[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 35 (Thursday, March 1, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E450-E451]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   THOMASINA E. JORDAN INDIAN TRIBES OF VIRGINIA FEDERAL RECOGNITION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 1, 2007

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Madam Speaker, last year representatives and 
leaders of Virginia's Native American tribes left their communities and 
flew to England to participate in ceremonies that were a prelude to the 
400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in America. 
Some of the distinguished Virginia residents who made this trip are the 
blood descendants and leaders of the surviving 7 tribes that once were 
a part of the Great Powhatan Confederacy that initially helped sustain 
the colonists during their difficult first years at Jamestown. 
Virginia's best known Indian, Pocahontas, traveled to England in 1617 
with her husband John Rolfe and was received by English royalty. She 
died a year later of smallpox and is buried in the chapel of the parish 
church in Gravesend, England.
  This year marks the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown. 
It would be a sad irony if the direct descendants of the native 
Americans who met these settlers, were still not recognized by the 
federal government. I, along with fellow Virginians, Reps. Jo Ann 
Davis, Bobby Scott and Tom Davis of Virginia, and Reps. Nick Rahall, 
Neal Abercrombie, Dale Kildee, and Frank Pallone are introducing 
legislation today entitled the ``Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of 
Virginia Federal Recognition Act.'' This legislation will finally, and 
at long last, grant federal recognition to six Indian tribes in 
Virginia: the Chickahominy Tribe, Chickahominy Indian Tribe Eastern 
Division, the Upper Mattaponi, the Rappahannock Tribe, the Monacan 
Tribe, and the Nansemond Tribe.
  Like most Native Americans, the Virginia tribes first welcomed 
western settlers, but quickly became subdued, pushed off their land, 
and, up through much of the 20th Century, denied full rights as U.S. 
citizens. Despite their devastating loss of land and population, the 
Virginia Indians successfully overcame years of racial discrimination 
that denied them equal opportunities to pursue their education and 
preserve their cultural identity. That story of survival doesn't 
encompass decades, it spans centuries of racial hostility and coercive 
state and state-sanctioned actions.
  Their story, however is unique in two ways. First, they signed their 
peace treaties with the Kings of England, and second, they suffered 
centuries of state sanctioned hostilities. Unlike most tribes that 
resisted encroachment and obtained federal recognition when they signed 
peace treaties with the federal government, Virginia's six tribes 
signed their peace treaties with the Kings of England. Most notable 
among these was the Treaty of 1677 between these tribes and Charles the 
II. This treaty has been recognized by the State every year for the 
past 329 years when the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia 
accepts tribute from the tribes in a ceremony now celebrated at the 
State Capitol. I understand it is the longest celebrated treaty in the 
United States.
  In the intervening years between 1677 and the birth of this nation, 
however, these tribes were dispossessed of most of their land and were 
too weak to pose a threat. They were, therefore, never in a position to 
negotiate and receive recognition from our nascent federal government. 
Last summer the English government reaffirmed its recognition of this 
treaty with the modern Virginia tribes.
  Their unique history speaks to the reason Congress must act to 
recognize the Virginia tribes. They have experienced what has been 
called a ``paper genocide'' and been persecuted by the Commonwealth of 
Virginia. At the time when the federal government granted Native 
Americans the right to vote, Virginia's elected officials were 
embracing the eugenics movement and began adopting racially hostile 
laws targeted at those classes of people who did not fit into the 
dominant white society.
  These actions culminated with the enactment of the Racial Integrity 
Act of 1924. This act empowered zealots, like Walter Plecker, a state 
official, to destroy records and reclassify in Orwellian fashion all 
non-whites as ``colored.'' It targeted Native Americans and

[[Page E451]]

sought to deny them their identity. To call yourself a ``Native 
American'' in Virginia was to risk a jail sentence of up to one year. 
The law remained in effect until it was struck down in the federal 
courts in 1967.
  For up to 50 years, state officials waged a war to destroy all public 
and many private records that affirmed the existence of Native 
Americans in Virginia. Historians have affirmed that there is no other 
state that compares to Virginia's efforts to eradicate its citizens' 
Indian identity. All of Virginia's state-recognized tribes have filed 
petitions with the Bureau of Acknowledgment seeking federal 
recognition.
  But it is a very heavy burden the Virginia tribes will have to 
overcome and one fraught with complications that officials from the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs have acknowledged may never be resolved in 
their lifetime. The acknowledgment process is already costly, subject 
to unreasonable delays, and lacks dignity. Virginia's legacy of paper 
genocide only further complicates these tribes' quest for federal 
recognition, making it difficult to furnish corroborating state and 
official documents and aggravating the injustice already visited upon 
these tribes.
  This wasn't corrected until 1997 when Governor George Allen signed 
legislation directing state agencies to correct state records that had 
deliberately been altered to list Virginia Indians on official state 
documents as ``colored.'' The law allows living members of the tribes 
to correct records, but the law cannot correct the damage done to past 
generations. Two years later, the Virginia General Assembly adopted a 
resolution calling upon Congress to enact legislation recognizing the 
Virginia tribes.

  There is no doubt that the Chicahomony, the Eastern Chicahomony, the 
Monacan, the Nansemond, the Rappahannock and the Upper Mattaponi tribes 
exist. These tribes have existed on a continuous basis since before the 
first western European settlers stepped foot in America; and, they are 
here with us today.
  I know there is great resistance from Congress to grant any Native 
American tribe federal recognition. And, I can appreciate how the issue 
of gambling and its economic and moral dimensions have influenced many 
Members' perspectives on tribal recognition issues. I think the 
circumstances and situation these tribes have endured and the legacy 
they still confront today, however, outweigh these concerns. We have 
made significant compromises to give the State the option to say ``no'' 
to gaming. Congress has the power to recognize these tribes. It has 
exercised this power in the past, and it should exercise this power 
again with respect to these six tribes.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.


cosponsors of legislation introduced by the rep. jim moran recognizing 
                          six virginia tribes

  The Honorable Jo Ann Davis; the Honorable Bobby Scott; the Honorable 
Tom Davis; the Honorable Nick J. Rahall II; the Honorable Neil 
Abercrombie; the Honorable Dale E. Kildee; the Honorable Frank Pallone, 
Jr.; the Honorable Robert C. Scott.

                          ____________________