Nansemond

Last updated

Nansemond
Regions with significant populations
Virginia
Languages
English, formerly Nansemond
Religion
Traditional Religion, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Nottoway, Chowanoke, Chesapeake, Pamunkey, Mattaponi, Chickahominy, Meherrin, Haliwa-Saponi

The Nansemond are the Indigenous people of the Nansemond River, a 20-mile-long tributary of the James River in Virginia. Nansemond people lived in settlements on both sides of the Nansemond River where they fished (with the name "Nansemond" meaning "fishing point" in Algonquian), harvested oysters, hunted, and farmed in fertile soil. Today, Nansemond people belong to the federally recognized Nansemond Indian Nation. [1]

Contents

Gradually pushed off their lands in the colonial and following periods, the Nansemond struggled to maintain their culture. They reorganized in the late 20th century and gained state recognition from Virginia in 1985. [2] They gained federal recognition in 2018 after Congress passed a bill. [3] Many members of the tribe still live on former ancestral lands in Suffolk, Chesapeake, and surrounding cities.

Language

The Nansemond language is believed to have been Algonquian, similar to that of many other Atlantic coastal tribes. But only six words have been preserved, which are not enough to identify it. [4] The six words, which may have been corrupted in memory by the time they were written down in 1901, are nĭkătwĭn (one), näkătwĭn (two), nikwásăti (three), toisíaw’ (four), mishä́naw (five), and marímo (dog). [5]

History

The Nansemond people were members of the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom, which consisted of about 30 tribes, estimated to have numbered more than 20,000 people in the coastal area of what became Virginia. They paid fealty to a paramount chief, known as the Powhatan. [6] They lived along the Nansemond River, an area they called Chuckatuck. [6] In 1607, when a group of settlers led by the explorer John Smith arrived on the north side of the James River and established the settlement of Jamestown, the Nansemond were initially wary. [7]

In 1607, the Jamestown settlers began exploring the Nansemond River, following the river's oyster beds. Relationships between the colonists and the Nansemond, already strained due to Indian raids, deteriorated further in 1609 when a group of Jamestown settlers were sent to trade ratchets and copper for food with the Indians. However, the colonists never returned, prompting the formation of a search party. When the search party encountered some Indians, they informed the group that the missing colonists had been sacrificed, with their brains cut and scraped from their skulls using mussel shells. In retaliation, the colonists went to Dumpling Island, where the head chief lived, as well as the location of the tribe's temples and sacred items. [8] The raiding party destroyed the burial sites of tribal leaders and temples. Houses and religious sites were ransacked for valuables, such as pearls and copper ornaments, which were customarily buried with the bodies of leaders. [6] By the 1630s, colonists started to encroach on Nansemond lands. The two peoples had different perspectives on land ownership. [7]

Marriage of John Bass and Elizabeth

Members of the Nansemond tribe, mostly members of the Weaver and Bass families, c. 1900, Smithsonian Institution Nansemond.jpg
Members of the Nansemond tribe, mostly members of the Weaver and Bass families, c. 1900, Smithsonian Institution

John Bass, a colonist in early 17th-century Virginia, married Elizabeth, the daughter of the leader of the Nansemond Nation. After she was baptized into the established Anglican Church of the colony, they married on August 14, 1638. Bass had been born 7 September 1616; he died in 1699. [9] They had eight children together (Elizabeth, John, Jordan, Keziah, Nathaniel, Richard, Samuel, and William). Although Christianized, Elizabeth likely raised their children in Nansemond culture. The tribe had a matrilineal kinship system in which the children were considered to be born into their mother's clan and people.

Some Nansemond claim descent from this marriage. [6] Based on her research, Dr. Helen C. Rountree says that all current Nansemond descend from this marriage. [7]

William H. Weaver is sitting; Augustus Bass is standing behind him. The Weaver family were indentured East Indians (from modern-day India and Pakistan) who were free in Lancaster County by about 1710. By 1732 they were "taxables" [note: free blacks (generally free people of color) and Indians (Native Americans) had to pay a tax] in Norfolk County, and taxable "Mulatto" landowners in nearby Hertford County, North Carolina by 1741. By 1820 there were 164 "free colored" members of the family in Hertford County. In the 1830s some registered as Nansemond Indians in Norfolk County. Smithsonian Institution, "Nansemond Indians, ca. 1900." [10]

Affected by encroaching colonists throughout the 17th century, the Nansemond tribe eventually split apart. Those who had become Christians adopted European manners of living and stayed along the Nansemond River as farmers, still identifying as Nansemond. Those who did not convert, known as the "Pochick,"[ citation needed ] engaged in an unsuccessful war with English colonists in 1644. The survivors of the conflict fled southwest to the Nottoway River, where the House of Burgesses assigned them a reservation. By 1744, they had ceased using the reservation and gone to live with the Nottoway Indians, an Iroquoian-language tribe, on another reservation nearby. The Nansemond sold their reservation in 1792 and were known as "citizen" Indians. [7]

Restoration of Mattanock

Aerial View of Mattanock the Day After the 31st Annual Nansemond Indian Pow Wow Mattanock.jpg
Aerial View of Mattanock the Day After the 31st Annual Nansemond Indian Pow Wow

In 2013, the Nansemond reached an agreement with the City of Suffolk, which transferred about 70 acres (0.28 km2) to them from city-owned riverfront property along the Nansemond River, their ancestral territory. [11] [12]

The agreement was the result of many years of discussion. The City of Suffolk established a task force to consider the project, which supported giving the site to the Nansemond despite being composed mostly of non-Indians. The tribe had to supply detailed plans for the project, including drawings, and they also had to submit documentation to the Mattanock Town task force explaining the type of non-profit foundation that would be created once the deed to the land was given to the tribe. [13] Helen C. Rountree, whose research helped identify the location of Mattanock Town, helped the tribe, which planned to base their reconstruction on archaeological and other research. This would ensure that longhouses and other structures were built accurately to match historical dimensions. [13]

In November 2010, the Suffolk City Council agreed to transfer this land back to the Nansemond. In June 2011, everything stalled because of concerns that the tribe had with the proposed development agreement. In August 2013, the City of Suffolk transferred Nansemond ancestral lands back to the tribe. [14] That November, members of the Nansemond Tribe gathered at the historic site of Mattanock Town and blessed the land. [15]

The tribe planned to use this site to reconstruct the settlement of Mattanock and build a community center, museum, and pow wow ground, among other facilities. They planned to attract tourists by demonstrating their heritage. [16] This project was developed and negotiated between the tribe and the city over more than ten years.

However, the City included a development agreement containing a reverter clause in the land transfer. This clause stated that if the construction of Mattanock Town with a reenactment village for tourist attraction did not happen within five years, the land would revert to the city. In 2018, the Nansemond tribe gained federal recognition with a name change to the Nansemond Indian Nation. Despite having new funding opportunities due to their new status, the Nation was unable to meet the deadline for completing the tourist village requirement, and as a result, the city repossessed the property. [17] [18]

On May 15, 2024, the Suffolk City Council unanimously approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) allowing the transfer of the 71 acres back to the Nation. The Nation also informed the council of a shift in their vision for Mattanock Town to prioritize conservation and education over tourism. [17] [18]

Description

The Nansemond have about 400 tribal members. [16] As a "citizen tribe", they gained state recognition in 1984 [19] and federal recognition in 2018. The current chief is Keith Anderson. [16]

They hold monthly tribal meetings at the Indiana United Methodist Church (which was founded in 1850 as a mission for the Nansemond). The tribe hosts a powwow every year in August. The tribe has also operated a museum and gift shops. [8]

Federal recognition

The Nansemond and other landless Virginia tribes did not gain federal recognition until Congress passed a bill for it in 2018. A bill to recognize six Virginian tribes was introduced into both houses of Congress. It covered the following: the Chickahominy Indian Tribe, Eastern Chickahominy Indian Tribe, Upper Mattaponi Tribe, Rappahannock Tribe, Monacan Indian Nation' and Nansemond Indian Tribe. [20]

These landless tribes had each applied for federal recognition since the late 20th century through the regular process of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in the Department of Interior. They had difficulty showing cultural and political continuity since the period of their tribes' dealings with the colony and state. In part, this was due to racial discrimination by the European Americans, magnified by Virginia's having been a slave society. As the Nansemond and other tribal peoples intermarried with whites or African Americans, European Americans assumed they were no longer "Indian". But if the mother was Nansemond, she usually raised her children in their tradition. During the early 20th century, Virginia passed a law establishing a binary system of the "one drop rule," requiring each individual to be classified as white or colored (the latter covered anyone with any known African ancestry, regardless of other ancestry or cultural context). Administrators refused to acknowledge families who claimed to be Indian and generally classified them as black, destroying the continuity of records. By contrast, tribal members who were Catholic continued to be registered by churches as Indian for baptisms, marriages, and funerals.

Supporters of these tribes gaining federal recognition proposed a bill in 2003, the "Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act". In 2009, supporters again proposed this bill, and by June 2009, the bill passed the House Committee on Natural Resources and the U.S. House of Representatives. A companion bill was sent to the U.S. Senate the day after it was voted on in the House. That bill was sent to the Senate's Committee on Indian Affairs. On October 22, 2009, the Senate committee approved the bill, and on December 23, it was placed on the Senate's Legislative calendar. [21] [22] The bill had a hold placed for "jurisdictional concerns" by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), who urged they apply for recognition through the BIA.

However, the Virginia tribes have lost valuable documentation because of the state's passage of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, requiring the classification of all residents as white or black (colored). As implemented by Walter Plecker, the first registrar (1912–1946) of the newly created Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics, records of many Virginia-born tribal members were changed from Indian to "colored" because he decided some families were mixed race and was imposing the one-drop rule. [23] After more delays, the bill finally passed in January 2018, and six tribes in Virginia gained federal recognition.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powhatan</span> Indigenous Algonquian tribes from Virginia, U.S.

The Powhatan people are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who belong to member tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy, or Tsenacommacah. They are Algonquian peoples whose historic territories were in eastern Virginia.

The Golden Hill Paugussett is a state-recognized Native American tribe in Connecticut. Granted reservations in a number of towns in the 17th century, their land base was whittled away until they were forced to reacquire a small amount of territory in the 19th century. Today they retain a state-recognized reservation in the town of Trumbull, and have an additional reservation acquired in 1978 and 1980 in Colchester, Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nansemond County, Virginia</span> Former county in Virginia, United States (1646–1974)

Nansemond is an extinct jurisdiction that was located south of the James River in Virginia Colony and in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, from 1646 until 1974. It was known as Nansemond County until 1972. From 1972 to 1974, a period of eighteen months, it was the independent city of Nansemond. It is now part of the independent city of Suffolk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian massacre of 1622</span> Powhatan attack on the English colony of Virginia

The Indian massacre of 1622 took place in the English colony of Virginia on March 22, 1621/22 (O.S./N.S.). English explorer John Smith, though he was not an eyewitness, wrote in his History of Virginia that warriors of the Powhatan "came unarmed into our houses with deer, turkeys, fish, fruits, and other provisions to sell us"; they then grabbed any tools or weapons available and killed all English settlers they found, including men, women, and children of all ages. Opechancanough, chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, led a coordinated series of surprise attacks that ended up killing a total of 347 people — a quarter of the immigrant population of the Colony of Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monacan Indian Nation</span> Native American tribe

The Monacan Indian Nation is one of eleven Native American tribes recognized since the late 20th century by the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. In January 2018, the United States Congress passed an act to provide federal recognition as tribes to the Monacan and five other tribes in Virginia. They had earlier been so disrupted by land loss, warfare, intermarriage, and discrimination that the main society believed they no longer were "Indians". However, the Monacans reorganized and asserted their culture.

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe is a federally recognized tribe of Pamunkey people in Virginia. They control the Pamunkey Indian Reservation in King William County, Virginia. Historically, they spoke the Pamunkey language.

The Chickahominy are a federally recognized tribe of Virginian Native Americans who primarily live in Charles City County, located along the James River midway between Richmond and Williamsburg in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This area of the Tidewater is not far from where they were living in 1600, before the arrival of colonists from England. They were officially recognized by the state in 1983 and by the federal government in January 2018.

The Brothertown Indians, located in Wisconsin, are a Native American tribe formed in the late 18th century from communities descended from Pequot, Narragansett, Montauk, Tunxis, Niantic, and Mohegan (Algonquian-speaking) tribes of southern New England and eastern Long Island, New York. In the 1780s after the American Revolutionary War, they migrated from New England into New York state, where they accepted land from the Iroquois Oneida Nation in Oneida County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American tribes in Virginia</span>

The Native American tribes in Virginia are the Indigenous peoples whose tribal nations historically or currently are based in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rappahannock people</span> Federally-recognized Native American tribe in Virginia

The Rappahannock are a federally recognized tribe in Virginia and one of the eleven state-recognized tribes. They are made up of descendants of several small Algonquian-speaking tribes who merged in the late 17th century. In January 2018, they were one of six Virginia tribes to gain federal recognition by passage of the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattaponi</span> Ethnic group

The Mattaponi tribe is one of only two Virginia Indian tribes in the Commonwealth of Virginia that owns reservation land, which it has held since the colonial era. The larger Mattaponi Indian Tribe lives in King William County on the reservation, which stretches along the borders of the Mattaponi River, near West Point, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsenacommacah</span> Native homeland of the Powhatan people

Tsenacommacah is the name given by the Powhatan people to their native homeland, the area encompassing all of Tidewater Virginia and parts of the Eastern Shore. More precisely, its boundaries spanned 100 miles (160 km) by 100 miles (160 km) from near the south side of the mouth of the James River all the way north to the south end of the Potomac River and from the Eastern Shore west to about the Fall Line of the rivers.

Thomasina Elizabeth Jordan (Red Hawk Woman) (? – 1999) was an American Indian (Wampanoag) activist who became the first American Indian to serve in the United States Electoral College in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cockacoeske</span>

Cockacoeske was a 17th-century leader of the Pamunkey tribe in what is now the U.S. state of Virginia. During her thirty-year reign, she worked with the English colony of Virginia, trying to recapture the former power of past paramount chiefs and maintain peaceful unity among the several tribes under her leadership. She was the first of the tribal leaders to sign the Virginia-Indian Treaty of Middle Plantation. In 2004 Cockacoeske was honored as one of the Library of Virginia's "Virginia Women in History".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Powhatan Wars</span> 17th-century conflicts between Virginia colonists and Algonquian Indians

The Anglo–Powhatan Wars were three wars fought between settlers of the Colony of Virginia and the Powhatan People of Tsenacommacah in the early 17th century. The first war started in 1609 and ended in a peace settlement in 1614. The second war lasted from 1622 to 1632. The third war lasted from 1644 until 1646 and ended when Opechancanough was captured and killed. That war resulted in a defined boundary between the Indians and colonial lands that could only be crossed for official business with a special pass. This situation lasted until 1677 and the Treaty of Middle Plantation which established Indian reservations following Bacon's Rebellion.

The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the eastern upper Thames River valley of south-central Connecticut. It is one of two federally recognized tribes in the state, the other being the Mashantucket Pequot, whose reservation is in Ledyard, Connecticut. There are also three state-recognized tribes: the Schaghticoke, Paugusett, and Eastern Pequot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nottoway people</span> Native American tribe in Virginia, US

The Nottoway are an Iroquoian Native American tribe in Virginia. The Nottoway spoke a Nottoway language in the Iroquoian language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American civil rights</span> Legal, social, or ethical principles pertaining to Native Americans

Native American civil rights are the civil rights of Native Americans in the United States. Native Americans are citizens of their respective Native nations as well as of the United States, and those nations are characterized under United States law as "domestic dependent nations", a special relationship that creates a tension between rights retained via tribal sovereignty and rights that individual Natives have as U.S. citizens. This status creates tension today but was far more extreme before Native people were uniformly granted U.S. citizenship in 1924. Assorted laws and policies of the United States government, some tracing to the pre-Revolutionary colonial period, denied basic human rights—particularly in the areas of cultural expression and travel—to indigenous people.

The Weyanoke people were an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands.

References

  1. ↑ Speidell, Phyllis (June 3, 2023). "The Nansemonds Now". Suffolk News-Herald. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Secretary of the Commonwealth – Virginia Indians". The Commonwealth of Virginia. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  3. ↑ Robert, Wittman (January 29, 2018). "H.R.984 – 115th Congress (2017–2018): Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017". US Congress. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 31, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ↑ A Vocabulary of Powhatan, compiled by Captain John Smith, with two word-lists of Pamunkey and Nansemond from other sources. Evolution Publishing, 1997.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Waugaman, Sandra F. and Danielle-Moretti-Langholtz, Ph.D. We're Still Here: Contemporary Virginia Indians Tell Their Stories, Richmond, VA: Palari Publishing, 2006 (revised edition)
  7. 1 2 3 4 Dr. Helen C. Rountree, "Nansemond History" Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine , Nansemond Tribal Association, accessed 16 Sep 2009
  8. 1 2 Karenne Wood, ed., The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail Archived 2009-07-04 at the Wayback Machine , Charlottesville, VA: Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2007
  9. ↑ Sermon Book of John Bass, owned by the Nansemond Tribe.
  10. ↑ Heinegg, Paul (1995). Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware: Indian Families Bass & Weaver. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing. Retrieved December 24, 2019.
  11. ↑ Staff Reports (January 3, 2016). "Mattanock plods ahead". The Suffolk News-Herald. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  12. ↑ Agnew, Tracy (August 18, 2013). "Nansemond land transferred". The Suffolk News-Herald. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  13. 1 2 Bobby Whitehead, "Nansemond Indians seek to reconstruct Mattanock Town", Indian Country Today, accessed 16 September 2009.
  14. ↑ "Nansemond Indian Tribe Reclaims Native Land in Suffolk". publicnewsservice.org. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Tribe blesses land – The Suffolk News-Herald". suffolknewsherald.com. November 26, 2013. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
  16. 1 2 3 Tribal Leaders Directory. Tribal Leaders Directory | Indian Affairs. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://www.bia.gov/bia/ois/tribal-leaders-directory/tribes/nansemond-indian-tribe
  17. 1 2 "Suffolk to transfer 71 acres of land to Nansemond Indian Nation, settling years of debate". WHRO Public Media. May 16, 2024. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  18. 1 2 "City of Suffolk returns land to Nansemond Indian Nation". Suffolk News-Herald. May 20, 2024. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  19. ↑ Dr. Helen C. Rountree, "Powhatan History" Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine , Nansemond Tribe Website, 2009, accessed 16 Sep 2009
  20. ↑ "Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2003, 108th Congress bill S.1423" Archived 2016-07-04 at the Wayback Machine , introduced by then-Sen. George Allen (R-VA), not enacted.
  21. ↑ "H.R. 1385, Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act", GovTrack.us
  22. ↑ "Statement of Governor Kaine Submitted to the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs" Archived 2009-10-24 at the Wayback Machine Official Site of the Governor of Virginia
  23. ↑ ABP. "Baptist executives urge federal recognition of Virginia tribes". Baptist News Global – Conversations that Matter. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.