Cheroenhaka Indian tribe celebrates corn, bean and squash in an Inter-Tribal Spring Pow Wow

The Cheroenhaka Indian Tribe is hosting an Inter-Tribal Spring Festival Pow Wow in Southampton County, Virginia, about 65 miles southwest of Richmond this Saturday. Hailed as “a celebration of the three sisters”, the event celebrates “the dance of corn, bean & squash,” according to a tribal flier.

Cheroenhaka (pronounced Che-ro-en-ha-ka) is the traditional name of the tribe which it still uses and prefers. It means “People at the Fork of the Stream.” The Cheroenhaka lived on the fork where the Nottoway and the Blackwater Rivers join. “Na-da-wa” was a derogatory term applied to them by an enemy tribe when speaking with the English and the name stuck as Nottoway. 

The tribe maintains an informative website (see picture above - lovely music when you click on it) that describes their ethno-history, culture and traditions. A tribal motto is: “Quaker-hunte, EE Sun-ke Was-we-kr (Creator, My Heart Sees, Hears and Speaks).

In addition to the inter-tribal Pow Wow, the tribe holds a “Ke-to-ok-neh” (Pow Wow celebrating the Green Corn Harvest) the fourth weekend every July at the Southampton County Fairgrounds in Courtland, Virginia.

For details on this Saturday’s Pow Wow, see: http://www.examiner.com/day-trips-in-richmond/virginia-indian-tribe-celebrates-the-three-sisters-corn-bean-and-squash

Rappahannock Indian Tribe of Virginia

“Welcome to the land of the Rappahannock Indians” – that’s how the Rappahannock Indian Tribe describes their homeland around the Rappahannock River. That land is affectionately known as the “rivah” in local parlance, but it’s where the Rappahannock Tribe has lived for some 11,000 years.

The Rappahannock Indian Tribe is located south of the “rivah” these days on its old hunting grounds in the countryside near Tappahannock.  According to their website, the Rappahannock first met Captain John Smith at their capital town "Topahanocke" in December 1607 when he was a prisoner of Powhatan’s brother Opechancanough, and it was the Rappahannock who cleared Smith of suspicion of murder and kidnapping.

Smith came back the next summer and mapped 14 Rappahannock villages on the north side of the river, the tribe records. Because of the subsequent English settlement on the Northern Neck, the Rappahannock had moved to its present location by the late 1660s.

The Rappahanocks formally incorporated in 1921 and received state recognition by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1983. They are still seeking federal recognition.

Woman Chief

The first woman chief to lead a Virginia Tribe since the 1700s, G. Anne Richardson, a fourth generation chief in her family, was elected by the Rappahannock to lead their tribe in 1998. That same year the tribe purchased nearly 120 acres to establish a land trust, retreat center and housing development. They finished building a cultural center the previous year there in Indian Neck, Virginia, which is about 34 miles east of Richmond, and began construction on homes for tribal members.

Every October, the Rapphannocks host their traditional Harvest Festival and PowWow at their Cultural Center in Indian Neck which is open to the public. The Rapphannock Native American Dancers perform with the Maskapow Drum Group (“maskapow means “Little Beaver” in the Powhatan language).

For more information, or to buy a tribe t-shirt or make a fully tax deductible contribution, contact the tribe at: Rappahannock Tribe Cultural Center, 5036 Indian Neck Road, Indian Neck, VA 23148 or call  (804) 769-0260 or email: info@rappahannocktribe.org or visit their website at http://www.rappahannocktribe.org/

Other articles in this series on Virginia Indians include:

http://www.examiner.com/day-trips-in-richmond/chickahominy-indian-tribe-lives-on-ancestral-land-virginia

http://www.examiner.com/day-trips-in-richmond/upper-mattaponi-indian-tribe-persists-into-the-21st-century

http://www.examiner.com/day-trips-in-richmond/mattaponi-indian-tribe-s-mission-is-sustainability-and-harmony

http://www.examiner.com/day-trips-in-richmond/pamunkey-indians-seek-federal-recognition-for-the-tribe-of-chief-powhatan

Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe persists into the 21st century

The Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe has been living in the same location for over four centuries – on the upper Mattaponi River in Virginia up river from the Mattaponi Indian Reservation.

This band of Indians did not belong to the reservation and is distinctly identified in 17^th century records in a settlement that later became known as Adamstown, probably named after a British interpreter working with them in the early 18^th century. They own 32 acres there today.

Grouped with the neighboring Pamunkey Indians in the county educational system for years, the Upper Mattaponi got their own Indian school in 1917. It was initially a one-room schoolhouse providing primary instruction and limited secondary education, and the Indian families had to provide the furniture. In 1952, the building was replaced with an eight-room schoolhouse.

Sharon Indian School operated until 1965 when the county’s three separate school systems – for black, white and Indian children -- were integrated. After segregation ended, the Indians were allowed to complete high school close to home.

Historical marker

“The students at Sharon Indian School had to attend other Native American, private, or public institutions, usually outside the Commonwealth, to obtain high school diplomas. Upper Mattaponi students – and students from the Rappahannock Tribe in the 1960s – attended school here until June 1965. It was one of the last Indian schools to operate in Virginia.”

The Sharon Indian School building today remains integral to Upper Mattaponi life in its use as a tribal center. The tribe hosts an annual pow-wow in the spring with native drumming, dancing, food and games that is open to the public. Next door is their church, the Indian View Baptist Church which was built in 1942.

The Upper Mattaponi Tribe officially organized in 1921 and was recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1983.

The Upper Mattaponi tribal grounds are located on Route 30 south of Route 360 in King William County.

Mattaponi Indian Tribe’s mission is sustainability and harmony

Mission: Build a sustainable community on the Chesapeake Bay that will extend the thousands of years of Mattaponi history and heritage and, in doing so, demonstrate to all people how they may live successful and rewarding lives in harmony with the earth.

The Mattaponi Indian Reservation was established on ancestral land in an1658 treaty with Virginia. Situated on the Mattaponi River, the tribe was identified by the name Mattaponi and at that location by John Smith in 1607. It was one of the tribes under the famous Chief Powhatan. The treaty requires an annual tribute payment to Virginia’s governor of fish and game which the tribe still honors along with their neighbors the Pamunkey.

Fishing has always been central to the Mattaponi’s culture, shad in particular. Today the tribe operates a fish hatchery started with a grant from the Virginia Institute for Marine Science. According to their website, “Each year the Mattaponi people return millions of shad fingerlings into the river, putting back more than they take away.”

Other buildings on the reservation include homes, a church, an Indian museum and a community building that once served as a tribal school. Land is held in common but plots are assigned for members’ use.

Tribal Governance

The Mattaponi has its own sovereign government, the Mattaponi Tribal Council, made up of a chief, a vice chief and seven council members. The Custalow family has been prominent in tribal leadership for many years. The tribal roll has about the same number as were identified by the English in the 1600s, around 450 members, of whom about 60 live on the reservation.

The reservation, located in King William County east of Richmond off routes 360 and 30, consists of about 125 acres, part of it wetland, which they are hoping to expand. To this end, the non-profit Mattaponi Heritage Foundation has been formed to seek funding. Their dream of the Mattaponi:

 “Combining modern science with indigenous knowledge about the ecology of the river and bay, the Mattaponi people seek to show all of mankind how to live in harmony with the natural world while sustaining the highest quality of life.”

Pamunkey Indians seek federal recognition for the tribe of Chief Powhatan

           

The Pamunkey Indian tribe of Virginia has filed for federal acknowledgment as a self governed nation in Virginia. The tribe’s 1,200-acre reservation on the Pamunkey River in King William County is the oldest continuously inhabited Indian reservation in America. This is the tribe and the land where the famous Pamunkey Chief Powhatan once ruled, father of Pocahontas.

The tribe filed its petition with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs on Oct. 14, 2010 documenting how the Pamunkey has remained an identifiable Indian tribe with self-governance throughout the centuries of English and American rule.

Supporting evidence

Evidence supporting its claims of sovereignty include newspaper articles showing that the Pamunkey pay an annual tribute to Virginia’s Governor every Thanksgiving to honor their part of the 1646 and 1677 treaties. In full tribal dress, they come to Richmond bearing gifts of wild game like deer or turkey along with traditional pottery. It’s said that they have never missed a payment since the treaties were signed hundreds of years ago.

Federal acknowledgement would establish a government to government relationship and provide access to federal services and benefits for the some 200 tribal members.

Open to the public

The Pamunkey reservation is about 50 miles east of Richmond and is open to the public on weekends, 10-4 Friday and Saturday and 1-4 on Sunday. A museum and gift shop sells many Pamunkey handcrafted items including pottery that is made using centuries-old techniques with clay dug from the Pamunkey River. The tribe has also constructed a miniature village and railroad depot on the reservation.

According to the Pamunkey’s website, their “museum is the only documented history of a tribe that has existed on its present homeland since the Ice Ages.”

Visitors can mapquest the reservation at 175 Lay Landing Road in King William, Virginia 23086.

The Pamunkey were the largest tribe in the Algonquian Powhatan Confederacy. It was the Pamunkey who gave gifts of food to the Jamestown settlers in 1607 and kept them from starving that winter. It is one of only two tribes that still retain reservation lands assigned by the 1646 and 1677 treaties, the nearby Mattaponi being the other.