12 July 2006
Virginia Indians Embark on Historic Trip to England
Journey marks the 400th anniversary of the first British settlement in America.
Washington -- A delegation of 55 American Indians from eight different tribes is embarking July 12 on the first official visit by Virginia Indians to the United Kingdom in over 230 years.
The visit is part of commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, in 1607. The delegation will visit Gravesend, England, the site of the grave of Pocahontas, the daughter of Algonquian Paramount Chief Powhatan, who traveled to England with her English husband, John Rolfe, and died shortly after their arrival in 1617.
Sponsors of the cultural tour are the federal Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission and the Jamestown 2007 British Committee.
The trip's purpose “is to strengthen the bonds between Virginia Indians and our friends in Britain with whom we share so much history," said H. Benson Dendy III, a vice chair of the federal commission. "The mission of this trip is to foster among the British people a greater understanding of the indigenous peoples of the New World when the Jamestown settlers arrived in 1607."
"What we are celebrating is the fact that we have survived for 400 years and that our culture has remained intact and that today we can tell the world who we are," said Stephen Adkins, chief of the Chickahominy tribe and a member of the federal commission. "We faced an unseemly number of obstacles and met them head on."
Some of the goals of the visit, Dendy said, include addressing "the myths and misunderstandings about the Virginia Indians, and to recognize the pivotal role they play in our history.”
The native tribes of Virginia "were part of a very developed society with a strong governance structure" when the English settled Jamestown, he said.
"We will remember [past] Virginia Indians and the sacrifices they made, sometimes against their will, as we journey to the United Kingdom," Dendy said, "It has been too long since an official delegation has gone from Virginia Indian tribes to the United Kingdom to share their stories in their words."
The eight tribes composing the delegation are the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Monacan Indian Nation, Nansemond, Pamunkey, Rappahannock and Upper Mattaponi.
The delegation participated in a traditional departure ceremony featuring a ceremonial dance at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington on July 12.
Speaking at the ceremony, Wayne Adkins of the Chickahominy tribe, a member of the Commonwealth of Virginia's Jamestown 2007 Steering Committee, said, "We're about to embark on a historic trip to England, where we'll be greeted as heads of state of our individual Indian nations, and that's very humbling to us."
The British government recognizes the tribes as individual sovereign nations, the Smithsonian press release noted.
Adkins introduced a group of 11 dancers and nine drummers, drawn from all eight tribes, who performed a traditional tribal dance that is both a "welcome dance" and a "blessing of the ground" in which the performers sprinkled tobacco on the ground. The ceremony also will be the first dance the delegation performs when it arrives in England.
In addition to visiting the grave of Pocahontas in Gravesend, the Indian delegation is also scheduled to attend a church service and a multicultural festival. In London members of the delegation will tour the British Museum and British Parliament and meet with Michael Martin, speaker of the House of Commons, and other officials. They will also participate in a symposium at Keynes College, the University of Kent, Canterbury, in which they will explore their history and culture over the last 400 years.
The Federal Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission was created by Congress to work in collaboration with the Commonwealth of Virginia's Jamestown 2007 Steering Committee in creating national observance of Jamestown's 400th anniversary.
Additional information can be found on the about Jamestown’s anniversary celebration is available on the Federal Commemoration Commission’s Web site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
