SURRY, VA

The Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, Incorporated  will host its annual PowWow, September 18 & 19, 2010, at the Surry County Parks and Recreation Center, Hwy 10 at Hwy 31, Surry, VA.  

The event features two days of Native Dancing, Drumming, Crafts, Demonstrations and Food.  Stan Piersa, The Flintknapper, will demonstrate his trade with arrow making; John “Blackfeather” Jefferies will demonstrate Native American survival techniques; Pam Fields will be demonstrating basket making and face painting for children.   

This year’s festival is free of charge in observance of the tribe’s recent achievement of Virginia State Tribal Recognition.

After four years of perseverance, on February 26, 2010, the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, Inc., was granted Virginia state tribal recognition by a legislative act of the 2010 Virginia General Assembly.  On Friday February 26, the House of Delegates voted 91 - 5 in favor of the Senate Joint Resolution SJ 12 which had previously passed the Senate with a vote of 40 - 0.  

Following the guidelines for recognition, the historical documents and genealogy of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia were reviewed by the Virginia Council on Indians (VCI).  During the review, the tribe was acknowledged to be an historical tribe of Virginia.  Ten Nottoway descendent family lines were validated representing all of the families of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia Tribal Council.  

Citizens of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia are descendants of the original Nottoway Indian Tribe, who lived in the area south of the James River, prior to the arrival of Europeans in the early 1600’s. 

The Nottoway were coerced by the Colonial Government of Virginia onto a 40,000 plus acre Circle and Square track reservation established on April 28, 1705, in present day Southampton and Sussex Counties.  Many Nottoway ancestors owned parts of the Circle and Square Reservation until the middle 1800’s, even as the Commonwealth of Virginia permitted land speculators to acquire the reservation land.  Nottoway citizens still live on or have repurchased land within or close to the geographical confines of the original reservation land.  

Chief Lynette Lewis Allston of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, Inc. said that the tribe is “very pleased with the correction in history that the vote of the Virginia General Assembly has enabled”.  

Bring blankets and lawn chairs for 2 days of cultural activities that the entire family will enjoy.  Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia, Incorporated, P. O. Box 246, Capron, VA  23829, www.nottowayindians.org