Kaine urges federal recognition for tribes

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has urged the U.S. Senate to recognize Virginia’s six Indian tribes, including the Monacan people of Central Virginia.

“Federal recognition of the tribes of Virginia is long overdue,” Kaine said in a letter asking Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, to put on its agenda a bill that would recognize the tribes.

The bill, proposed by Rep. Jim Moran, D-Alexandria, was passed last year in the House of Representatives. It is called the “Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act.”

The tribes’ exclusion from the 562 other federally recognized tribes means they cannot benefit from certain government programs, Kaine said.

Virginia tribes have been left out of the federal recognition process because they signed treaties with Great Britain rather than the U.S. government.

The Virginia tribes cited by Kaine and recognized by state-level government are: the Monacan Indian Nation; the Chickahominy; the Eastern Chickahominy; Nansemond; Rappahannock, and Upper Mattaponi. Their total population is listed at 2,500, Kaine said, although Census 2000 reported that 16,000 people in Virginia said they had Native American ancestry.

In the Amherst-Lynchburg area, at least 300 people were counted as American Indian.