The paying of the tribute is a most extraordinary event, and well worth seeing. Quite often, visitors are surprised and curious about this ceremony, not understanding it’s significance. But many Virginians like to brag that this event is the longest unbroken nation-to-nation custom of the New World.
Virginia’s Native Americans are honoring a treaty almost as old as the state of Virginia. While there are eight recognized native American tribes in Virginia, only the Mattaponi, and Pamunkey tribes live on reservation lands assigned by the 1646 and 1677 treaties with the English colonial government. It was only this year, after 400 years as being one of the most recognized Indian tribes in American history, that the Pamunkey tribe was finally officially recognized by the U.S. government.
The Pamunkey tribe, of which Pocahontas was a member, have been an integral part of our nation’s history, owing to the story of the Indian princess saving the life of settler John Smith by coming between Smith and her father, the great chief Powhatan, stopping her father from bashing Smith with his war club.
Two important treaties
The treaty of 1646 ended the Anglo-Indian war. The words of the treaty required the Powhatan Indians to pay a tribute of 20 beaver pelts to the colonial government yearly. In return, they would be protected from their enemies. In 1677, the Treaty of Middle Plantation was signed. This treaty set the tribute at 3 Indian arrows, a mere formality. More important was the political alliance that was formed between the tribes and the colonial governing body.
Equally important was the acknowledgment of the property, land use and hunting rights of the tribes. The words of the 1677 treaty between the King of England, acting through the Governor of Virginia, still shape the relationships between the Native Americans of Virginia and the Commonwealth today.
Today’s tribute is now an historic and well-loved tradition
While the original treaty of 1677 required that “each Indian King and Queen visit the Governor every March at the place of his residence to pay the accustomed rent,” over the years, the date to pay the tribute was moved to the day before Thanksgiving, coinciding with American Indian History Month.
On Thanksgiving Eve, in a ceremony that has occurred without fail for over 300 years, the current chiefs of the Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes of Virginia will bring hand-crafted pottery, and deer and wild turkey carcasses to the Governor’s Mansion in Richmond. It is a ceremony honoring their tribal ancestors who negotiated the Treaty of 1677, and a ritual loved and respected by all Virginians. The deer and turkey are donated to food kitchens.
