From WaPo:
For Virginia’s Tribes . . .
. . . A Dance and Their Due
Sunday, November 18, 2007; B08
Each Thanksgiving, Americans take time to appreciate what they have. At Virginia‘s First Thanksgiving Festival, held at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County on Nov. 4, the annual Chickahominy friendship dance was preceded by a plea by Chief Stephen R. Adkins that we consider what Virginia’s tribes do without as the only Native Americans in the United States left unrecognized by the federal government.
This doesn’t give the tribes of Virginia much reason to give thanks.
Still, they came to do the friendship dance. The Chickahominy believe that once you have danced with someone, a bond of trust is forged. In this dance, a brave approaches the chief and dances for him. If the chief ascertains that the dancer is sincere, then the chief himself joins the dance, and negotiations may begin.
Virginia’s American Indian tribes have been officially embraced by the state since the 1980s, but the tribes’ sovereignty bill has been stalled in Congress since 2001, denying their existence and rights, even as the state, the nation and Britain‘s queen were celebrating their history at the 400th anniversary of Jamestown.
Federal recognition would bring federal grants for college scholarships, job training, housing, health care and other badly needed programs. Adkins adds that the tribes are not interested in opening casinos, which have been profitable but problematic in other states where tribes have received sovereignty.
Opponents ignore the rights and needs of the tribes and focus solely on the fear of Indian-run casinos, exempting tribes from taxes, preventing police from coming onto tribal grounds and inviting lawsuits to reclaim Indian land and water rights. The Pamunkey, Chickahominy, Rappahannock, Monacan, Weapemeoc and Mattaponi have danced before our nation’s chiefs for decades, only to be turned away to nurse their blisters.
Undaunted, the Chickahominy came to Berkeley because plantation owner Malcolm “Jamie” Jamieson has always kept the lands open to the tribe for any ceremonial use they require. One good steward of the land, tapping his foot to their music, has kept friendship and hope alive.
So the Chickahominy gathered to honor the site of the nation’s true First Thanksgiving at Berkeley, where English colonists held their first day of thanks in 1619, nearly two years before the Pilgrims did at Plymouth, Mass. While Virginians recognize Berkeley as the site of the first Thanksgiving, nationally this history is perceived as a myth. Once a year, the Chickahominy and Berkeley’s Jamieson champion each other’s causes, one underdog standing back-to-back with another.
If ever there were a sight to be grateful for having witnessed, it was this day of many dances. Few media representatives attended, yet the Chickahominy embodied the graciousness, spirit and strength of character so often denied them in the history books and halls of justice as if they were dancing for our commander in chief himself.
The tribes of Virginia have paid the piper more than his due, and they have danced. It’s time for Congress to stop being the wallflower and step up to recognize Virginia’s tribes.
— Lisa Suhay
Turtle Talk 