Kaine accepts gift of game for last time

RICHMOND - It’s probably the last time that Timothy M. Kaine will step outside his house in the morning to find two dead deer and a turkey on his doorstep.

But Wednesday, the outgoing Virginia governor and his wife, first lady Anne Holton, stood outside the Executive Mansion in Richmond to preside over a Thanksgiving tradition that dates to the late 1600s — Virginia’s Indian tribes paying tribute to the governor.

On a damp and gray but mild morning, Kaine welcomed about 200 people, including members of several generations of Indians in traditional garb, as well as Capitol Square tourists and the families of state workers.

The annual gift of wild game commemorates the peace treaty with Virginia’s Indian tribes that was signed by England’s King Charles II and royal governor Herbert Jeffreys in 1677.

Kaine thanked tribe members — “the first Virginians,“ whose ancestors greeted the first European settlers to Jamestown in 1607 and forged bonds of friendship and cooperation that help them take root in the New World.

And the governor, who during his term has been an ardent supporter of efforts by the Virginia tribes to gain federal recognition, expressed optimism that it would happen before he leaves office in mid-January.

“This relationship is one of the things I give thanks for,“ he told the crowd.

A bill sponsored by Reps. James P. Moran, D-8th, and Robert J. Wittman, R-1st, cleared the U.S. House of Representatives this year. The legislation, slightly modified, is being carried in the Senate by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., where it recently cleared a committee on a voice vote.

Kaine, who has testified before Congress on behalf of the tribes, has called the federal government’s failure to grant recognition a “grave injustice” that needs to be remedied.

“We’re a little bit saddened because we’re losing a good friend,“ said Chief Kevin Brown of the Pamunkey Tribe. He presented the governor with a buck deer and promised to knock on his door in North Richmond after he leaves office to ask favors of Kaine, who will assume a full-time role as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Chief Carl “Lone Eagle” Custalow of the Mattaponi Tribe also presented the governor a deer and a turkey, as well as a crossed-arrow ornament adorned with a dream-catcher and medicine pouch.

Wittman and Kaine’s father-in-law, former Gov. Linwood Holton, were also on hand for the ceremony, which featured a tribal dance to a traditional drumbeat and song.

Thursday, Kaine and his wife will help serve free Thanksgiving meals at The Giving Heart’s annual Community Thanksgiving Feast at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. The couple then will host their own Thanksgiving feast at the mansion for 18 relatives, the governor’s entire family from Kansas.

Jim Nolan is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.