The Accohannock Indian Tribe, Inc. is a

state-recognized tribe State-recognized tribes in the United States are organizations that identify as Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by a process established unde ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

and a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

of individuals who identify as descendants of the

Accohannock people The Accomac people were a historic Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe in Accomack County, Virginia, Accomack and Northampton County, Virginia, Northampton counties in Virginia.Frederick Webb Hodge, ''Handbook'', 8. They w ...

. The Accohannock Indian Tribe is not

federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

as a

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, tribal nation, or similar concept is any extant or historical clan, tribe, band, nation, or other group or community of Native Americans in the Unit ...

. The historic

were an

Eastern Algonquian The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and adj ...

–speaking tribe who lived on the

Eastern Shore of Virginia The Eastern Shore of Virginia consists of two counties ( Accomack and Northampton) on the Atlantic coast detached from the mainland of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The region is part of the Delmarva Peninsula and is s ...

Organization

In 1995, the Accohannock Indian Tribe formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, based in Marion Station, Maryland. Rudy Hall served as their first chief. Clarence "Lone Wolf" Tyler served as a chief in 2018. Pat Carson is their president. Their recent annual expenses were $506,148 and annual revenue was $547,939.

State recognition

Maryland Governor

Lawrence Hogan Lawrence Joseph Hogan Sr. (September 30, 1928 – April 20, 2017) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Congressman, representing the 5th congressional district of Maryland from January 3, 1969, to January 3, 1975. In 1974, ...

formally recognized this organization as a state-recognized tribe on December 19, 2017, through Executive Order 01.01.2017.31.

Petition for federal recognition

On January 18, 1995, Rudy Hall in sent a letter of intent to petition for federal recognition on behalf of the Accohannock Indian Tribal Association, Inc. They have not followed up with a petition for federal recognition, however.

Controversies

The group states that beginning in the late 17th century, Accohannock people purposefully intermarried with European settlers and successfully hid their Native American identity while maintaining their culture and clan structure for three centuries. "Indeed, the Tribe's retreat from public life persisted for nearly three hundred years, from approximately 1705 until in or around 1993." The U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

took steps to "enforce financial reporting requirements for the Accohannock Indian Tribe," after the group failed to file its financial report for 2009 after spending more than "$1 million in federal funds from three different federal programs." They received $500,000 (2007), $986,000 (2008), and $441,000 (2009) in direct federal funding. In 2020, ''Accohannock Indian Tribe, Inc., et al. v. Hinman'', 19-CV-20000075, filed in Somerset County, Maryland, the organization sued Michael J. Hinman, who had previously served as tribal chairman until he was voted out in June 2019. The plaintiffs accused Hinman of "

ultra vires ('beyond the powers') is a Latin phrase used in law to describe an act which requires legal authority but is done without it. Its opposite, an act done under proper authority, is ('within the powers'). Acts that are may equivalently be termed ...

acts in violation of his fiduciary duties, including unilaterally disposing of tribal assets." The complaint said that Hinman refused to recognize the outcome of the 2019 election or to recognize the new leadership. Hinman alleged that the plaintiffs were allies of or members of "the Wolf Clan — an insurgent group of persons claiming indigenous, but not Accohannock descent — that had attempted to infiltrate the Tribe." The State Trail Court, hearing the case under Maryland corporate law, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. In 2021, the Accohannock Indian Tribe, the Accohannock Indian Tribes Inc., and Michael J. Hinman filed a lawsuit against Clarence Tyler, Jerry Wimbrow, Bill Tapman, Jean Laughman, Vivian Tyler, Sandi Ennis, Julie Gilroy, Kenny Gilroy, Diane Baldwin, and the Honorable Sidney S. Campen Jr., judge of the circuit court in

Somerset County, Maryland Somerset County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,620, making it the second-least populous county in Maryland. The county seat is Princess Anne. The county was named for Mary ...

for "alleged constitutional and statutory violations" and requested a restraining order. Their complaint was dismissed. Hinman unsuccessfully tried to argue for tribal sovereign immunity for the organization, which both courts rejected. The case summary states: "Plaintiffs here cannot demonstrate continuity between the urrentTribe and the historic Accohannock. Put differently, Plaintiffs fail to carry their burden of showing that the Tribe is a modern-day successor to, rather than a recreation of, a historic sovereign entity. ... e Accohannock were fully assimilated into the general populations of Virginia and Maryland; its members lived amongst, and intermarried, with white settlers, and largely disclaiming any outward signifiers of their Indian identity." The summary continues, "Simply put, Plaintiffs' own evidence suggests that the Tribe is a reincarnation of the historic Accohannock, motivated in part by several members' recent discovery of their ethnicity and genealogy."

Activities

The organization hosts "an annual cultural festival/ pow wow and provide educational demonstrations at schools within the eastern shore of Maryland public system, including colleges."

References

External links

Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Accohannock Indian Tribe Cultural organizations based in Maryland Non-profit organizations based in Maryland 1995 establishments in Maryland State-recognized tribes in the United States