The Nansemond are the indigenous people of the
Nansemond River
The Nansemond River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the James River in Virginia in the United States. Virginian colonists named the river ...
, a 20-mile long tributary of the
James River
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...
in Virginia. Nansemond people lived in settlements on both sides of the Nansemond River where they fished (with the name "Nansemond" meaning "fishing point" in
Algonquian), harvested oysters, hunted, and farmed in fertile soil.
Gradually pushed off their lands in the colonial and following periods, the Nansemond struggled to maintain their culture. They reorganized in the late 20th century and gained
state recognition from Virginia in 1985. They gained
federal recognition
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 ...
in 2018 after Congress passed a bill. Many members of the tribe still live on former ancestral lands in
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
,
Chesapeake Chesapeake often refers to:
*Chesapeake people, a Native American tribe also known as the Chesepian
* The Chesapeake, a.k.a. Chesapeake Bay
*Delmarva Peninsula, also known as the Chesapeake Peninsula
Chesapeake may also refer to:
Populated plac ...
, and surrounding cities.
Language
The Nansemond language is believed to have been
Algonquian, similar to that of many other Atlantic coastal tribes. But only six words have been preserved, which are not enough to identify it. The six words, which may have been corrupted in memory by the time they were written down in 1901, are ''nĭkătwĭn'' (one), ''näkătwĭn'' (two), ''nikwásăti'' (three), ''toisíaw’'' (four), ''mishä́naw'' (five), and ''marímo'' (dog).
History
The Nansemond people were members of the
Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom
Tsenacommacah (pronounced in English; "densely inhabited land"; also written Tscenocomoco, Tsenacomoco, Tenakomakah, Attanoughkomouck, and Attan-Akamik) is the name given by the Powhatan people to their native homeland, the area encompassing all ...
, which consisted of about 30 tribes, estimated to have numbered more than 20,000 people in the coastal area of what became Virginia. They paid fealty to a
paramount chief
A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and arch ...
, known as the Powhatan.
[Waugaman, Sandra F. and Danielle-Moretti-Langholtz, Ph.D. ''We're Still Here: Contemporary Virginia Indians Tell Their Stories'', Richmond, VA: Palari Publishing, 2006 (revised edition)] They lived along the
Nansemond River
The Nansemond River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the James River in Virginia in the United States. Virginian colonists named the river ...
, an area they called ''Chuckatuck''.
[ In 1607, when a group of settlers led by the explorer John Smith arrived on the north side of the James River and established the settlement of Jamestown, the Nansemond were initially wary.][Dr. Helen C. Rountree, "Nansemond History"]
, Nansemond Tribal Association, accessed 16 Sep 2009
In 1607, the Jamestown settlers had begun to explorer the Nansemond River, following the river's oyster
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...
beds. Relationships between the colonists and the Nansemond, already strained by Indian raids, deteriorated further in 1609 when a group of Jamestown settlers were sent to the Indians to trade ratchets and copper for food. The colonists never returned. A search party was formed and coming upon some Indians, were told the group was sacrificed, their brains cut and scraped from their skulls with mussel shells. In retaliation the colonists went to Dumpling Island, where the head chief lived and where the tribe's temples and sacred items were kept.[Karenne Wood, ed., ''The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail''](_blank)
, Charlottesville, VA: Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2007 The raiding party destroyed the burial sites of tribal leaders and temples. Houses and religious sites were ransacked for valuables, such as pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...
s and copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
ornaments, which were customarily buried with the bodies of leaders. By the 1630s, colonists had begun to encroach on Nansemond lands. The two peoples had differing ideas about the concept of ownership of land.
Marriage of John Bass and Elizabeth
John Bass, a colonist in early 17th-century Virginia, married Elizabeth, the daughter of the leader of the Nansemond Nation. After she was baptized into the established Anglican Church
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
of the colony, they married on August 14, 1638. Bass had been born 7 September 1616; he died in 1699. They had eight children together (Elizabeth, John, Jordan, Keziah, Nathaniel, Richard, Samuel, and William). Although Christianized, Elizabeth likely raised their children in Nansemond culture. The tribe had a matrilineal
Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's Lineage (anthropology), lineage – and which can in ...
kinship
In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
system in which the children were considered to be born into their mother's clan and people.
Some Nansemond claim descent from this marriage. Based on her research, Dr. Helen C. Rountree says that all current Nansemond descend from this marriage.
William H. Weaver is sitting; Augustus Bass is standing behind him. The Weaver family were indenture
An indenture is a legal contract that reflects or covers a debt or purchase obligation. It specifically refers to two types of practices: in historical usage, an indentured servant status, and in modern usage, it is an instrument used for commercia ...
d East Indians
The East Indians, also called East Indian Catholics or Bombay East Indians, are an ethno-religious Indian Christian community native to the Seven Islands of Bombay and the neighbouring Mumbai Metropolitan Area of the Konkan Division.
Histo ...
(from modern-day India and Pakistan) who were free in Lancaster County by about 1710. By 1732 they were "taxables" ote:_free_blacks_(generally_free_people_of_color)_and_Indians_(Native_Americans)_had_to_pay_a_tax.html" ;"title="free_people_of_color.html" ;"title="ote: free blacks (generally ote:_free_blacks_(generally_free_people_of_color)_and_Indians_(Native_Americans)_had_to_pay_a_tax">free_people_of_color.html"_;"title="ote:_free_blacks_(generally_free_people_of_color">ote:_free_blacks_(generally_free_people_of_color)_and_Indians_(Native_Americans)_had_to_pay_a_taxin_Norfolk_County,_Virginia.html" ;"title="free people of color">ote: free blacks (generally free people of color) and Indians (Native Americans) had to pay a tax">free_people_of_color.html" ;"title="ote: free blacks (generally free people of color">ote: free blacks (generally free people of color) and Indians (Native Americans) had to pay a taxin Norfolk County, Virginia">Norfolk County, and taxable "Mulatto" landowners in nearby Hertford County, North Carolina by 1741. By 1820 there were 164 "free colored" members of the family in Hertford County. In the 1830s some registered as Nansemond Indians in Norfolk County. Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
, "Nansemond Indians, ca. 1900."
Affected by encroaching colonists throughout the seventeenth century, the Nansemond tribe eventually split apart. Those who had become Christians adopted European manners of living and stayed along the Nansemond River as farmers. The other Nansemond, known as the "Pochick," engaged in an unsuccessful war with New England colonists in 1644, and the survivors of the conflict fled southwest to the Nottoway River
The Nottoway River is a river in the U.S. state, U.S. State of Virginia and northeastern North Carolina that is 155 miles (249 kilometers) in length. The river begins in Prince Edward County, Virginia, Prince Edward County and merges with the Bla ...
, where they were assigned a reservation by the House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...
. By 1744 they had ceased using the reservation and gone to live with the Nottoway Indians ote:_this_was_an_Iroquoian-language_tribe.html" ;"title="Iroquoian.html" ;"title="ote: this was an Iroquoian">ote: this was an Iroquoian-language tribe">Iroquoian.html" ;"title="ote: this was an Iroquoian">ote: this was an Iroquoian-language tribeon another reservation nearby ... The Nansemond sold their reservation in 1792 and were known as "citizen" Indians.
Nansemond today
Today, the Nansemond have about 400 tribal members.[''Tribal Leaders Directory''. Tribal Leaders Directory , Indian Affairs. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2022, from https://www.bia.gov/bia/ois/tribal-leaders-directory/tribes/nansemond-indian-tribe] As a "citizen tribe", they gained state recognition in 1984 and federal recognition in 2009. The current chief is Keith Anderson.
They hold monthly tribal meetings at the Indiana United Methodist Church (which was founded in 1850 as a mission for the Nansemond). The tribe hosts an annual pow wow every year in August. The tribe has also operated a museum and gift shops.
Restoration of Mattanock
In 2013 the Nansemond came to an agreement with the City of Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
, which transferred to them from an riverfront park along the Nansemond River, their ancestral territory.
The agreement was the result of many years of discussion. The City of Suffolk established a task force to consider the project, which supported giving the site to the Nansemond despite being composed mostly of non-Indians. The tribe had to supply detailed plans for the project, including drawings, and they also had to submit documentation to the Mattanock Town task force explaining the type of non-profit foundation that would be created once the deed to the land was given to the tribe. Helen C. Rountree, whose research helped identify the location of Mattanock Town, helped the tribe, which planned to base their reconstruction on archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
and other research to ensure that longhouses
A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America.
Many were built from timber and often rep ...
and other structures had the proper historic dimensions.[Bobby Whitehead, "Nansemond Indians seek to reconstruct Mattanock Town"]
''Indian Country Today'', accessed 16 September 2009.
In November 2010, the Suffolk City Council agreed to transfer this land back to the Nansemond. In June 2011, everything stalled because of concerns that the tribe had with the proposed development agreement. In August 2013, the City of Suffolk transferred Nansemond ancestral lands back to the tribe. That November, members of the Nansemond Tribe gathered at the historic site of Mattanock Town and blessed the land.
The tribe will use this site to reconstruct the settlement of Mattanock, as well as a community center, museum, pow wow ground, among other facilities. They plan to attract tourists by demonstrating their heritage. This project was developed, explored and negotiated between the tribe and city over a period of more than ten years.
Federal recognition
The Nansemond and other landless Virginia tribes did not gain federal recognition until Congress passed a bill for it in 2018. A bill to recognize six tribes was introduced into both houses of Congress. It covered the following: the Chickahominy Indian Tribe; Eastern Chickahominy
The Chickahominy are a federally recognized tribe of Virginian Native Americans who primarily live in Charles City County, located along the James River midway between Richmond and Williamsburg in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This area of the ...
Indian Tribe; Upper Mattaponi
The Mattaponi () tribe is one of only two Virginia Indian tribes in the Commonwealth of Virginia that owns reservation land, which it has held since the colonial era. The larger Mattaponi Indian Tribe lives in King William County on the reserv ...
Tribe; Rappahannock Tribe
The Rappahannock are a federally recognized tribe in Virginia and one of the eleven state-recognized tribes. They are made up of descendants of several small Algonquian-speaking tribes who merged in the late 17th century. In January 2018, they ...
, Inc.; Monacan Indian Nation; and Nansemond Indian Tribe.
These landless tribes had each applied for federal recognition since the late 20th century through the regular process of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
, in the Department of Interior. They had difficulty showing cultural and political continuity since the period of their tribes' dealings with the colony and state. In part this was due to racial discrimination by the European Americans, magnified by Virginia's having been a slave society. As the Nansemond and other tribal peoples intermarried with whites or African Americans, European Americans assumed they were no longer "Indian". But if the mother was Nansemond, she usually raised her children in their tradition. During the early 20th century, Virginia passed a law establishing a binary system of the "one drop rule
The one-drop rule is a legal principle of racial classification that was prominent in the 20th-century United States. It asserted that any person with even one ancestor of Black people, black ancestry ("one drop" of "black blood")Davis, F. Jame ...
", requiring each individual to be classified as white or colored (the latter covered anyone with any known African ancestry, regardless of other ancestry or cultural context). Administrators refused to acknowledge families who claimed to be Indian and generally classified them as black, destroying the continuity of records. By contrast, tribal members who were Catholic continued to be registered by churches as Indian for baptisms, marriages and funerals.
Supporters of these tribes gaining federal recognition proposed a bill in 2003, the " Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act". In 2009 supporters again proposed this bill and by June 2009, the bill passed the House Committee on Natural Resources and the US House of Representatives. A companion bill was sent to the Senate the date after the bill was voted on in the House. That bill was sent to the Senate's Committee on Indian Affairs. On October 22, 2009 the bill was approved by the Senate committee and on December 23 was placed on the Senate's Legislative calendar. The bill had a hold placed for "jurisdictional concerns" by Senator Tom Coburn
Thomas Allen Coburn (March 14, 1948 – March 28, 2020) was an American politician and physician who served as a United States senator for Oklahoma from 2005, until his resignation in 2015. A Republican, he previously served as a United St ...
(R-OK), who urged they apply for recognition through the BIA.
But as noted above, the Virginia tribes have lost valuable documentation because of the state's passage of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924
In 1924, the Virginia General Assembly enacted the Racial Integrity Act. The act reinforced racial segregation by prohibiting interracial marriage and classifying as "white" a person "who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasia ...
, requiring classification of all residents as white or black (colored). As implemented by Walter Plecker
Walter Ashby Plecker (April 2, 1861 – August 2, 1947) was an American physician and public health advocate who was the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics, serving from 1912 to 1946. He was a leader of the Anglo-Saxon Club ...
, the first registrar (1912–1946) of the newly created Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics, records of many Virginia-born tribal members were changed from Indian to "colored" because he decided some families were mixed race and was imposing the one-drop rule
The one-drop rule is a legal principle of racial classification that was prominent in the 20th-century United States. It asserted that any person with even one ancestor of black ancestry ("one drop" of "black blood")Davis, F. James. Frontlin" ...
. After more delays, the bill was finally passed in January 2018, and six tribes in Virginia gained federal recognition.
References
External links
Nansemond Indian Nation
Virginia Council on Indians
, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nansemond
Native American tribes in Virginia
Powhatan Confederacy
Federally recognized tribes in the United States
State-recognized tribes in the United States