Surviving Document
Genocide
© 1999 by Rose Powhatan
(Published in 2010 in: THE PEOPLE WHO STAYED: Southeastern Indian Writing After the Removal)
Genocide
© 1999 by Rose Powhatan
(Published in 2010 in: THE PEOPLE WHO STAYED: Southeastern Indian Writing After the Removal)
| Copyrighted by Auld/Powhatan Updated: August 18, 2019 |
| ABOUT THIS PAGE: Hu'un was the Maya paper on which they wrote codices, with a mostly pictograph form of writing. Pawatun was the main scribe god. The Maya scribe, also depicted as a monkey, is seen in this masthead design. The Maya were writing 2,300 years ago and their script is part of ancient American writing systems. This method of recording history, commerce and myth seemed to have originated with Mexico's Olmec, the "mother" civilization of the Americas that also gave us the first team sport games, rubber and the rubber ball. All ball games played on a court or field had their origin in the Olmec game that the Caribbean's Taíno called batey. The Algonquian name "Powhatan" is similar to the Maya Pawatun and may refer to the rulers (men). The Powhatan people of Virginia told the English in 1607 that these men came from the south, the direction of Mexico, where some of the Maya live. The Maya were avid sea traders and Columbus's ship encountered a large Maya trading canoe whose captain became annoyed that the Spanish ship had run aground on a sandbar, blocking the Maya canoe's trip. It was at this 1400s encounter that Columbus first saw cacao (chocolate) beans, a highly valued Central American trade item and used as a monetary denomination. After all, corn (maize), a valued Native American food item, originated in Mexico in the south. |
NEWLY RECOGNIZED STATE TRIBES OF VIRGINIA
They are:
The Potowomek, for whom the Potomac River was named, originated as an Algonquian-speaking nation member of the original Powhatan Confederacy/Chiefdom.
The Nottoway nations belong to the neighboring peoples, one of the several distinctive Iroquoian-speaking groups of Virginia and North Carolina. On the Treaty of
1677 at Middle Plantation, Virginia the King of the Nottoways was the second signatory after Cockacoeske, the Queen of Pamunkey (Above).
On the weekend of September 18th and 19th the Nottoway Tribe of Virginia celebrated its recognition by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It
is one of the three tribes that had applied for recognition and was successful. While the process of recognition was not without controversy, at the powwow, the
Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia's members conducted themselves with the dignity and pride. To coincide with the occasion, they published a very informative 68
page book titled DOTRATUNG (Do-Tra-Tung = New Moon) in which they tell their own story. One of the articles "Against All Odds: The Nottoway Indian Tribe of
Virginia and the Triumph of State Recognition" by Arica L. Coleman, Ph.D., details, with candor, the tribe's rocky road to recognition.
================================================================================================================================
They are:
- Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) in Courtland, Southampton County
- Nottoway of Virginia in Capron, Southampton County
- Patawomeck in Stafford County
The Potowomek, for whom the Potomac River was named, originated as an Algonquian-speaking nation member of the original Powhatan Confederacy/Chiefdom.
The Nottoway nations belong to the neighboring peoples, one of the several distinctive Iroquoian-speaking groups of Virginia and North Carolina. On the Treaty of
1677 at Middle Plantation, Virginia the King of the Nottoways was the second signatory after Cockacoeske, the Queen of Pamunkey (Above).
On the weekend of September 18th and 19th the Nottoway Tribe of Virginia celebrated its recognition by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It
is one of the three tribes that had applied for recognition and was successful. While the process of recognition was not without controversy, at the powwow, the
Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia's members conducted themselves with the dignity and pride. To coincide with the occasion, they published a very informative 68
page book titled DOTRATUNG (Do-Tra-Tung = New Moon) in which they tell their own story. One of the articles "Against All Odds: The Nottoway Indian Tribe of
Virginia and the Triumph of State Recognition" by Arica L. Coleman, Ph.D., details, with candor, the tribe's rocky road to recognition.
================================================================================================================================
September, 2010
Diversity of resources at Riverbend has attracted visitors for millenia.
The article begins by saying: "An uplifted face, hewn from the wooden top of a modern-day totem pole, basks in the sun. It faces east, where
the morning light floods through a wall of windows at the Riverbend Park Visitors Center. It also faces the river.
Human faces have turned toward this majestic bend in the Potomac River for thousands of years as a source of sustenance, trade and
inspiration. Artist Rose Powhatan, who created the totem pole, counts her ancestors among them."
You may copy and paste the web page address at http://www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=3847 to read the Chesapeake Bay Journal
article in its entirety and also see the accompanying photographs. Ms. Powhatan's father's family owned large tracks of land nearby. One
property on which the Madeira School, "a girls' boarding and day school offering grades 9-12," was sold by the family. Other tracks of their land
was sold to build the CIA and areas in nearby Tyson's Corner. Her father and his Tauxenent or Dogue relatives, hunted and fished in these
woods like their ancestors did for millennial.
=====================================================================================================
The article begins by saying: "An uplifted face, hewn from the wooden top of a modern-day totem pole, basks in the sun. It faces east, where
the morning light floods through a wall of windows at the Riverbend Park Visitors Center. It also faces the river.
Human faces have turned toward this majestic bend in the Potomac River for thousands of years as a source of sustenance, trade and
inspiration. Artist Rose Powhatan, who created the totem pole, counts her ancestors among them."
You may copy and paste the web page address at http://www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=3847 to read the Chesapeake Bay Journal
article in its entirety and also see the accompanying photographs. Ms. Powhatan's father's family owned large tracks of land nearby. One
property on which the Madeira School, "a girls' boarding and day school offering grades 9-12," was sold by the family. Other tracks of their land
was sold to build the CIA and areas in nearby Tyson's Corner. Her father and his Tauxenent or Dogue relatives, hunted and fished in these
woods like their ancestors did for millennial.
=====================================================================================================
| NEWS ARTICLES BELOW (1) Pamunkey: Federal Recognition of a Founding Tribe (2) Newly Recognized Virginia Tribes of 2010 (3)Tauxenent/Dogue Exhibit at Riverbend Park, Virginia (4) Are "Indians" Indians? (5) Surviving Document Genocide |
TAUXENENT (Dogue) EXHIBIT
AT RIVER BEND PARK
AT RIVER BEND PARK
The Fairfax County park at River Bend in Great Falls,
Virginia opened a stunning exhibit on the Tauxenent
Indians. The exhibit also includes a contemporary totem
made by Rose Powhatan and Michael Auld. The article
in an on line page
The Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network article is by
Lara Lutz
Virginia opened a stunning exhibit on the Tauxenent
Indians. The exhibit also includes a contemporary totem
made by Rose Powhatan and Michael Auld. The article
in an on line page
The Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network article is by
Lara Lutz
Photo by Cora Foley
- Indio,n Spanish."Indio" means Indian,
as in Native American. The more
politically correct word in Spanish is
indígena, but indio is also used, just
like Indian in English. - Hindú, /hindoo/ n via Urdu to mid 17th
century Persian (pronounced in-doo in
Spanish. Indian from the country of
India. - Dravidian n, Possibly the first people
who became “Indian”. According to a
view put forward by geneticist Luigi
Luca Cavalli-Sforza in the book The
History and Geography of Human
Genes, The Dravidians were preceded
in the subcontinent [of India] by an
Austro-Asiatic people, and were
followed by
an Indo-European-speaking migrants
sometime later. - Indian, n., from Sanskrit sinduh, via
Old Persian Hindu “Indus” [River]: 1. A
native of the subcontinent of India. 2.
Applied to the native inhabitants of the
Americas from at least 1553, on the
notion that America was the eastern
end of Asia. - “India”, n. More accurately Bharat,
Bharata, Bhārat, or Bhārata
may be a transliteration of either
Bharata (Sanskrit: भरत, literally "to be
maintained") or Bhārata (Sanskrit:
भारत, literally "descended from
Bharata") and may refer to: “Originati
ng from Bharata, brother of the god
Lord Rama.” - According to one source, "the term
'Bharat' or 'Bharatiya' isnot universally
accepted in India. It is championed
heavily by Hindu North Indians and is
not frequently used by South Indians,
Muslims, and Dalits; they may even feel
alienated by the term."
| Top left: “Indian on an Indian;” Silkscreen print of Pamunkey George Major Cook (a Virginia Powhatan tribe chief) advertising the popular early 1900s Indian Motorcycle. Silkscreen print by Rose Powhatan & Michael Auld Top center: Two Indian girls cooking rice in Jamaica. New immigrants from Northern India who came to Jamaica in the late 1800s as indentured workers after the emancipation of enslaved Africans. Bottom left: Evidence of pre-Columbian contact between India and the Americas? Disputed temple sculpture in Somnathpur, [India]. “We find two male and 63 female attendants to the deities holding the ‘maize ears’." CARL JOHANNESSEN ON ANCIENT INDIAN MAIZE, (p. 170) Bottom center: Etching of Columbus landing on Kiskeia/Haiti Bohio (later to become Hispaniola) Right: One of a variety of painted versions of Lord Rama. |
Given the above explanation for the name “India”, the people from that subcontinent do not necessarily refer to themselves by
the Persian word “Indian” from “people of the Indus River”. They use their own religiously associated Sanaskrit word, “Bhaarat”
(also "Desi") to refer to themselves.
Many of the popularly held notions about the Americas began in the Caribbean with the Columbian Encounter of 1492. The most
basic retention after meeting the Taíno in the Bahamas was that they were Indians in an extension of Asia. To Columbus, they
were, in color, like the Afro-European mixed people of the Canary Islands, a Spanish possession off the West Coast of Africa.
The English, coined the use of “Red Indians”, a designation that differentiated this ethnic group from the “other” Indians of India.
Growing up in the Caribbean, most people love to watch World Cup cricket played between, among others, India, Pakistan and
the West Indies. Who then is the real Indian? In this hemisphere, this dilemma of cultural misidentification began with Columbus.
The term became entrenched with the 16th century Spanish who created “a Juzgado de Indias or judicial zone [of the
Indians/Indies] that was established in the [Canary] islands in 1566” to control trade with the Americas. We tend to blame
Columbus for this dilemma, yet come to think if it maybe he did run into “the eastern end of Asia” in 1492.
.
Asia Extended
Asia [from the Greek name for] “the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern
hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.9% of its land area) and with approximately 4 billion people,
it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.” Wikipedia
Mix up the world’s population and every 3rd human you meet would be Chinese. Every 5th person would be from India. The rest
of the continent includes millions more of other Asians in East Asia and the Pacific. Added to these Asians, approximately
47,834,251,490 indigenous people who are genetically “Asiatic”, live in 16 countries in South and Central America. There are
roughly 3,672,790 in the USA and Canada. These overall numbers do not include the indigenous Caribbean populations or the
extremely large meztizo and other African, European and Asiatic populations with indigenous American genes in this
hemisphere. Even Europe (and possibly other areas) had its mixing of indigenous Americans soon after Columbus brought
some Taíno back to Spain. Some meztizos in the Americas obviously relocated to their father’s homelands in Europe and Africa
(For example, Jamaican Maroons to Sierra Leone and African Americans to Liberia).
Is the vast Western Hemisphere of the Americas also a part of Asia? Some folks think so. However, not according to some
writers. Yet, indigenous Americans, they contend, are believed to have come “from Asia over a land bridge that connected both
Asia proper and the Americas.” Indigenous Americans, at the time of Columbus, were genetically, philosophically and religiously
“Asiatic”. Columbus was on his way to Asia when he collided into the Caribbean homeland of these Asiatic peoples, the Taíno
and Island Carib. To him, they appeared to be Indios. Sailing down from the Guanahani in the Bahamas, he arrived in Cuba.
There he sent out an overland expedition to find the home of the Great Kahn of China. Until his dying day, maybe he was
rightfully convinced that he had encountered, explored and temporarily governed Indians (Indios) from the outer reaches of
Asia's subcontinent.
Who are the real "Indians"?
“East Indian” is not seen as a positive term by some people indigenous to the subcontinent of India. A close family friend, who is
from India, lamented that the word “Indian” should only apply to their people, is a frequent refrain heard among “true Indians”.
“Native Americans are not Indians”. Some Indians, like members of the Goins family (from Goans) originated from Goa, India and
married into Virginia’s Native American families as early as the 1700s. Some family members successfully defended themselves
in the state of Virginia against persons who erroneously tried to enslave them, since they had never been slaves.
The 1492 misnaming of peoples in an entire hemisphere is very confusing. They can be called “American Indian”, “Native
American” “Amerindian”, or “Indigenous Americans”. Even the word “America” may be troubling since it was coined from an
Italian named Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian man who never set foot in the Americas. The indigenous people of the Americas had
as many names for themselves and their territories as they had languages. The people whom Columbus met in 1492, called
themselves “Taíno”, which appropriately meant the “Good” or “Noble” people, a self-identifying concept that eluded both the
Spanish and Columbus. The Island Caribs, another indigenous Caribbean group, were appropriately called the “Strong Men” by
the Taíno.
Although Columbus was responsible for the first Caribbean misnomer, the other being Caribbean people as “cannibals”, he was
highly overrated as a “discoverer”. Many have now come to believe that, for indigenous peoples of the Americas, Columbus’
“discovery” of a “New World” was dismissive. The Spanish now distinguish between the indigenous people of India and the
Americas in the following way. Indu (in-doo) = the real Indian. Indio (in-di-oh) = Indigenous Americans. Today, when we call over
the telephone for technical help with our computer, we often get a real Indian on the other end of the line. Maybe we are talking
to people who are more “local” than we think. Remembering the invention of gunpowder, trigonometry, etc., etc., what makes it
equally interesting is that both they and the Chinese are well on their way to dominating the known world…AGAIN!
=====================================================================================================
the Persian word “Indian” from “people of the Indus River”. They use their own religiously associated Sanaskrit word, “Bhaarat”
(also "Desi") to refer to themselves.
Many of the popularly held notions about the Americas began in the Caribbean with the Columbian Encounter of 1492. The most
basic retention after meeting the Taíno in the Bahamas was that they were Indians in an extension of Asia. To Columbus, they
were, in color, like the Afro-European mixed people of the Canary Islands, a Spanish possession off the West Coast of Africa.
The English, coined the use of “Red Indians”, a designation that differentiated this ethnic group from the “other” Indians of India.
- • According to the British who colonized most of the Caribbean islands until 1962, people born on Caribbean islands
and South America (British Guyana) were called West Indians.
• In the Caribbean and Guyana an East Indian is a person whose family originated in India. Does this make them an
East Indian West Indian? Incidentally, some people from India are opposed to the term “East Indian”.
• Some Indians from the subcontinent (true Indians), do not think that American Indians should use the name “Indian”.
• To confuse matters worse, Native Americans often are misidentified as an Indian (from the country of India) by non-
Indians and people from India and other South East Asian countries. “Columbus made the same mistake,” is often the
reply by some Native Americans to the query, “What part of India are you from?”
• Pakistanis (pak = pure and stan = land) were Indians until they were partitioned from India, “which went into effect
on Aug. 15, 1947”.
Growing up in the Caribbean, most people love to watch World Cup cricket played between, among others, India, Pakistan and
the West Indies. Who then is the real Indian? In this hemisphere, this dilemma of cultural misidentification began with Columbus.
The term became entrenched with the 16th century Spanish who created “a Juzgado de Indias or judicial zone [of the
Indians/Indies] that was established in the [Canary] islands in 1566” to control trade with the Americas. We tend to blame
Columbus for this dilemma, yet come to think if it maybe he did run into “the eastern end of Asia” in 1492.
.
Asia Extended
Asia [from the Greek name for] “the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern
hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.9% of its land area) and with approximately 4 billion people,
it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.” Wikipedia
Mix up the world’s population and every 3rd human you meet would be Chinese. Every 5th person would be from India. The rest
of the continent includes millions more of other Asians in East Asia and the Pacific. Added to these Asians, approximately
47,834,251,490 indigenous people who are genetically “Asiatic”, live in 16 countries in South and Central America. There are
roughly 3,672,790 in the USA and Canada. These overall numbers do not include the indigenous Caribbean populations or the
extremely large meztizo and other African, European and Asiatic populations with indigenous American genes in this
hemisphere. Even Europe (and possibly other areas) had its mixing of indigenous Americans soon after Columbus brought
some Taíno back to Spain. Some meztizos in the Americas obviously relocated to their father’s homelands in Europe and Africa
(For example, Jamaican Maroons to Sierra Leone and African Americans to Liberia).
Is the vast Western Hemisphere of the Americas also a part of Asia? Some folks think so. However, not according to some
writers. Yet, indigenous Americans, they contend, are believed to have come “from Asia over a land bridge that connected both
Asia proper and the Americas.” Indigenous Americans, at the time of Columbus, were genetically, philosophically and religiously
“Asiatic”. Columbus was on his way to Asia when he collided into the Caribbean homeland of these Asiatic peoples, the Taíno
and Island Carib. To him, they appeared to be Indios. Sailing down from the Guanahani in the Bahamas, he arrived in Cuba.
There he sent out an overland expedition to find the home of the Great Kahn of China. Until his dying day, maybe he was
rightfully convinced that he had encountered, explored and temporarily governed Indians (Indios) from the outer reaches of
Asia's subcontinent.
Who are the real "Indians"?
“East Indian” is not seen as a positive term by some people indigenous to the subcontinent of India. A close family friend, who is
from India, lamented that the word “Indian” should only apply to their people, is a frequent refrain heard among “true Indians”.
“Native Americans are not Indians”. Some Indians, like members of the Goins family (from Goans) originated from Goa, India and
married into Virginia’s Native American families as early as the 1700s. Some family members successfully defended themselves
in the state of Virginia against persons who erroneously tried to enslave them, since they had never been slaves.
The 1492 misnaming of peoples in an entire hemisphere is very confusing. They can be called “American Indian”, “Native
American” “Amerindian”, or “Indigenous Americans”. Even the word “America” may be troubling since it was coined from an
Italian named Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian man who never set foot in the Americas. The indigenous people of the Americas had
as many names for themselves and their territories as they had languages. The people whom Columbus met in 1492, called
themselves “Taíno”, which appropriately meant the “Good” or “Noble” people, a self-identifying concept that eluded both the
Spanish and Columbus. The Island Caribs, another indigenous Caribbean group, were appropriately called the “Strong Men” by
the Taíno.
Although Columbus was responsible for the first Caribbean misnomer, the other being Caribbean people as “cannibals”, he was
highly overrated as a “discoverer”. Many have now come to believe that, for indigenous peoples of the Americas, Columbus’
“discovery” of a “New World” was dismissive. The Spanish now distinguish between the indigenous people of India and the
Americas in the following way. Indu (in-doo) = the real Indian. Indio (in-di-oh) = Indigenous Americans. Today, when we call over
the telephone for technical help with our computer, we often get a real Indian on the other end of the line. Maybe we are talking
to people who are more “local” than we think. Remembering the invention of gunpowder, trigonometry, etc., etc., what makes it
equally interesting is that both they and the Chinese are well on their way to dominating the known world…AGAIN!
=====================================================================================================
March 2011
Also Click on images
to enlarge
to enlarge
Here I am, at 3:30 A.M., the day before the deadline for submitting this story, and the very morning of the first family reunion
of my father’s family that’s not a funeral. (Although I was enrolled as a member of the Pamunkey Indian Nation of King William
County, Virginia, by my late cousin Chief William “Swift Eagle” Miles, through my mother, my father’s family is one of two families
historically documented as “Indian” indigenous to Fairfax County.) I still can’t decide what to write about in relation to what it’s
like to be officially recognized as an Indian outside the indigenous community thanks to a cartoon movie about my ancestors.
Oh, excuse me. You, too? Okay. I’m an enrolled member of the Pamunkey Indian Nation. Never heard us before? Yes, you
have. Pocahontas was Pamunkey, and her father, Powhatan, is buried in a mound on our reservation in King William County.
That’s right. Now you know who we are. You just forgot for a moment. I’m not surprised. After all, I’m living in a country with the
curious distinction that your tribe can be changed and you can be erased from the Book of Life when you change your address.
Move off the reservation and you cease to be Indian. You never existed. You become a member of the “Walking Dead Extinct
Indian Nation.” That’s the reality of trying to be a survivor of “document genocide.”
Document genocide regulates your relationship to others with whom you interact on a daily basis. It’s not easy to be upbeat
about your tribal identity when most people around you constantly remind you that you are not supposed to exist. Even well-
intentioned librarians are smug in their knowing responses to my requests for information about Indians indigenous to my tribe’s
ancestral home region. They tell me that my ancestors became extinct through contact with European and African germs. When
I identify myself as an enrolled Pamunkey Indian, they act sanctimonious and try to correct me. They tell me I must be a
Cherokee or a Blackfoot. I’m told that I’m extinct, since all Indians indigenous to the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and northern
Virginia region became extinct “hundreds of years ago.” “Government Indians” who have come to Washington to work at the
Bureau of Indian Affairs and other federal agencies play the same game with me. Why, they even form social clubs and
perpetuate information about the people in the “official” organization mission statements. Supposedly, the main reason for
starting such organizations is because, in their view, “there were no Indians in the region” despite the fact that many members of
one such organization have repeatedly been shown hospitality by Virginia tribes, invited to enjoy the amenities of the
reservations (the Pamunkey and Mattaponi reservations, the two oldest in the United States.)
New Indian arrivals in my home area constantly inform me that “back on the rez” they have been told that there are no Indians
east of the Mississippi River. In response, I frequently reply to their ignorance by informing that, on the contrary, there are still
many here, and some are descendants of warriors who fought long and hard battles against the invasion of our homeland. I
encourage these Western Indians to return home and thank God that, because of us Eastern Indians, their ancestors were
given extra time to enjoy their culture before the onslaught of a European ethnocentrism that believed in destroying all vestiges
of indigenous culture whenever and wherever they found it. Southeastern indigenous people paid a very high price for the
misfortune of being the first to live in close proximity to the first permanent English settlement in America. While the English did
indeed come here for better opportunities than existed for them back in the old country, you might say that they actually bore a
close resemblance to a later group often found in the region, those known as “Carpetbaggers.”
Growing up under document genocide requires constant vigilance if you intend to be a survivor. Residing in the Washington,
D.C., and suburban Fairfax County, Virginia, area makes you painfully aware of the insidiousness of document genocide.
Whenever you fill out forms requiring you to identify a racial or ethnic designation, you are challenged by the intake personnel.
Since I’m a “carded” Indian, I show them my official tribal identification. Other Indians who lack the same papers generally have
their identities changed, after having endured a condescending lecture on how they should be proud to be a member of the
race to which the clerk’s “eyeball test” has thus relegated them. I have also had the personal experience of having had my race
changed without my knowledge. I’ve found out about it later on when I’ve gone back to get copies of a particular official
document. The Washington, D.C., Vital Statistics Office once informed me that I would have to retain the services of an attorney
if I wanted to correct the misinformation appearing on my records.
Oh, I’m a pro when it comes to administering, as well as taking the “eyeball test.” I have been teaching school in Washington
since February of 1973. Every year, homeroom teachers are asked to fill out an official ethnic designation “head count” form to
identify the races of the students in their classrooms. Teachers are instructed to survey the class, and then, by casually
glancing at the students, write down on the form how they “fit” in the various racial classifications. One year, I asked students to
raise their hands if they knew they had a family history of descendants from indigenous American ancestors. Most of the
students raised their hands in affirmation of having Indian ancestors, I wasn’t surprised. When I was appointed by the secretary
of the interior to the nine-member Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Nation Committee, I engaged in in-depth research
on African displacement in the American South. The committee’s findings revealed that since the overwhelming majority of
Africans brought to America were male, and since so many male Indians had been killed in conflict with invading colonists or
made into slaves and absorbed into African slave groups, it generally holds that most African Americans claiming Indian
ancestry will cite a particular Indian woman in their lineage to show their claim to Indian heritage. European Americans like to
refer to this country as the “New World.” More appropriately, it should be called the “Widowed World”. Countless Indians are
“hiding out” or “passing” in African and European American communities, due in great part to the eternal shame of the legacy of
slavery. To add to this travesty is the recent trend of calling legally enrolled Indian people “black Indians” instead of their more
correct tribal names. Misguided authors in search of a quick buck or instant public attention perpetuate this racist misnomer.
“Where are you from honey?” Is the question I have been asked my entire life. It is a question that is never asked of me by
indigenous people. Nonindigenous Americans have made me conscious that I don’t “fit in” no matter where I go. Most people
assume I am a Latina or I’ve recently arrived from the subcontinent of India. Hispanic people speak to me in Spanish and grow
angry or impatient with me when I respond to them in English. Continental Indians are accepting of me when I am by myself, but
frown when they see me with my Taíno Jamaican husband. I’m not surprised at both groups’ reactions to me. It’s a commonly
held joke in the Indian community that Latino people are really Indian cousins from the South, coming up North to help us
repopulate the United States of America with Indian people. As for mistaken Hindu Indian identity, one can always remember that
Christopher Columbus made the same mistake when he landed in the Caribbean and encountered the Taíno (one of several
Arawak-speaking tribes) and Carib people. We have all been called Indians ever since that fateful encounter.
In the school year of 1994-1995, when I was on a Fulbright Teacher Exchange Fellowship to the United Kingdom, a colleague
from Spain told me that I was called an “India” whereas someone from India was called an “Indu”. It would seem as though the
Spanish are still confused about who we are. I found that the Brits and Africans in the UK also had the same problem in
recognizing my true identity. After each of the three times I had been mugged in London, the police reported the incidents as
“Paki-bashings,” a term used to designate crimes perpetuated against Southeast Asians.
My most memorable and positive experience during my Fulbright year was due mainly to my ancestral cousin, Pocahontas. Oh, I
know what you’re thinking — “Here we go, back to the Disney cartoon story:” No, it’s not at all related to make-believe. After the
last time I had been assaulted in London, I decided to go to Gravesend, Kent, where Pocahontas is buried in the St. George’s
Church of England sanctuary. I wanted to lay some flowers at the foot of the statue erected to her memory (the statue is a twin
to the one erected at the original site of Jamestown, Virginia), and pray, since she was the closest link to home that I had in
England. I had initially planned to go to Gravesend on March 21, 1995, which would have coincided with the anniversary of her
death date in 1617. There was a mix-up at the railroad station, and I wasn’t able to complete my journey. As a result, I was a day
late arriving in Gravesend. However, March 22nd was a more personally significant day for me since it is the day, in 1622, that
Opechancanough (brother of Powhatan, the father of Pocahontas, and his successor—because of his place in the matrilineal
line of descent—as head of the Powhatan Confederacy, following Powhatan’s death in 1618) launched his war against English
imperialists in Virginia.
When I arrived at St. George’s, the church just happened to be open for a special service, although it was usually closed on that
day of the week. I went inside and identified myself to the pastor, the Reverend David Willey. He seemed genuinely glad to meet
me. He told me about a special teacher at the church named Di Coleman, who was currently writing a play in honor of the 400th
anniversary of Pocahontas’s birth. He said that she would welcome my help with the production and that the children of the
church’s school would benefit from my working with them. I called the school and received permission from Head Teacher Jean
Bannister to give a lecture at the school and to work with the Resolution Theater Group, directed and sponsored by Di Coleman.
I assisted Ms. Coleman as cultural consultant, set designer, and costume designer, and it was truly a godsend experience.
The experience, however, stands out in stark contrast with that of my initial dealings with the Disney Corporation when they
began their work on Pocahontas. Soon after I had agreed to work with them as an advisor, when I insisted the true story of
Pocahontas should be told and not the fantasy it became, I was dismissed. Disney eventually hired one of my cousins to work on
the movie. She later pretended not to know that Disney would deviate from actual historical fact in order to fabricate the love
story between Pocahontas and John Smith. The movie was universally panned by well-informed members of the indigenous
community when it was released. My cousin benefited from her collaboration with Disney by being able to charge higher fees for
appearances as an entertainer.
My affiliation with the staff and students at St. George’s and Di Coleman remains one of the highlights of my life. There I was,
thousands of miles from home, being accorded respect and recognition that I had never experienced in my homeland. At the
end of the historic performance of the Pocahontas commemorative production (which was also performed at other locations in
England before it went on to the International Folk Festival in Scotland), I marveled at how far I had come to receive such
respect for who I was, instead of the ridicule that is commonplace in the United States. I thanked Head Teacher Jean Bannister
and the people of Gravesend for extending hospitality to me in the same spirit of humanity that they held for my ancestral cousin
Pocahontas. I felt as though I was partially repaying their kindness to her through the work I was engaged in with their children. I
was fortunate that document genocide against me and my people did not extend to the town of Gravesend. The Virginia Indian
presence is a viable part of the ongoing, living history of the town. Our history is shared by them as a legitimate source of
cultural tourism and a source of pride in themselves.
Where do I go from here? As an educator and curriculum writer, I lecture and write about the history and cultural retentions of
my people. I’m an active member of the “powwow circuit:" and I set up exhibits and displays, which celebrate the cultural
possessions of my people. I serve on numerous historic, educational, and cultural boards, where I can have a direct impact on
information and participatory events that are made available to both regional and national audiences. I’m both a Washington
Teachers’ Union building representative and a member of the Local School Restructuring Team, given the mandate to improve
education for young people at the grassroots level. As a practicing professional artist, my culturally based artwork is exhibited
through numerous venues and is, at present, touring the country in a show commemorating seven decades of American art. I’m
the founder/director of the Powhatan Museum and the Center for Indigenous Culture in Washington, which is affiliated with the
City Museum of Washington. I’m the mother of three sons, all of whom are dedicated to do all they can to help eradicate
document genocide that is directed towards indigenous Americans in courtrooms, schoolrooms, living rooms, and film-screening
rooms in this country. My never-ending battle continues, but I am determined that my people and I will survive document
genocide.
====================================================================================================
* The Racial Integrity Act of 1924
[In addition to “unintended” extermination of Indigenous Americans by foreign pathogens, the intentional eradication of
Amerindians by the various European powers had begun with the first “illegal aliens” (the Spanish in the Caribbean) who began
arriving in the Americas in 1492. Switch the numbers around and the 1924 Act to Preserve Racial Integrity was a 20th century
attempt by the Virginia Government to complete the job that they had begun after both the American Revolution and the Civil
War. This 1924 Act had wide impact beyond the borders of the state of Virginia. The most recent attempts to restrict increase
Amerindian DNA in the United States is hidden in the issue of “Illegal Aliens” living in Virginia and those crossing the southern
border of the United States of America. Fortunately, “that horse has already left the barn”. By moving to the next slot of racial
dominance in the United States, Amerindian DNA via the racial classification of so-called “Hispanic” is well on its way to once
again dominate North America as it has already rightfully done in South and Central America. It took the Spanish seven
centuries to wrestle their country back from the Moorish Arabs of North Africa, who had introduced other forms of technological
“advancement” and cultural variations to Christian Spain. Maybe it will take the Amerindian a shorter time to regain dominance in
their hemisphere.]
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the State Registrar of Vital Statistics may as soon as practicable after
the taking effect of this act, prepare a form whereon the racial composition of any individual, as Caucasian, negro, Mongolian,
American Indian, Asiatic Indian, Malay, or any mixture thereof, or any other non-Caucasic strains, and if there be any mixture,
then the racial composition of the parents and other ancestors, in so far as ascertainable, so as to show in what generation
such mixture occurred, may be certified by such individual, which form shall be known as a registration certificate. The State
Registrar may supply to each local registrar a sufficient number of such forms for the purpose of this act; each local registrar
may personally or by deputy, as soon as possible after receiving said forms, have made thereon in duplicate a certificate of the
racial composition as aforesaid, of each person resident in his district, who so desires, born before June fourteenth, nineteen
hundred and twelve, which certificate shall be made over the signature of said person, or in the case of children under fourteen
years of age, over the signature of a parent, guardian, or other person standing in loco parentis. One of said certificates for
each person thus registering in every district shall be forwarded to the State Registrar for his files; the other shall be kept on file
by the local registrar.
Every local registrar may, as soon as practicable, have such registration certificate made by or for each person in his district
who so desires, born before June fourteen, nineteen hundred and twelve, for whom he has not on file a registration certificate,
or a birth certificate.
2. It shall be a felony for any person wilfully or knowingly to make a registration certificate false as to color or race. The wilful
making of a false registration or birth certificate shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for one year.
3. For each registration certificate properly made and returned to the State Registrar, the local registrar returning the same
shall be entitled to a fee of twenty-five cents, to be paid by the registrant. Application for registration and for transcript may be
made direct to the State Registrar, who may retain the fee for expenses of his office.
4. No marriage license shall be granted until the clerk or deputy clerk has reasonable assurance that the statements as to color
of both man and woman are correct.
If there is reasonable cause to disbelieve that applicants are of pure white race, when that fact is stated, the clerk or deputy
clerk shall withhold the granting of the license until satisfactory proof is produced that both applicants are "white persons" as
provided for in this act.
The clerk or deputy clerk shall use the same care to assure himself that both applicants are colored, when that fact is claimed.
5. It shall hereafter be unlawful for any white person in this State to marry any save a white person, or a person with no other
admixture of blood than white and American Indian. For the purpose of this act, the term "white person" shall apply only to the
person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian; but persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the
blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white persons. All laws heretofore
passed and now in effect regarding the intermarriage of white and colored persons shall apply to marriages prohibited by this
act.
6. For carrying out the purposes of this act and to provide the necessary clerical assistance, postage and other expenses of the
State Registrar of Vital Statistics, twenty per cent of the fees received by local registrars under this act shall be paid to the State
Bureau of Vital Statistics, which may be expended by the said bureau for the purposes of this act.
7. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are, to the extent of such inconsistency, hereby repealed.
of my father’s family that’s not a funeral. (Although I was enrolled as a member of the Pamunkey Indian Nation of King William
County, Virginia, by my late cousin Chief William “Swift Eagle” Miles, through my mother, my father’s family is one of two families
historically documented as “Indian” indigenous to Fairfax County.) I still can’t decide what to write about in relation to what it’s
like to be officially recognized as an Indian outside the indigenous community thanks to a cartoon movie about my ancestors.
Oh, excuse me. You, too? Okay. I’m an enrolled member of the Pamunkey Indian Nation. Never heard us before? Yes, you
have. Pocahontas was Pamunkey, and her father, Powhatan, is buried in a mound on our reservation in King William County.
That’s right. Now you know who we are. You just forgot for a moment. I’m not surprised. After all, I’m living in a country with the
curious distinction that your tribe can be changed and you can be erased from the Book of Life when you change your address.
Move off the reservation and you cease to be Indian. You never existed. You become a member of the “Walking Dead Extinct
Indian Nation.” That’s the reality of trying to be a survivor of “document genocide.”
Document genocide regulates your relationship to others with whom you interact on a daily basis. It’s not easy to be upbeat
about your tribal identity when most people around you constantly remind you that you are not supposed to exist. Even well-
intentioned librarians are smug in their knowing responses to my requests for information about Indians indigenous to my tribe’s
ancestral home region. They tell me that my ancestors became extinct through contact with European and African germs. When
I identify myself as an enrolled Pamunkey Indian, they act sanctimonious and try to correct me. They tell me I must be a
Cherokee or a Blackfoot. I’m told that I’m extinct, since all Indians indigenous to the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and northern
Virginia region became extinct “hundreds of years ago.” “Government Indians” who have come to Washington to work at the
Bureau of Indian Affairs and other federal agencies play the same game with me. Why, they even form social clubs and
perpetuate information about the people in the “official” organization mission statements. Supposedly, the main reason for
starting such organizations is because, in their view, “there were no Indians in the region” despite the fact that many members of
one such organization have repeatedly been shown hospitality by Virginia tribes, invited to enjoy the amenities of the
reservations (the Pamunkey and Mattaponi reservations, the two oldest in the United States.)
New Indian arrivals in my home area constantly inform me that “back on the rez” they have been told that there are no Indians
east of the Mississippi River. In response, I frequently reply to their ignorance by informing that, on the contrary, there are still
many here, and some are descendants of warriors who fought long and hard battles against the invasion of our homeland. I
encourage these Western Indians to return home and thank God that, because of us Eastern Indians, their ancestors were
given extra time to enjoy their culture before the onslaught of a European ethnocentrism that believed in destroying all vestiges
of indigenous culture whenever and wherever they found it. Southeastern indigenous people paid a very high price for the
misfortune of being the first to live in close proximity to the first permanent English settlement in America. While the English did
indeed come here for better opportunities than existed for them back in the old country, you might say that they actually bore a
close resemblance to a later group often found in the region, those known as “Carpetbaggers.”
Growing up under document genocide requires constant vigilance if you intend to be a survivor. Residing in the Washington,
D.C., and suburban Fairfax County, Virginia, area makes you painfully aware of the insidiousness of document genocide.
Whenever you fill out forms requiring you to identify a racial or ethnic designation, you are challenged by the intake personnel.
Since I’m a “carded” Indian, I show them my official tribal identification. Other Indians who lack the same papers generally have
their identities changed, after having endured a condescending lecture on how they should be proud to be a member of the
race to which the clerk’s “eyeball test” has thus relegated them. I have also had the personal experience of having had my race
changed without my knowledge. I’ve found out about it later on when I’ve gone back to get copies of a particular official
document. The Washington, D.C., Vital Statistics Office once informed me that I would have to retain the services of an attorney
if I wanted to correct the misinformation appearing on my records.
Oh, I’m a pro when it comes to administering, as well as taking the “eyeball test.” I have been teaching school in Washington
since February of 1973. Every year, homeroom teachers are asked to fill out an official ethnic designation “head count” form to
identify the races of the students in their classrooms. Teachers are instructed to survey the class, and then, by casually
glancing at the students, write down on the form how they “fit” in the various racial classifications. One year, I asked students to
raise their hands if they knew they had a family history of descendants from indigenous American ancestors. Most of the
students raised their hands in affirmation of having Indian ancestors, I wasn’t surprised. When I was appointed by the secretary
of the interior to the nine-member Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Nation Committee, I engaged in in-depth research
on African displacement in the American South. The committee’s findings revealed that since the overwhelming majority of
Africans brought to America were male, and since so many male Indians had been killed in conflict with invading colonists or
made into slaves and absorbed into African slave groups, it generally holds that most African Americans claiming Indian
ancestry will cite a particular Indian woman in their lineage to show their claim to Indian heritage. European Americans like to
refer to this country as the “New World.” More appropriately, it should be called the “Widowed World”. Countless Indians are
“hiding out” or “passing” in African and European American communities, due in great part to the eternal shame of the legacy of
slavery. To add to this travesty is the recent trend of calling legally enrolled Indian people “black Indians” instead of their more
correct tribal names. Misguided authors in search of a quick buck or instant public attention perpetuate this racist misnomer.
“Where are you from honey?” Is the question I have been asked my entire life. It is a question that is never asked of me by
indigenous people. Nonindigenous Americans have made me conscious that I don’t “fit in” no matter where I go. Most people
assume I am a Latina or I’ve recently arrived from the subcontinent of India. Hispanic people speak to me in Spanish and grow
angry or impatient with me when I respond to them in English. Continental Indians are accepting of me when I am by myself, but
frown when they see me with my Taíno Jamaican husband. I’m not surprised at both groups’ reactions to me. It’s a commonly
held joke in the Indian community that Latino people are really Indian cousins from the South, coming up North to help us
repopulate the United States of America with Indian people. As for mistaken Hindu Indian identity, one can always remember that
Christopher Columbus made the same mistake when he landed in the Caribbean and encountered the Taíno (one of several
Arawak-speaking tribes) and Carib people. We have all been called Indians ever since that fateful encounter.
In the school year of 1994-1995, when I was on a Fulbright Teacher Exchange Fellowship to the United Kingdom, a colleague
from Spain told me that I was called an “India” whereas someone from India was called an “Indu”. It would seem as though the
Spanish are still confused about who we are. I found that the Brits and Africans in the UK also had the same problem in
recognizing my true identity. After each of the three times I had been mugged in London, the police reported the incidents as
“Paki-bashings,” a term used to designate crimes perpetuated against Southeast Asians.
My most memorable and positive experience during my Fulbright year was due mainly to my ancestral cousin, Pocahontas. Oh, I
know what you’re thinking — “Here we go, back to the Disney cartoon story:” No, it’s not at all related to make-believe. After the
last time I had been assaulted in London, I decided to go to Gravesend, Kent, where Pocahontas is buried in the St. George’s
Church of England sanctuary. I wanted to lay some flowers at the foot of the statue erected to her memory (the statue is a twin
to the one erected at the original site of Jamestown, Virginia), and pray, since she was the closest link to home that I had in
England. I had initially planned to go to Gravesend on March 21, 1995, which would have coincided with the anniversary of her
death date in 1617. There was a mix-up at the railroad station, and I wasn’t able to complete my journey. As a result, I was a day
late arriving in Gravesend. However, March 22nd was a more personally significant day for me since it is the day, in 1622, that
Opechancanough (brother of Powhatan, the father of Pocahontas, and his successor—because of his place in the matrilineal
line of descent—as head of the Powhatan Confederacy, following Powhatan’s death in 1618) launched his war against English
imperialists in Virginia.
When I arrived at St. George’s, the church just happened to be open for a special service, although it was usually closed on that
day of the week. I went inside and identified myself to the pastor, the Reverend David Willey. He seemed genuinely glad to meet
me. He told me about a special teacher at the church named Di Coleman, who was currently writing a play in honor of the 400th
anniversary of Pocahontas’s birth. He said that she would welcome my help with the production and that the children of the
church’s school would benefit from my working with them. I called the school and received permission from Head Teacher Jean
Bannister to give a lecture at the school and to work with the Resolution Theater Group, directed and sponsored by Di Coleman.
I assisted Ms. Coleman as cultural consultant, set designer, and costume designer, and it was truly a godsend experience.
The experience, however, stands out in stark contrast with that of my initial dealings with the Disney Corporation when they
began their work on Pocahontas. Soon after I had agreed to work with them as an advisor, when I insisted the true story of
Pocahontas should be told and not the fantasy it became, I was dismissed. Disney eventually hired one of my cousins to work on
the movie. She later pretended not to know that Disney would deviate from actual historical fact in order to fabricate the love
story between Pocahontas and John Smith. The movie was universally panned by well-informed members of the indigenous
community when it was released. My cousin benefited from her collaboration with Disney by being able to charge higher fees for
appearances as an entertainer.
My affiliation with the staff and students at St. George’s and Di Coleman remains one of the highlights of my life. There I was,
thousands of miles from home, being accorded respect and recognition that I had never experienced in my homeland. At the
end of the historic performance of the Pocahontas commemorative production (which was also performed at other locations in
England before it went on to the International Folk Festival in Scotland), I marveled at how far I had come to receive such
respect for who I was, instead of the ridicule that is commonplace in the United States. I thanked Head Teacher Jean Bannister
and the people of Gravesend for extending hospitality to me in the same spirit of humanity that they held for my ancestral cousin
Pocahontas. I felt as though I was partially repaying their kindness to her through the work I was engaged in with their children. I
was fortunate that document genocide against me and my people did not extend to the town of Gravesend. The Virginia Indian
presence is a viable part of the ongoing, living history of the town. Our history is shared by them as a legitimate source of
cultural tourism and a source of pride in themselves.
Where do I go from here? As an educator and curriculum writer, I lecture and write about the history and cultural retentions of
my people. I’m an active member of the “powwow circuit:" and I set up exhibits and displays, which celebrate the cultural
possessions of my people. I serve on numerous historic, educational, and cultural boards, where I can have a direct impact on
information and participatory events that are made available to both regional and national audiences. I’m both a Washington
Teachers’ Union building representative and a member of the Local School Restructuring Team, given the mandate to improve
education for young people at the grassroots level. As a practicing professional artist, my culturally based artwork is exhibited
through numerous venues and is, at present, touring the country in a show commemorating seven decades of American art. I’m
the founder/director of the Powhatan Museum and the Center for Indigenous Culture in Washington, which is affiliated with the
City Museum of Washington. I’m the mother of three sons, all of whom are dedicated to do all they can to help eradicate
document genocide that is directed towards indigenous Americans in courtrooms, schoolrooms, living rooms, and film-screening
rooms in this country. My never-ending battle continues, but I am determined that my people and I will survive document
genocide.
====================================================================================================
* The Racial Integrity Act of 1924
[In addition to “unintended” extermination of Indigenous Americans by foreign pathogens, the intentional eradication of
Amerindians by the various European powers had begun with the first “illegal aliens” (the Spanish in the Caribbean) who began
arriving in the Americas in 1492. Switch the numbers around and the 1924 Act to Preserve Racial Integrity was a 20th century
attempt by the Virginia Government to complete the job that they had begun after both the American Revolution and the Civil
War. This 1924 Act had wide impact beyond the borders of the state of Virginia. The most recent attempts to restrict increase
Amerindian DNA in the United States is hidden in the issue of “Illegal Aliens” living in Virginia and those crossing the southern
border of the United States of America. Fortunately, “that horse has already left the barn”. By moving to the next slot of racial
dominance in the United States, Amerindian DNA via the racial classification of so-called “Hispanic” is well on its way to once
again dominate North America as it has already rightfully done in South and Central America. It took the Spanish seven
centuries to wrestle their country back from the Moorish Arabs of North Africa, who had introduced other forms of technological
“advancement” and cultural variations to Christian Spain. Maybe it will take the Amerindian a shorter time to regain dominance in
their hemisphere.]
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the State Registrar of Vital Statistics may as soon as practicable after
the taking effect of this act, prepare a form whereon the racial composition of any individual, as Caucasian, negro, Mongolian,
American Indian, Asiatic Indian, Malay, or any mixture thereof, or any other non-Caucasic strains, and if there be any mixture,
then the racial composition of the parents and other ancestors, in so far as ascertainable, so as to show in what generation
such mixture occurred, may be certified by such individual, which form shall be known as a registration certificate. The State
Registrar may supply to each local registrar a sufficient number of such forms for the purpose of this act; each local registrar
may personally or by deputy, as soon as possible after receiving said forms, have made thereon in duplicate a certificate of the
racial composition as aforesaid, of each person resident in his district, who so desires, born before June fourteenth, nineteen
hundred and twelve, which certificate shall be made over the signature of said person, or in the case of children under fourteen
years of age, over the signature of a parent, guardian, or other person standing in loco parentis. One of said certificates for
each person thus registering in every district shall be forwarded to the State Registrar for his files; the other shall be kept on file
by the local registrar.
Every local registrar may, as soon as practicable, have such registration certificate made by or for each person in his district
who so desires, born before June fourteen, nineteen hundred and twelve, for whom he has not on file a registration certificate,
or a birth certificate.
2. It shall be a felony for any person wilfully or knowingly to make a registration certificate false as to color or race. The wilful
making of a false registration or birth certificate shall be punished by confinement in the penitentiary for one year.
3. For each registration certificate properly made and returned to the State Registrar, the local registrar returning the same
shall be entitled to a fee of twenty-five cents, to be paid by the registrant. Application for registration and for transcript may be
made direct to the State Registrar, who may retain the fee for expenses of his office.
4. No marriage license shall be granted until the clerk or deputy clerk has reasonable assurance that the statements as to color
of both man and woman are correct.
If there is reasonable cause to disbelieve that applicants are of pure white race, when that fact is stated, the clerk or deputy
clerk shall withhold the granting of the license until satisfactory proof is produced that both applicants are "white persons" as
provided for in this act.
The clerk or deputy clerk shall use the same care to assure himself that both applicants are colored, when that fact is claimed.
5. It shall hereafter be unlawful for any white person in this State to marry any save a white person, or a person with no other
admixture of blood than white and American Indian. For the purpose of this act, the term "white person" shall apply only to the
person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian; but persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the
blood of the American Indian and have no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed to be white persons. All laws heretofore
passed and now in effect regarding the intermarriage of white and colored persons shall apply to marriages prohibited by this
act.
6. For carrying out the purposes of this act and to provide the necessary clerical assistance, postage and other expenses of the
State Registrar of Vital Statistics, twenty per cent of the fees received by local registrars under this act shall be paid to the State
Bureau of Vital Statistics, which may be expended by the said bureau for the purposes of this act.
7. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are, to the extent of such inconsistency, hereby repealed.
Front and back views of book that can be ordered from this website for $24.95 plus shipping.
The author on a research grant viewing the original "Powhatan's
Mantle" at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, England.
Mantle" at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, England.
Top: The author at the Pocahontas statue in 1995, Gravesend,
Kent, England
Kent, England
| Rose Powhatan (Pamunkey/ Tauxenent/Dogue) is a member of the Pamunkey Tribe of Virginia via her mother’s family and Assistant to the Chief of the Tauxenents (Dogues) via her father’s family. A teacher for more than thirty years both in the Washington, D.C. Area and the United Kingdom. She is an elder in the Inter-tribal Women's Circle of Virginia; the American Indian Society of Washington, DC; a prominent artist, tribal historian, curriculum writer and storyteller; who has had many exhibits of her work throughout the United States and England. She holds B.F.A.(cum lade) and M.A. degrees from Howard University. She has done extensive graduate work in history, humanities, education and administration at universities in the USA and the UK. Powhatan has served on numerous boards, including the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, American Association of Museums, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and is a member of the American Indianan Society of Washington, D.C. She has published articles in journals and newspapers, such as The Sun (Baltimore), Kent Today (Gravesend, Danford, England), The London Times, and The Washington Post. Her film credits include: Cultural Consultant on the movie and role as a clan mother in "The New World"; Acting in the role of Crispus Attucks' Natick Indian mother in the HBO mini series, "John Adams"; She has appeared in a number of film documentaries including one by the Jamestown Settlement Park on the Powhatan Confederacy. She is currently featured along with one of her totems in an exhibit on the "Tauxenent Indians" of Fairfax County at the Riverbend Park, Great Falls, Virginia. |
Click on photos to enlarge
- Desi is another term used by people from the subcontinent. Wikipedia states
that "Desi or Deshi originated from the Sanskrit word देश deśa-- ('region,
province, country'). It refers to the peoples, cultures, and products of the
Indian subcontinent and, increasingly, to the people, cultures, and products of
their diaspora." Especially in countries like "India, Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka, [where] there are large desi
populations (e.g.) the UK, US, Canada and other western countries as well."
[Document genocide -dok’y mont’ jen’ sid’-, n. 1. the deliberate extermination of a race of people through changing
information about them in an official paper.
* See below: Racial Integrity Act of 1924]
information about them in an official paper.
* See below: Racial Integrity Act of 1924]
Are "Indians" Indians?
Pamunkey/ Pa-mong-key 1. Meaning "Place of the Sweat", 2. Location of the sacred "temple" of the Powhatan Confederacy/Chiefdom. 3. Leading "tribe" in the
32-34 nation Algonquian territory called Attan Akamik.("Our Fertile Country"). 4. America's founding tribe of Powhatan II, Opicahancanoe, Cockacoeske and
Pocahontas. 5. Tribe of Pocahontas
In 2016 the Pamunkey Nation of King William County, Virginia obtained it long awaited Federal Recognition. If American history was all inclusive the historic leaders
of the Pamunkey, Powhatan II, Opichancanoe and Cockacoeske would be among the Founding Fathers and Mothers of the country that became the United States
of America. Although recognized by the King of England in the 17thy century with the Treaty of Middle Plantacion, the British Colonial Government and the Virginia
Government, the Pamunkey became the 567th tribe to be recognized by the Federal Government as late as 2016. This error in judgement was partly due to the
effects on the fledgling country with Opechancanough's Wars of attempted expulsion of English encroachment. The English had recognized Powhatan as an
emperor over a vast Eastern Woodland territory, calling it a "Kingdom" because of its extensive influence and power. The Pamunkey, considered American
"royalty" retained sway over tribes from North Carolina, across to Maryland and into Washington, DC. This image was evident in 1677 when the Queen of
Pamunkey signed the treaty with Britain that recognized her as over "vassal" leaders. Yet the Federal Government, its institutions (The National Museum of the
American Indian in particular), historians and contemporary writers have never given the Pamunkey leaders the credit accorded to other persons in American
history.
*Webmasters Note: This website has attempted to correct the above historical error in documentary inclusion by promoting the Powhatan Confederacy's
accomplishments, especially in the Nation's Capital of Washington, DC, the city in a historic territory originally under Powhatan II's sway before 1607.
AMERICA'S IGNORANCE OF NATIVE HISTORY:
THE CURRENT CONTROVERSY OVER WASHINGTON, DC's "INDIANS" (2019)
Note that as of this writing (2019) the District of Columbia does NOT have a recognized Native American tribe. However, most arrivals to the Nation's
Capital have no clue about the area's Indigenous Amerindian families and Native history, many of whom have never left DC's Metropolitan Area.
Therefore, written misinformation is rampant. A prime political area, Washington, DC has been targeted by a group of Maryland's Indians, the
Piscataways, and some uninformed supporters, as the inheritors of the extinct Nacotchtank tribe whose demise and survived remnants left DC's Metro
Area in the 1700s. The fight for local recognition has both been misleading and very contentious. Currently, at best, Washington, DC is now a
CONTESTED area once mainly controlled by America's only English described Empire governed by Wahunsennachaw or Powhatan II and who described
the lay of the land with surrounding tribes as having "towns", "chief's houses", "petty kings" and "villages."
The Piscataway, a group of Maryland's state recognized tribes, mainly composed of families of interrelated cousins, have continued to try to convince some District
of Columbia's organizations that "they are indigenous to DC". None one has yet proven DNA connection to the disappeared Nacotchtank or Anacostin Indians who,
in the 1700s, were forced out of DC's Metropolitan Area by an English bombardment of their town. Their annihilation in DC was caused by the English who had
allied themselves with the Potowomek (of today's Stafford County, VA), their accomplices in the earlier kidnapping of Pocahontas. The dispute and killing off of
most Nacotchtank seemed to have been the result of competition over the lucrative Beaver Trade controlled by the Nacotchtank. Their remnant survivors were
believed to have joined tribes elsewhere, possibly in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia's Tauxenent and Rappahannock members of Powhatan's extensive
Confederacy. During this English instigated displacement of large Amerindian populations, many of the original Native populations eventually lost their languages
and identities. Today's Land Acknowledgment is trying to compensate for these wrongs..
TODAY'S NATIVE AMERICANS OF WASHINGTON, DC
As a Federal City, Washington, DC houses a high number of Native American organizations and Amerindians from around the USA and Latin America, especially
the arriving "Hispanics" with high percentages of Amerindian DNA. However,the Native population in the Nation's Capital is composed of many families of the
Pamunkey and Tauxenent, as stated by some writers. No proven Nacotchtank survivors remain. For example, the PowhatanMuseum.com is headquartered in
Washington, DC whose website's co-founder, Rose Powhatan (Pamunkey/Tauxenent) and her children were born in Gallagher and Providence Hospitals in DC. As
an Assistant-to-the-Chief of the Tauxenents, elder, Wisdom-Keeper, tribal historian, artist, educator and storyteller, she, similar to her large family of Indigenous
Washingtonians, is very active in the local community.
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THE NEWLY RECOGNIZED TRIBES: FEDERAL & STATE
32-34 nation Algonquian territory called Attan Akamik.("Our Fertile Country"). 4. America's founding tribe of Powhatan II, Opicahancanoe, Cockacoeske and
Pocahontas. 5. Tribe of Pocahontas
In 2016 the Pamunkey Nation of King William County, Virginia obtained it long awaited Federal Recognition. If American history was all inclusive the historic leaders
of the Pamunkey, Powhatan II, Opichancanoe and Cockacoeske would be among the Founding Fathers and Mothers of the country that became the United States
of America. Although recognized by the King of England in the 17thy century with the Treaty of Middle Plantacion, the British Colonial Government and the Virginia
Government, the Pamunkey became the 567th tribe to be recognized by the Federal Government as late as 2016. This error in judgement was partly due to the
effects on the fledgling country with Opechancanough's Wars of attempted expulsion of English encroachment. The English had recognized Powhatan as an
emperor over a vast Eastern Woodland territory, calling it a "Kingdom" because of its extensive influence and power. The Pamunkey, considered American
"royalty" retained sway over tribes from North Carolina, across to Maryland and into Washington, DC. This image was evident in 1677 when the Queen of
Pamunkey signed the treaty with Britain that recognized her as over "vassal" leaders. Yet the Federal Government, its institutions (The National Museum of the
American Indian in particular), historians and contemporary writers have never given the Pamunkey leaders the credit accorded to other persons in American
history.
*Webmasters Note: This website has attempted to correct the above historical error in documentary inclusion by promoting the Powhatan Confederacy's
accomplishments, especially in the Nation's Capital of Washington, DC, the city in a historic territory originally under Powhatan II's sway before 1607.
AMERICA'S IGNORANCE OF NATIVE HISTORY:
THE CURRENT CONTROVERSY OVER WASHINGTON, DC's "INDIANS" (2019)
Note that as of this writing (2019) the District of Columbia does NOT have a recognized Native American tribe. However, most arrivals to the Nation's
Capital have no clue about the area's Indigenous Amerindian families and Native history, many of whom have never left DC's Metropolitan Area.
Therefore, written misinformation is rampant. A prime political area, Washington, DC has been targeted by a group of Maryland's Indians, the
Piscataways, and some uninformed supporters, as the inheritors of the extinct Nacotchtank tribe whose demise and survived remnants left DC's Metro
Area in the 1700s. The fight for local recognition has both been misleading and very contentious. Currently, at best, Washington, DC is now a
CONTESTED area once mainly controlled by America's only English described Empire governed by Wahunsennachaw or Powhatan II and who described
the lay of the land with surrounding tribes as having "towns", "chief's houses", "petty kings" and "villages."
The Piscataway, a group of Maryland's state recognized tribes, mainly composed of families of interrelated cousins, have continued to try to convince some District
of Columbia's organizations that "they are indigenous to DC". None one has yet proven DNA connection to the disappeared Nacotchtank or Anacostin Indians who,
in the 1700s, were forced out of DC's Metropolitan Area by an English bombardment of their town. Their annihilation in DC was caused by the English who had
allied themselves with the Potowomek (of today's Stafford County, VA), their accomplices in the earlier kidnapping of Pocahontas. The dispute and killing off of
most Nacotchtank seemed to have been the result of competition over the lucrative Beaver Trade controlled by the Nacotchtank. Their remnant survivors were
believed to have joined tribes elsewhere, possibly in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia's Tauxenent and Rappahannock members of Powhatan's extensive
Confederacy. During this English instigated displacement of large Amerindian populations, many of the original Native populations eventually lost their languages
and identities. Today's Land Acknowledgment is trying to compensate for these wrongs..
TODAY'S NATIVE AMERICANS OF WASHINGTON, DC
As a Federal City, Washington, DC houses a high number of Native American organizations and Amerindians from around the USA and Latin America, especially
the arriving "Hispanics" with high percentages of Amerindian DNA. However,the Native population in the Nation's Capital is composed of many families of the
Pamunkey and Tauxenent, as stated by some writers. No proven Nacotchtank survivors remain. For example, the PowhatanMuseum.com is headquartered in
Washington, DC whose website's co-founder, Rose Powhatan (Pamunkey/Tauxenent) and her children were born in Gallagher and Providence Hospitals in DC. As
an Assistant-to-the-Chief of the Tauxenents, elder, Wisdom-Keeper, tribal historian, artist, educator and storyteller, she, similar to her large family of Indigenous
Washingtonians, is very active in the local community.
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THE NEWLY RECOGNIZED TRIBES: FEDERAL & STATE
(Above) Pictographic Pamunkey Treaty with the Governor of
Virginia on behalf of the King of England.
Virginia on behalf of the King of England.
(1) Pamunkey: Federal Recognition of a Founding Tribe
(2) Six More Tribes Slated for Federal Recognition!
(2) Six More Tribes Slated for Federal Recognition!
(Above) Tribal Councilmen Jeff Brown (Pamunkey), left, and Gary Miles
(Pamunkey), hold a deer as their former Chief, Kevin Brown (Pamunkey),
presents it to 2016 Vice President Elect, Gov. Tim Kaine, second from left, during
the annual tax tribute from the Virginia Indians in Richmond, Nov. 25, 2009.Alexa
Welch Edlund/AP/Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Pamunkey), hold a deer as their former Chief, Kevin Brown (Pamunkey),
presents it to 2016 Vice President Elect, Gov. Tim Kaine, second from left, during
the annual tax tribute from the Virginia Indians in Richmond, Nov. 25, 2009.Alexa
Welch Edlund/AP/Richmond Times-Dispatch
(Above:) Leaders of the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock,
Monacan, and Nansemond tribes, Virginia Indian Tribal Alliance for Life, and Senators Kaine and Warner
in 2018
Monacan, and Nansemond tribes, Virginia Indian Tribal Alliance for Life, and Senators Kaine and Warner
in 2018
Years of fighting finally paid
off. CONGRATULATIONS TO
THE CHIEFS, THEIR PEOPLE
and Virginia's Senators
Kaine and Warner for their
unrelenting help!
off. CONGRATULATIONS TO
THE CHIEFS, THEIR PEOPLE
and Virginia's Senators
Kaine and Warner for their
unrelenting help!
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