Speaker Bios

Bob Blankenship: From Cherokee, N.C., Blankenship is a member of the Tribal Council of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and has been extremely helpful over the years in supporting the Tennessee citizens’ efforts to protect the Little T River. When Rep. Duncan and Sen. Baker succeeded in passing an appropriations rider repealing all laws that blocked the dam, Blankenship was instrumental in carrying on a Constitutionally-based Native American Religious Freedom lawsuit, which also ultimately fell short. Blankenship is the President of the Museum of the Cherokee Indians and strongly advocates for the preservation of Cherokee Heritage and Culture.

Jeff Chapman: He was the go-to historian for citizens during the years of the darter case, from dating the age of the river (which he estimated at 200 million years old from the up-thrust of the Smokies) to the Late Woodland Indian cultures in the valley. It was Dr. Chapman who determined that the Little T Valley was one of only two places in the USA that had constant human habitation over 10,000 years. The other was Alabama’s Russell Cave, which is a National Monument but was never a cultural homeland for extended human communities, as was the Little T until it was eliminated in 1979.

Alfred Davis: Davis was a primary leader of the farm families’ opposition to the Tellico project in the ‘60s and thereafter, organizing local efforts and making numerous trips to Washington to educate politicians about the real issues of the darter battles over the dam. Davis was raised on a farm of 60 acres near the Little T River and also farmed on his father’s home place, which his great-grandfather bought in 1865. When TVA decided it wanted the land for Tellico Dam it covered about 30 acres of their river bottom, but TVA took 180 acres. When TVA offered $248 per acre, Davis decided to fight.

Dave Etnier: Emeritus Professor of Ichthyology and Conservation Biology at the University of Tennessee, Etnier is an expert on the fishes of Tennessee. In the summer of 1973, he was conducting a final biological “census” of the Tellico River when he spotted a little perch swimming along the river floor and knew it had never before been described. Later that day, he told a local farmer, “I think we’ve got a little fish that may save your farm.” He was almost right.

Sara Grigsby: Grigsby was one of the primary undergraduate student coordinators of university efforts in Tennessee to support the citizens’ defense of the snail darter and the Little T. She began her efforts while enrolled in the environmental law course taught by UT law students through the School of Architecture and ultimately carried the darter’s banner to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hank Hill: After serving as the named plaintiff in TVA v. Hill as a UT student, Hill has worked as a public defender and solo practitioner in Chattanooga. Hill has led the fight to preserve historical and environmental treasures in the Chattanooga area, such as protecting the watershed of North Chickamauga Creek, preserving Sunny Side Ridge from chert mining, saving the historic Walnut Street Bridge, and preserving Billy Goat Hill, an important Civil War site.

Ken Murchison: He is the James E. and Betty M. Phillips Professor at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center of Louisiana State University. He is the author of The Snail Darter Case: TVA Versus the Endangered Species Act (2007) and Federal Criminal Law Doctrines: The Forgotten Influence of National Prohibition (1994). He has also written environmental law articles analyzing the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and waivers of immunity in federal environmental statutes.

Pat Parenteau: He provided active support and advice to the citizen coalition defending the darter, the Little T River, and the embattled Endangered Species Act during the three years of the snail darter case's history in Washington D.C., in agency and congressional proceedings after the Sixth Circuit decision, in Supreme Court litigation, and as Vice President and counsel for the National Wildlife Federation.

Zygmunt Plater: As the attorney in the TVA v. Hill litigation, Plater argued the snail darter’s case before administrative agencies and in congressional proceedings and in federal litigation all the way to the Supreme Court, where an injunction was issued to save the darter. Since then, he has served as chair of the State of Alaska’s Oil Spill Task Force after the Exxon-Valdez disaster and has been a consultant in many environmental law cases, including Anderson v. W.R. Grace, which inspired the movie A Civil Action. He teaches environmental law, property, and land use at Boston College Law School.

Jean Ritchey: With her husband Ben, Ritchey lived on 119 acres of land in Loudon County in the Tellico project area since 1950, raising the usual farm crops and four wonderful children on their place there. Of their 119 acres, only approximately three acres were ever to be covered by the reservoir. They were finally evicted November 11, 1979. The family now lives and farms in Monroe County. Fighting to save their home and their land, the Ritcheys drove to Washington at least five times in the 1970s, testifying in congressional hearings, speaking with Members of Congress and staff from farm states around the U.S., and attempting to raise press awareness of the real-life issues in the citizens’ case for the darter.

Bruce Wheeler: He is Professor of History at UT and is in a unique position to offer an objective description in this symposium of TVA’s internal processes during the Tellico Dam chronology. With his colleague, the late Michael McDonald, Prof. Wheeler wrote an intensive prize-winning history drawn from literally thousands of TVA’s files, entitled TVA and the Tellico Dam, 1936-1979: A Bureaucratic Crisis in Post-Industrial America (1986).