NewStandard: Virginia tribes fight for recognition

Wednesday, February 14, 2007  

"The Virginia state government plans to spend millions of dollars on educational and cultural events marking this year's 400th anniversary of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. The state will host Queen Elizabeth II and a replica of Godspeed, the English ship that carried some of the first colonizers, will retrace routes taken in 1607 on the James River.

For Virginia's indigenous tribes, however, the 18-month-long event is not a celebration of Jamestown's founding, but an opportunity to draw attention to historic and present-day struggles.

'What we're celebrating in 2007 is the survival of our people, and our traditions and culture after 400 years of almost constant hostile occupation,' Rappahannock Chief Anne Richardson told The NewStandard.

The ancestors of Richardson and other Native Americans living in Virginia were among the first to encounter English colonizers and the disease, oppression and racism that followed. But despite long and documented histories in Virginia, not one tribe in the state is recognized as sovereign by the federal government.

Without the federal status granted to 561 Indian nations across the country, Virginia tribes say that the US government continues to deny their existence and place in history."

Get the Story:
Virginia Tribes Continue Long Fight for Sovereignty (The NewStandard 2/14)

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