More than four centuries after its warriors met the first permanent English settlers in America, the Pamunkey Indian tribe of King William County has won official recognition from the federal government.
The long-awaited decision by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs was officially announced in a brief news release issued Thursday morning.
Former Pamunkey Chief Kevin Brown learned that his people’s much-opposed petition had finally succeeded when Asst. Sec. for Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn called him late Wednesday — four weeks before he was scheduled to reveal his ruling.
“It’s been since 1982 when we wrote our first letter seeking federal recognition — so it’s been a long haul,” said Brown, who led the effort before his recent resignation.
“We’re happy. We’re elated. This is something we’ve been working on a long time. And it will make our regular July 4th cookout here a little more special.”
Though long recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia, the 200-odd members of the Pamunkey tribe are the first Indians in Virginia to officially be acknowledged by the federal government.
But that milestone nod came only after they spent years assembling the documentation needed to meet seven standards set by the government, including extensive genealogical records showing that their current members descended from the historical tribe.
“This work reflects the most solemn responsibilities of the United States,” Washburn said in Thursday’s announcement.
“Our professional historians, anthropologists and genealogists spent thousands of hours of staff time researching and applying our rigorous acknowledgment criteria to these petitions.”
Washburn’s decision was a defeat for numerous groups that had opposed the petition, including the Congressional Black Caucus as well as gaming and anti-gaming interests worried about the potential for constructing a gambling complex on the 1,200-acre Pamunkey reservation, which was established by treaties with the British crown in the mid-1660s.
But many historians and ethnologists long have argued that the descendants of the most powerful tribe to confront Capt. John Smith and the first English settlers at Jamestown deserved official federal status.
“The Pamunkey retained their original lands — their ancestral lands from the time before the English arrived — and they were the only group to do so. They’ve maintained their treaties with the government — treaties that go all the way back to the English and the 1600s,” said Buck Woodard, head of the American Indian Initiative at Colonial Williamsburg.
“If you want to know how important the Pamunkey and its leaders were — just look at how the English referred to them: They called them ‘The House of Pamunkey.’ And they’re still a special group today.”
Retired Virginia Department of Historic Resources archaeologist E. Randolph Turner II makes many of the same arguments, citing the tribe’s links to such historical figures as Powhatan, Opechancanough and Pocahontas.
Even as late as the 1670s, the Queen of the Pamunkey was considered such an important and influential figure among Virginia’s Indians that the government of British King Charles II commissioned an engraved silver frontlet as a gift to mark her signature on a new treaty.
“The Pamunkey were the most powerful and populous entity in the Powhatan chiefdom when the English arrived in 1607 — and they still retain their position among the Indians today,” Turner said earlier this year in response to an extended delay in the ruling.
“They have an absolutely phenomenal history — but they aren’t recognized.”
Both of Virginia’s senators — who are cooperating on a bill to extend federal recognition to an additional six Virginia tribes — hailed Thursday’s announcement as a historic milestone.
“I congratulate the Pamunkey Indian Tribe on finally receiving this long-overdue federal recognition,” Sen. Mark Warner (D) said.
Sen. Timothy Kaine (D) acknowledged the tribes that remain unrecognized, too, saying he hoped Thursday’s announcement would help spur the process.
“Despite the integral role the tribes played in American history and the unique cultures they have continued to maintain for thousands of years, they have faced barriers to recognition due to extraordinary circumstance out of their control,” he said.
“Today’s announcement is an important step toward righting this historical wrong.”
Erickson can be reached by phone at 757-247-4783.
