Two Virginia tribal leaders are making their first official visit to England this week, nearly four hundred years after the first English settlement was established in Jamestown with the help of Virginia's Indians.

Stephen Adkins, the chief of the Chickahominy Tribe, and Ken Adams, the chief of the Upper Mattaponi Tribe, are going to England with members of the Jamestown 2007 commission. The leaders hope participation in the commemoration will raise their status and lead to federal recognition.

A bill pending in Congress would recognize the Nansemond, Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock and Monacan tribes. The tribes signed treaties with the British government and were later recognized by the Colonial government, which created some of the very first reservations in the United States.

Get the Story:
Va. Tribal Chiefs Set for Historic Trip (The Washington Post 7/10)
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Get the Bill:
The Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2005 (S.480)

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