaminate up to 12 million gallons of water. Buc-ee’s will store hundreds of thousands of gallons of petroleum and hazardous chemicals underground, which risk soaking into soil, drinking water sources, and the fragile Back Creek of the Haw River Watershed.

Desecration of the Occaneechi Trading Path

The entirety of the great Occaneechi Trading Path ran from Virginia to Alabama, and a significant section of the path in Mebane, NC is threatened by Buc-ee’s.

The Occaneechi Trading Path was more than just a means for trade for Southeastern Native American communities. It was a way of sharing language, stories, technology and culture. It connected villages, as well as hunting grounds and ceremonial sites, such as burial mounds.

Those who traveled along the path would set up camp on elevated grounds and by waterways, and anyone who died while traveling would have been buried on site.

Working people deserve better

In 2017, a Texas court ruled Buc-ee’s repayment provisions in its employment agreements were illegal and likened it to “indentured servitude”.

Hundreds of employee ratings on popular job websites like Indeed and Glassdoor rank the chain lower than most major corporations, even worse than Amazon.

As local shops struggle to keep the lights on in our corporate-driven, globalized economy, Buc-ee’s inescapable billboards and cheap trinkets will only draw visitors away from downtown. As one elder put it, “when tourists are shopping at Buc-ee’s, they’re not shopping in Mebane.”

Phase out fossil fuels

Working people deserve better

An economy tied to fossil fuels is unpredictable and makes us vulnerable to foreign supply chain disruptions and conflicts. Renewable sources like solar and wind are more reliable and cheaper, and transitioning to them will help us avoid the worst of the climate crisis.

By proliferating their giant gas stations across the country full of Buc-ee’s-branded junk, Buc-ee’s is a dagger in our local economies and our momentum to transition to cheaper, renewable energy options.

Investing in locally-driven renewable energy is the way to achieve energy independence and to counteract the extreme weather conditions caused by the climate crisis.

protect the great trading path

stop buc-ee's gas station

Timeline

why we oppose

Environmental harms

Desecration of the Occaneechi Trading Path

Desecration of the Occaneechi Trading Path

Desecration of the Occaneechi Trading Path

Desecration of the Occaneechi Trading Path

Desecration of the Occaneechi Trading Path

Working people deserve better

Working people deserve better

Working people deserve better

Phase out fossil fuels

Working people deserve better

Working people deserve better

community opposition to Buc-ee's

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