Before Virginia Beach existed and before English settlers arrived in Jamestown, the Powhatan people lived in the Chesapeake Bay region.
Now, Virginia Beach is crafting a statement to acknowledge the Native Americans who lived there first.
Land acknowledgment statements are used across the U.S. to identify the Indigenous people or tribes who were once stewards of the land. Canada, Australia and other places with histories of colonization and displacement of Native people also use them.
Virginia Beach’s statement is intended to recognize the past and the future, said Cynthia Romero, chair of the city’s Arts and Humanities Commission. A subcommittee of the commission is in charge of creating the city’s statement.
“Our diligence was reflecting that, yes, we do acknowledge the past,” Romero said. “But one of the priorities is for us to really appreciate the culture and the community of the people, and set the stage for the future, (and to) celebrate the diversity that we have right here.”
City council passed a resolution last year, initiating the process to formally draft a land acknowledgement. The Land Acknowledgement Subcommittee started meeting in March, chaired by Michael Cloud Butler, a Virginia Beach resident and member of the Anishinaabe-Ojibwe Indian Tribe.
The committee met several times and sought input from members of other native tribes in the area. Keith Anderson, chief of the Nansemond Indian Nation based in Suffolk, was among the advisers for the subcommittee. Chiefs and members of the Nottoway, Cheroenhaka-Nottoway, Chickahominy, Lenape and Pamunkey tribes also contributed.
Butler presented the draft statement to city leaders this week.
“We, the City of Virginia Beach, acknowledge that the present-day land on which this city exists is situated on lands that have been inhabited by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial,” the statement starts.
The statement mentions the rich traditions of Native cultures, the erasure of the past 400 years rooted in colonization and the city’s intention to meaningfully engage with Indigenous people who live in Virginia Beach and the rest of the state.
It also mentions two tribes by name: the original inhabitants of the area, the Chesapeake, and the nation based nearby today, the Nansemond. Both tribes were part of the Powhatan confederacy that existed in the 1600s in the region.
“The Chesapeake Indians inhabited two thriving communities known as Apasus and Chesepiooc, meaning ‘country on a great river’ in Algonquin, the native language spoken by many tribes of the coastal plain. Their bloodlines continue today in the Nansemond Indian Nation and by extension all Virginia Tribes,” it reads.
Council does not have a plan or timeline for formally voting to adopt the statement. Councilmembers will reflect on the draft and decide how to move forward, Romero said.
Councilmembers had positive things to say about the statement and what it means for the city.
“I don't think that history is told as comprehensively or as directly as it should be, and I think we're making those corrections now in a statement like this,” Councilmember Michael Berlucchi said. “But it's more than part of telling a story about history. It's part of recognizing the historical and present contributions that Native people make in our community every single day.”
Other cities post land acknowledgements on city websites, in public buildings or recite them at the beginning of certain events, Romero said — but there are none in the region that she knew of.
In Hampton Roads, some institutions with land acknowledgements include The Chrysler Museum, the Norfolk Botanical Gardens and the College of William & Mary.
