[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 41 (Monday, March 9, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E594-E595]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INTRODUCTION OF THE ``THOMASINA E. JORDAN INDIAN TRIBES OF VIRGINIA 
                       FEDERAL RECOGNITION ACT''

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 9, 2009

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Madam Speaker, in 2006 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 seven 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.
  Two years ago, this nation celebrated the 400th anniversary of the 
settlement of Jamestown. But it was not a celebration for Native 
American descendants of Pocahontas, for they have yet to be recognized 
by our federal government. Unlike most Native American tribes that were 
officially recognized when they signed peace treaties with the federal 
government, Virginia's six Native American tribes made their peace with 
the Kings of England. Most notable among these was the Treaty of 1677 
between these tribes and King Charles II. This treaty has been 
recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia every year for the past 331 
years when the Governor accepts tribute from the tribes in a ceremony 
now celebrated at the State Capitol. I had the honor of attending last 
November what is understood to be the longest celebrated treaty in the 
United States.
  The forefathers of the tribal leaders who gathered last Thanksgiving 
in Richmond were the first to welcome the English, and during the first 
few years of settlement, ensured their survival. As was the case for 
most Native American tribes, as the settlement prospered and grew, the 
tribes suffered. Those who resisted quickly became subdued, were pushed 
off their historic lands, and, up through much of the 20th Century, 
were denied full rights as U.S. citizens. Despite their devastating 
loss of land and population, the Virginia tribes survived, preserving 
their heritage and their identity. Their story of survival spans four 
centuries of racial hostility and coercive state and state-sanctioned 
actions.
  The Virginia tribes' history, however, diverges from that of most 
Native Americans in two unique ways. The first explains why the 
Virginia tribes were never recognized by the federal government; the 
second explains why congressional action is needed today. First, by the 
time the federal government was established in 1789, the Virginia 
tribes were in no position to seek recognition. They had already lost 
control of their land, withdrawn into isolated communities and stripped 
of most of their rights. Lacking even the rights granted by the English 
Kings, and our own Bill of Rights, federal recognition was nowhere 
within their reach.
  The second unique circumstance for the Virginia tribes is what they 
experienced at the hands of the state government during the first half 
of the 20th Century. It has been called a ``paper genocide.'' At a time 
when the federal government granted Native Americans the right to vote, 
Virginia's elected officials adopted racially hostile laws targeted at 
those classes of people who did not fit into the dominant white 
society. The fact that some of Virginia's ruling elite claimed to be 
blood descendants of Pocahontas in their view meant that no one else in 
Virginia could make a claim they were Native American and a descendant 
of Pocahontas' people. To do so would mean that Virginia's ruling elite 
were what they decreed all non-whites to be: part of ``the inferior 
Negroid race.''
  With great hypocrisy, Virginia's ruling elite pushed policies that 
culminated with the enactment of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. This 
act directed state officials, and zealots like Walter Plecker, to 
destroy state and local courthouse records and reclassify in Orwellian 
fashion all non-whites as ``colored.'' It targeted Native Americans 
with a vengeance, denying Native Americans in Virginia their identity.
  To call oneself a ``Native American'' in Virginia was to risk a jail 
sentence of up to one year. In defiance of the law, members of 
Virginia's tribes traveled out of state to obtain marriage licenses or 
to serve their country in wartime. The law remained in effect until it 
was struck down in federal court in 1967. In that intervening period 
between 1924 and 1967, 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 no other state 
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 have 
acknowledged may never be resolved in their lifetime. The 
acknowledgment process is already expensive, subject to unreasonable 
delays, and lacking in dignity. Virginia's 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 them.
  It wasn't until 1997, when Governor George Allen signed legislation 
directing state agencies to correct state records, that the tribes were 
given the opportunity to correct official state documents that had 
deliberately been altered to list them as ``colored.'' The law allows 
living members of the tribes to correct their records, but the law 
cannot correct the damage done to past generations or recover documents 
that were purposely destroyed during the ``Plecker Era.''
  In 1999, the Virginia General Assembly adopted a resolution calling 
upon Congress to enact legislation recognizing the Virginia tribes. I 
am pleased to have honored that request, and beginning in 2000 and in 
subsequent sessions, Virginia's Senators and I have introduced 
legislation to recognize the Virginia tribes.
  There is no doubt that the Chickahominy, the Eastern Chickahominy, 
the Monacan, the Nansemond, the Rappahannock and the Upper Mattaponi 
tribes exist. These tribes have existed on a continuous basis since 
before the first European settlers stepped foot in America. They are 
here with us today.
  I know there is resistance in Congress to grant any Native American 
tribe federal recognition. And I can appreciate how the issue of 
gambling and its economic and moral dimensions has influenced many 
Members' perspectives on tribal recognition issues. The six Virginia 
tribes are not seeking federal legislation so that they can build 
casinos. They find this assertion offensive to their moral beliefs. 
They are seeking federal recognition because it is an urgent matter of 
justice and because elder members of their tribes, who were denied a 
public education and the economic opportunities available to most 
Americans, are suffering and should be entitled to the federal health 
and housing assistance available to federally recognized tribes.
  To underscore this point, the legislation I am introducing includes 
language approved last session by the House of Representatives that 
would prevent the tribes from engaging in gaming on their federal land 
even if everyone else in Virginia were allowed to engage in Class III 
casino-type gaming.
  In the name of decency, fairness and humanity, I urge my colleagues 
to support this legislation and bring closure to centuries of injustice 
Virginia's Native American tribes have experienced.

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