Sec. 401. FINDINGS
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## SEC. 401 FINDINGS Congress finds that— ####
(1)during the initial months after Virginia was settled, the Rappahannock Indians had three encounters with Captain John Smith; ####
(2)the first encounter occurred when the Rappahannock weroance (headman)— #####
(A)traveled to Quiyocohannock (a principal town across the James River from Jamestown), where he met with Smith to determine whether Smith had been the “great man” who had previously sailed into the Rappahannock River, killed a Rappahannock weroance, and kidnapped Rappahannock people; and #####
(B)determined that Smith was too short to be that “great man”; ####
(3)on a second meeting, during John Smith’s captivity (December 16, 1607, to January 8, 1608), Smith was taken to the Rappahannock principal village to show the people that Smith was not the “great man”; ####
(4)a third meeting took place during Smith’s exploration of the Chesapeake Bay (July to September 1608), when, after the Moraughtacund Indians had stolen three women from the Rappahannock King, Smith was prevailed upon to facilitate a peaceful truce between the Rappahannock and the Moraughtacund Indians; ####
(5)in the settlement, Smith had the two Indian tribes meet on the spot of their first fight; ####
(6)when it was established that both groups wanted peace, Smith told the Rappahannock King to select which of the three stolen women he wanted; ####
(7)the Moraughtacund King was given second choice among the two remaining women, and Mosco, a Wighcocomoco (on the Potomac River) guide, was given the third woman; ####
(8)in 1645, Captain William Claiborne tried unsuccessfully to establish treaty relations with the Rappahannocks, as the Rappahannocks had not participated in the Pamunkey-led uprising in 1644, and the English wanted to “treat with the Rappahannocks or any other Indians not in amity with Opechancanough, concerning serving the county against the Pamunkeys”; ####
(9)in April 1651, the Rappahannocks conveyed a tract of land to an English settler, Colonel Morre Fauntleroy; ####
(10)the deed for the conveyance was signed by Accopatough, weroance of the Rappahannock Indians; ####
(11)in September 1653, Lancaster County signed a treaty with Rappahannock Indians, the terms of which treaty— #####
(A)gave Rappahannocks the rights of Englishmen in the county court; and #####
(B)attempted to make the Rappahannocks more accountable under English law; ####
(12)in September 1653, Lancaster County defined and marked the bounds of its Indian settlements; ####
(13)according to the Lancaster clerk of court, “the tribe called the great Rappahannocks lived on the Rappahannock Creek just across the river above Tappahannock”; ####
(14)in September 1656,
(Old)Rappahannock County (which, as of the date of enactment of this Act, is comprised of Richmond and Essex Counties, Virginia) signed a treaty with Rappahannock Indians that— #####
(A)mirrored the Lancaster County treaty from 1653; and #####
(B)stated that— ######
(i)Rappahannocks were to be rewarded, in Roanoke, for returning English fugitives; and ######
(ii)the English encouraged the Rappahannocks to send their children to live among the English as servants, who the English promised would be well-treated; ####
(15)in 1658, the Virginia Assembly revised a 1652 Act stating that “there be no grants of land to any Englishman whatsoever de futuro until the Indians be first served with the proportion of 50 acres of land for each bowman”; ####
(16)in 1669, the colony conducted a census of Virginia Indians; ####
(17)as of the date of that census— #####
(A)the majority of the Rappahannocks were residing at their hunting village on the north side of the Mattaponi River; and #####
(B)at the time of the visit, census-takers were counting only the Indian tribes along the rivers, which explains why only 30 Rappahannock bowmen were counted on that river; ####
(18)the Rappahannocks used the hunting village on the north side of the Mattaponi River as their primary residence until the Rappahannocks were removed in 1684; ####
(19)in May 1677, the Treaty of Middle Plantation was signed with England; ####
(20)the Pamunkey Queen Cockacoeske signed on behalf of the Rappahannocks, “who were supposed to be her tributaries”, but before the treaty could be ratified, the Queen of Pamunkey complained to the Virginia Colonial Council “that she was having trouble with Rappahannocks and Chickahominies, supposedly tributaries of hers”; ####
(21)in November 1682, the Virginia Colonial Council established a reservation for the Rappahannock Indians of 3,474 acres “about the town where they dwelt”; ####
(22)the Rappahannock “town” was the hunting village on the north side of the Mattaponi River, where the Rappahannocks had lived throughout the 1670s; ####
(23)the acreage allotment of the reservation was based on the 1658 Indian land act, which translates into a bowman population of 70, or an approximate total Rappahannock population of 350; ####
(24)in 1683, following raids by Iroquoian warriors on both Indian and English settlements, the Virginia Colonial Council ordered the Rappahannocks to leave their reservation and unite with the Nanzatico Indians at Nanzatico Indian Town, which was located across and up the Rappahannock River some 30 miles; ####
(25)between 1687 and 1699, the Rappahannocks migrated out of Nanzatico, returning to the south side of the Rappahannock River at Portobacco Indian Town; ####
(26)in 1706, by order of Essex County, Lieutenant Richard Covington “escorted” the Portobaccos and Rappahannocks out of Portobacco Indian Town, out of Essex County, and into King and Queen County where they settled along the ridgeline between the Rappahannock and Mattaponi Rivers, the site of their ancient hunting village and 1682 reservation; ####
(27)during the 1760s, three Rappahannock girls were raised on Thomas Nelson’s Bleak Hill Plantation in King William County; ####
(28)of those girls— #####
(A)one married a Saunders man; #####
(B)one married a Johnson man; and #####
(C)one had two children, Edmund and Carter Nelson, fathered by Thomas Cary Nelson; ####
(29)in the 19th century, those Saunders, Johnson, and Nelson families are among the core Rappahannock families from which the modern Tribe traces its descent; ####
(30)in 1819 and 1820, Edward Bird, John Bird (and his wife), Carter Nelson, Edmund Nelson, and Carter Spurlock (all Rappahannock ancestors) were listed on the tax roles of King and Queen County and taxed at the county poor rate; ####
(31)Edmund Bird was added to the tax roles in 1821; ####
(32)those tax records are significant documentation because the great majority of pre-1864 records for King and Queen County were destroyed by fire; ####
(33)beginning in 1819, and continuing through the 1880s, there was a solid Rappahannock presence in the membership at Upper Essex Baptist Church; ####
(34)that was the first instance of conversion to Christianity by at least some Rappahannock Indians; ####
(35)while 26 identifiable and traceable Rappahannock surnames appear on the pre-1863 membership list, and 28 were listed on the 1863 membership roster, the number of surnames listed had declined to 12 in 1878 and had risen only slightly to 14 by 1888; ####
(36)a reason for the decline is that in 1870, a Methodist circuit rider, Joseph Mastin, secured funds to purchase land and construct St. Stephens Baptist Church for the Rappahannocks living nearby in Caroline County; ####
(37)Mastin referred to the Rappahannocks during the period of 1850 to 1870 as “Indians, having a great need for moral and Christian guidance”; ####
(38)St. Stephens was the dominant tribal church until the Rappahannock Indian Baptist Church was established in 1964; ####
(39)at both churches, the core Rappahannock family names of Bird, Clarke, Fortune, Johnson, Nelson, Parker, and Richardson predominate; ####
(40)during the early 1900s, James Mooney, noted anthropologist, maintained correspondence with the Rappahannocks, surveying them and instructing them on how to formalize their tribal government; ####
(41)in November 1920, Speck visited the Rappahannocks and assisted them in organizing the fight for their sovereign rights; ####
(42)in 1921, the Rappahannocks were granted a charter from the Commonwealth of Virginia formalizing their tribal government; ####
(43)Speck began a professional relationship with the Tribe that would last more than 30 years and document Rappahannock history and traditions as never before; ####
(44)in April 1921, Rappahannock Chief George Nelson asked the Governor of Virginia, Westmoreland Davis, to forward a proclamation to the President of the United States, along with an appended list of tribal members and a handwritten copy of the proclamation itself; ####
(45)the letter concerned Indian freedom of speech and assembly nationwide; ####
(46)in 1922, the Rappahannocks established a formal school at Lloyds, Essex County, Virginia; ####
(47)prior to establishment of the school, Rappahannock children were taught by a tribal member in Central Point, Caroline County, Virginia; ####
(48)in December 1923, Rappahannock Chief George Nelson testified before Congress appealing for a $50,000 appropriation to establish an Indian school in Virginia; ####
(49)in 1930, the Rappahannocks were engaged in an ongoing dispute with the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States Census Bureau about their classification in the 1930 Federal census; ####
(50)in January 1930, Rappahannock Chief Otho S. Nelson wrote to Leon Truesdell, Chief Statistician of the United States Census Bureau, asking that the 218 enrolled Rappahannocks be listed as Indians; ####
(51)in February 1930, Truesdell replied to Nelson saying that “special instructions” were being given about classifying Indians; ####
(52)in April 1930, Nelson wrote to William M. Steuart at the Census Bureau asking about the enumerators’ failure to classify his people as Indians, saying that enumerators had not asked the question about race when they interviewed his people; ####
(53)in a followup letter to Truesdell, Nelson reported that the enumerators were “flatly denying” his people’s request to be listed as Indians and that the race question was completely avoided during interviews; ####
(54)the Rappahannocks had spoken with Caroline and Essex County enumerators, and with John M.W. Green at that point, without success; ####
(55)Nelson asked Truesdell to list people as Indians if he sent a list of members; ####
(56)the matter was settled by William Steuart, who concluded that the Bureau’s rule was that people of Indian descent could be classified as “Indian” only if Indian “blood” predominated and “Indian” identity was accepted in the local community; ####
(57)the Virginia Vital Statistics Bureau classed all nonreservation Indians as “Negro”, and it failed to see why “an exception should be made” for the Rappahannocks; ####
(58)therefore, in 1925, the Indian Rights Association took on the Rappahannock case to assist the Rappahannocks in fighting for their recognition and rights as an Indian tribe; ####
(59)during the Second World War, the Pamunkeys, Mattaponis, Chickahominies, and Rappahannocks had to fight the draft boards with respect to their racial identities; ####
(60)the Virginia Vital Statistics Bureau insisted that certain Indian draftees be inducted into Negro units; ####
(61)finally, three Rappahannocks were convicted of violating the Federal draft laws and, after spending time in a Federal prison, were granted conscientious objector status and served out the remainder of the war working in military hospitals; ####
(62)in 1943, Frank Speck noted that there were approximately 25 communities of Indians left in the Eastern United States that were entitled to Indian classification, including the Rappahannocks; ####
(63)in the 1940s, Leon Truesdell, Chief Statistician, of the United States Census Bureau, listed 118 members in the Rappahannock Tribe in the Indian population of Virginia; ####
(64)on April 25, 1940, the Office of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior included the Rappahannocks on a list of Indian tribes classified by State and by agency; ####
(65)in 1948, the Smithsonian Institution Annual Report included an article by William Harlen Gilbert entitled, “Surviving Indian Groups of the Eastern United States”, which included and described the Rappahannock Tribe; ####
(66)in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Rappahannocks operated a school at Indian Neck; ####
(67)the State agreed to pay a tribal teacher to teach 10 students bused by King and Queen County to Sharon Indian School in King William County, Virginia; ####
(68)in 1965, Rappahannock students entered Marriott High School (a White public school) by Executive order of the Governor of Virginia; ####
(69)in 1972, the Rappahannocks worked with the Coalition of Eastern Native Americans to fight for Federal recognition; ####
(70)in 1979, the Coalition established a pottery and artisans company, operating with other Virginia tribes; ####
(71)in 1980, the Rappahannocks received funding through the Administration for Native Americans of the Department of Health and Human Services to develop an economic program for the Tribe; and ####
(72)in 1983, the Rappahannocks received State recognition as an Indian tribe.