[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 27 (Friday, February 18, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E285]
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

                      Thursday, February 17, 2011

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the Thomasina E. 
Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act. This is the 
sixth time I have introduced legislation that would grant federal 
recognition to six Indian tribes in Virginia: the Chickahominy, the 
Eastern Chickahominy, the Upper Mattaponi, the Rappahannock, the 
Monacan, and the Nansemond.
  Similar measures passed the House and the Senate Indian Affairs 
Committee during the 110th and 111th Sessions of Congress. 
Unfortunately, both measures were ultimately defeated when the 
objections of a few Senators were not overridden.
  The impasse in Congress and the demeaning and dysfunctional 
acknowledgement process at the Bureau of Indian Affairs only compound 
the grave injustices this legislation seeks to redress. It also compels 
me to continue this cause and reintroduce this legislation today. The 
injustices extend back in time for hundreds of years, back to the 
establishment of the first permanent English settlement in America at 
Jamestown. For the Members of these tribes are the descendents of the 
great Powhatan Confederacy who greeted the English and provided food 
and assistance that ensured the settlers' early survival.
  Four years ago, America celebrated the 400th anniversary of the 
settlement of Jamestown. But it was not a celebration for Native 
American descendents 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 334 
years when the Governor accepts tribute from the tribes in a ceremony 
now celebrated at the Commonwealth Capitol. I had the honor of 
attending the one of what I understand is the longest celebrated treaty 
recognition ceremony in the United States.
  The forefathers of the tribal leaders who gather on Thanksgiving in 
Richmond were the first to welcome the English, and during the first 
few years of settlement, ensured their survival. Had the tribes not 
assisted those early settlers, they would not have survived. Time has 
not been kind to the tribes, however. 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 Commonwealth government during the 
first half of the 20th Century. It has been called ``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, and with fanatical efficiency, altered and 
destroyed the records of Virginia's Native Americans. Virginia's 
political elite sought to expunge the records of anyone other than 
themselves who could hold the claim that they were the descendent of 
Pocahontas. Pocahontas' marriage to John Rolfe created an uncomfortable 
circumstance for John Rolfe's descendents who populated Virginia's 
aristocratic elite and who maintained that all non-whites were 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 Commonwealth officials, and zealots like Walter Plecker, 
to destroy Commonwealth 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, Commonwealth 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 was not until 1997, when Governor George Allen signed legislation 
directing Commonwealth agencies to correct their records, that the 
tribes were given the opportunity to correct official Commonwealth 
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 to 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. But the federal government continues to act as if 
they do not.
  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. Under this legislation they cannot engage in gaming. The bill 
prohibits gambling on their lands. They find gambling 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 includes language 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.

                          ____________________