Defining the Greater York River Indigenous Cultural Landscape Prepared by: Scott M. Strickland Julia A. King Martha McCartney with contributions from: The Pamunkey Indian Tribe The Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe The Mattaponi Indian Tribe Prepared for: The National Park Service Chesapeake Bay & Colonial National Historical Park The Chesapeake Conservancy Annapolis, Maryland The Pamunkey Indian Tribe Pamunkey Reservation, King William, Virginia The Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe Adamstown, King William, Virginia The Mattaponi Indian Tribe Mattaponi Reservation, King William, Virginia St. Mary’s College of Maryland St. Mary’s City, Maryland October 2019 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As part of its management of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, the National Park Service (NPS) commissioned this project in an effort to identify and represent the York River Indigenous Cultural Landscape. The work was undertaken by St. Mary’s College of Maryland in close coordination with NPS. The Indigenous Cultural Landscape (ICL) concept represents “the context of the American Indian peoples in the Chesapeake Bay and their interaction with the landscape.” Identifying ICLs is important for raising public awareness about the many tribal communities that have lived in the Chesapeake Bay region for thousands of years and continue to live in their ancestral homeland. ICLs are important for land conservation, public access to, and preservation of the Chesapeake Bay. The three tribes, including the state- and Federally-recognized Pamunkey and Upper Mattaponi tribes and the state-recognized Mattaponi tribe, who are today centered in their ancestral homeland in the Pamunkey and Mattaponi river watersheds, were engaged as part of this project. The Pamunkey and Upper Mattaponi tribes participated in meetings and driving tours. The Mattaponi tribe, the members of which were at the time involved in a project focused on identifying their historic resources, were only available for one meeting. Project methodology included the completion of historical background research; driving tours, face-to-face meetings, and interviews; and the collection of large data sets including environmental, archaeological, and land use data. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology was used to identify relationships between all these data forms to model the historical and contemporary Native landscape. These data sets are curated by the National Park Service, the Chesapeake Conservancy, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The three tribal communities are today located in three distinct but neighboring and sometimes overlapping spaces in the Pamunkey and Mattaponi river watersheds. For each tribe, the contemporary everyday landscape is relatively localized to those spaces. The Pamunkey, however, also include diasporic important communities located in Richmond, Virginia and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For the Upper Mattaponi and the Mattaponi, many tribal members work and are therefore tied to Richmond, Virginia. The analysis of the various data sets reveals both continuity and change in terms of Native use, stewardship, and meaning of the landscape. Settlements or towns occupied between 1200 and 1610 CE were often sited along waterways in areas where good, well-drained soils located in close proximity to marshlands and natural landings. The farming, hunting, and collecting practices supported by this environment persisted through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries even as the three tribes became active participants in the market economy. While all three tribes recognize the significance of Werowocomoco, Powhatan’s principal town at the time of English invasion, and all three tribes are actively involved in the National Park Service’s efforts to preserve and interpret the site, Werowocomoco is not part of the three tribes’ everyday landscape. The reasons for this could be Werowocomoco’s early abandonment (by 1610 CE). Werowocomoco is also in the lower York valley while the three tribes are located along the narrower Pamunkey and Mattaponi rivers (above the York). Following a discussion of the York River ICL as represented by tribal members and through spatial analysis, ten recommendations are presented. These include: Connect modern-day Native communities to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century landscapes. iii Continue the collection of oral history interviews with tribal members to document changing landscapes. Nomination of properties to the National Register of Historic Places. Build spatial datasets for future planning/documentation of tribal histories. Develop educational materials for non-tribal members. Gap analysis of key parcels. Documentation of urban ICLs. Expand the focus to other watersheds. Contact archaeological survey elsewhere in the Pamunkey and Mattaponi river valleys. Acknowledge the government-to-government relationship for Federally-recognized tribes. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A number of individuals and organizations contributed to the success of this project. The first acknowledgment must go to the three tribes, including the Pamunkey, Upper Mattaponi, and Mattaponi, who have made this part of Virginia their home for thousands of years. For the Pamunkey, we are grateful to Lauren Fox, Chief Robert Gray, Allyson Gray, and Ashley Atkins Spivey for their interest, enthusiasm, and assistance with organizing meetings and driving tours. Our thanks also go to former Chief Warren Cook, Layne Cook, John Henry Langston, and Grover Miles for spending time with us, sharing their stories and insights, and reviewing our findings. For the Upper Mattaponi, we are grateful to Chief Frank Adams for welcoming us to the tribe and for his interest, enthusiasm, and assistance with meeting and driving tour organization. We are also grateful to former Chief Ken Adams, Tommy Tuppence, Jimmy Adams, Jean Adams, Melvin Adams, Jr., Joan Faulkner, Jay Gillespie, William Hicks, Amanda McKinney, and Brenda McKinney. We will always remember our exciting “off-road” experience in a college van! For the Mattaponi, we are grateful to Chief Mark Custalow for taking the time to meet with us and share his stories about the Mattaponi shad hatchery. The driving tours organized as part of this project happened because of the generosity of the many landowners who welcomed us to their properties. Mr. James Woolford, who owns Cownes, Mr. William Tyler, who owns Island Farm, and Mrs. Nancy Ball Sharp, who owns the Sam Ball Farm, understood our goals and project purpose and allowed us access their farms. We appreciate their kindnesses in hosting our group. This project would not have happened without the foresight of the National Park Service (NPS), which has long recognized the importance of telling the history of America from a Native point of view. We are grateful to both NPS’s Chesapeake Bay Office and Colonial National Historical Park. We thank Colonial National Historical Park Superintendent Kym Hall for her strong support of this effort. We are especially grateful to Cindy Chance and Carolyn Black for their assistance, participation, and guidance with the project. The Chesapeake Conservancy provided the administrative oversight for the project. We thank Joel Dunn, Jacob Leizear, Joseph McCauley, and Susan Shingledecker, and former employee Colleen Whitlock, all of whom assisted with the management of the project. We especially appreciate Joe’s participation in several meetings with the tribes. Non-tribal stakeholders were extremely helpful with understanding the greater landscape of which the tribes are a part and how that landscape has been used, is used, and may be used in the future. Organizations represented in this project include the Fairfield Foundation, King William County Planning and Zoning, the King William Historical Society, the Naval Weapons Station-Yorktown, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Virginia Department of Forestry, the York County Historical Museum, and York County Planning and Zoning. We are also grateful to Joe B. Jones and Dr. Christopher Shephard of the William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research for sharing information with us about their work in the York River valley and their plans for survey on the Pamunkey Reservation. v At. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Sabine Dillingham, Adam Malisch, Irene Olnick, Morgan Smith, and Lori Marks shepherded the project from start to finish, ensuring our administrative responsibilities were met. We have endeavored to produce a report that will be useful to the National Park Service. We are also hopeful that the report is just as useful to the members of the Pamunkey, Upper Mattaponi, and Mattaponi tribes. We again thank the National Park Service and the tribes for their trust in our work. Scott M. Strickland Julia A. King St. Mary’s City, Maryland Martha McCartney Williamsburg, Virginia vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. …iii Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures .............................................................................................................................................. ix List of Tables ..............................................................................................................................................