Nansemond - Federal Recognition

Federal Recognition

The Nansemond and other Virginia tribes have not been accorded Federal recognition by the US government, but a bill to recognize six tribes has been introduced into both houses of Congress. It would cover the following: Chickahominy Indian Tribe; Eastern Chickahominy Indian Tribe; Upper Mattaponi Tribe; Rappahannock Tribe, Inc.; Monacan Indian Nation; and Nansemond Indian Tribe. In 2009 supporters again proposed the "Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act". 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. This is the furthest the bill has gotten in the Congressional process. The bill currently has a hold on it placed for "jurisdictional concerns" as Senator Tom Coburn (R-Ok) believes requests for tribal recognition should be processed through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a process the Virginia tribes cannot utilize because of Walter Plecker, the first registrar (1912-1946) of the then-newly created Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics, who reclassified all records of Virginia-born tribal members as "colored".