The Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia has been recognized by the state since 2010, when the General Assembly passed a resolution admitting the tribe to the Virginia Council on Indians. But the Nottoway nation is not among the seven Virginia tribes granted recognition at the federal level.
Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, filed legislation last week to change that.
“The Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia has a rich culture and long history in what is now present-day Dinwiddie, Isle of Wight, Nottoway, Sussex, and Southampton counties,” McClellan said in a statement Friday after introducing the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia Federal Recognition Act on the House floor.
“In honor of Native American Heritage Month, I’m introducing legislation to finally extend long-overdue federal recognition of their sovereignty. I look forward to continued collaboration with Chief [Lynette] Allston and the Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia.”
In her address on the House floor, McClellan noted that she had visited the tribe’s Community House and Interpretive Center in Southampton County during an October recess, touring the center with Allston and Denise Walters, chair of the Nottoway tribal council.
The 2010 General Assembly resolution recognizing the tribe states that “the Nottoway Tribe was a powerful tribe at the time of the English settlement of the land that became Virginia, and its prominent role in the early history of this Commonwealth is well documented.”
The first written record of the Nottoway people dates to 1650, when explorer and merchant Edward Bland encountered Native American settlements near the Nottoway River, though McClellan’s bill cites Ralph Lane — the leader of the Roanoke Colony — engaging with a group of Iroquois nations, including Nottoways, as early as 1586.
The Nottoway nation was one of the tribes to sign the Treaty of 1677 — also called the Treaty of Middle Plantation — a peace treaty with the Crown of England that granted tribes certain rights including defined territorial boundaries in exchange for becoming “tributary” to the English king.
“Even with 400 years of years of adversity, the efforts to make us disappear failed. The Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia is still here,” Allston said in the statement released by McClellan’s office. “There is no way to correct the wrongs of the past that have been perpetrated on indigenous people. However, Federal acknowledgement opens the gates to future opportunities.”
If McClellan’s bill becomes law, the Nottoway tribe would join the Pamunkey Tribe, Chickahominy Indian Tribe, Chickahominy Indians Eastern Division, Monacan Indian Nation, Nansemond Indian Nation, Rappahannock Tribe and Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe in federal recognition.
The legislation — which would need to pass the full House and Senate before being signed into law by the president — has been referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. Rep. Abigail Spanberger sponsored a 2023 bill to recognize the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia that has also been forwarded to the committee.
