#RVA proposed Pamunkey Casino storyline takes on a very Richmond twist... #BlackDelegation 🗣what say you? 💄m.richmondfreepress.com/news/2020/feb/…
“The tribe’s history of white supremacist policies & practices -though sharply disputed by tribal Chief Robert Gray -have largely flown under the radar during this session of the G.A. and went almost unnoticed during the tribe’s long years of applying for federal recognition.”
“According to documents the Free Press has obtained, the Pamunkey enacted “Black Laws” that mirrored Virginia laws to suppress African-Americans. The tribe did it to fend off efforts from hostile white neighbors to push them off their 1,200-acre reservation in King William Co.”
“The tribal law stated that “No member of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe shall intermarry with any other person other than those of white or Indian blood” and prescribed forfeiture “of their rights as members of the tribe” for violators.”
“That “Ordinance of the Pamunkey Indian Reservation” remained intact until August 2014, according to U.S. Department of the Interior records, or nearly 50 years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage.”
“The exposure of the tribe’s racist past is largely the work of 30-year-old Essex County resident Jasmine N. Anderson, who has spent more than five years quietly working to gain recognition for herself and her relatives.”
“They are members of the Dungee family that was banished from the tribe between 1865 and 1871 after a member opened a free school for newly freed slaves near the reservation.”
“I have undisputed, direct ancestral ties to four Pamunkey Indian lines,” Ms. Anderson said.
“I have undisputed, direct ancestral ties to four Pamunkey Indian lines,” Ms. Anderson said.
“Despite amassing church rolls, 19th century census records and other documents to prove her Pamunkey tribal lineage and that of her relatives, Ms. Anderson’s applications — three since 2015 — have been rejected by Chief Gray and the tribal council.”
“She noted that a cousin, John Collins, who lives on the Pamunkey reservation, was assaulted after he spoke in support of recognition for Ms. Anderson and her family, and was told by his attacker that he should drop his efforts to bring “n......s” back to the reservation.”
“While most VA elected officials have ignored concerns about Pamunkey action to ex- clude her family, Ms. Anderson has garnered support from Wisconsin Congresswoman Gwen S. Moore, of the Congressional Black Caucus, & urged the tribe to end its blockade of Ms. Anderson’s admission
“My family & I are proof that the legacy of the (tribe’s) racist past lives today & is intended to be perpetual...The use of the 1900 & 1910 censuses as immutable base rolls is inherently racist bc it is designed to exclude those Pamunkey Indians who were expunged from the rolls”
“The tribe’s banishment punished all generations to come,” Ms. Anderson said. “I firmly believe my ancestors’ efforts to help people of color in the 1860s is the reason for my banishment today.”
@threadreaderapp unroll please
