Pamunkey Indians Today
Today, there are about 200 tribal members, many of whom live at least part time on their 1,200-acre (4.9 km2) reservation.
The Pamunkey have been able to survive because of their ability to adapt as a tribe. Withstanding pressure to give up their reservation lands has helped them maintain traditional ways. Men use some of the old methods for fishing, part of the tribe's traditional heritage. They also continue to hunt and trap on reservation lands.
In 1918 the tribe built a shad hatchery to ensure continuation of an important food source. When shad are caught, the eggs of females are taken and placed into a bucket. Sperm from males are put into the same bucket. At holding tanks, the fertilized eggs are allowed to grow and hatch. Once the new fish are grown enough, usually after 21 days, they are flushed back into the river. Chief Miles estimates that seven million fry were put back into the river in 1998 and probably triple that amount in 1999.
Read more about this topic: Pamunkey
Famous quotes containing the words indians and/or today:
“The Indians invited us to lodge with them, but my companion inclined to go to the log camp on the carry. This camp was close and dirty, and had an ill smell, and I preferred to accept the Indians’ offer, if we did not make a camp for ourselves; for, though they were dirty, too, they were more in the open air, and were much more agreeable, and even refined company, than the lumberers.... So we went to the Indians’ camp or wigwam.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The late Président de Montesquieu told me that he knew how to be blind—he had been so for such a long time—but I swear that I do not know how to be deaf: I cannot get used to it, and I am as humiliated and distressed by it today as I was during the first week. No philosophy in the world can palliate deafness.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)