The 250-acre Mattaponi reservation sits high above the Mattaponi River, granting a prized view of a wide river bend with wooded shores. It’s quiet, peaceful and among the oldest reservation lands in the U.S. By mid-November, the leaves had turned, and the native hunters took to the woods.
Days before Thanksgiving, the tribe honored a nearly 350-year-old treaty with the state of Virginia. A symbolic tax tribute of deer hunted by the Mattaponi and Pamunkey tribes was placed at the feet of the governor, which granted Native hunting and fishing rights during the colonial era. The tribute signifies the protections and rights the state owes the Mattaponi.
As the tribe celebrated its past, it also took steps this month to secure a better future.
On November 7th, the Mattaponi submitted a petition for federal recognition to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. The designation grants more sovereignty in tribal government, more access to social services and funding for cultural programs for its 380 members. Another Virginia tribe, the Nottoway, also announced its bid for federal recognition on November 25th.
But the tribe’s relationship with the state has also been marred by many historic wrongs against the Mattaponi and other native tribes. In 1924, the Racial Integrity Act, which required babies born in Virginian to be classified as either white or colored, erased the ethnic identity of indigenous people in Virginia. The law and a lack of funding made documenting the Mattaponi’s history long and hard, which impacted the tribe’s application for federal recognition.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has written a letter of support to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs.
Mattaponi Chief Mark Falling Star Custalow and Lois Morning Glory Custalow Carter, who coordinated the tribe’s petition efforts, spoke about the federal petition and the complicated history between the tribe, state and federal governments.
The interviews have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Chief Mark Falling Star Custalow
(With federal recognition) we will have the government-to-government relationship with the United States, not just the state of Virginia. It will help our children to get further education, health benefits, and we can help some of our elders. And just for us to progress and grow, and not rely on grants to get us to where we need to get. This is a way where we can be self-sufficient.
I think we were entitled. Our reservation used to be over 5,000 acres. And after the Civil War, King William County basically said, Hey, they don't need all that land. We can give them a (few) hundred acres and that's it.
Then recently, we ended up purchasing some land adjacent to the tribe. And what we had to do with that is deed it back to the state, and for them to put it in trust for the reservation. So, we had to purchase our land, some of our lands back, then deed (them) over to the state for it to become a reservation property.
Lois Morning Glory Custalow Carter
When it comes to federal recognition, we're going through the Office of Federal Acknowledgement in D.C., or Bureau of Indian Affairs. You have to prove who you are and where you came from. There’s many Native Americans, whether it’s Mattaponi, Chickahominy or Rappahannock — other tribes will say, why do we have to prove who we are?
To be honest with you, that (1924) Racial Integrity Act had everything to do with destroying our heritage, destroying us as people. Because you had people here in Virginia that went around trying to dispose of our birth certificates at (The Bureau of) Vital Statistics.
You also had the same people come in there changing birth certificates. You were either this or you were that. There was no in-between. There were no Native American (categories) here. That's the way it was. But now we're gaining ground and we're coming back to the way it should have been all along.
Going through all this history and going through where we were and where we came from, meant a lot to me, and I don't see any way why the government should deny us federal recognition. We've got all the proof.
Reach Leah Small at leahmariesmall@gmail.com.