Native American Heritage Day

 

National Native American Heritage Day is observed on November 24, 2023, a day after Thanksgiving. 

This day is different from Indigenous Peoples’ Day on October 24^th. The Friday after Thanksgiving, American Indians are accorded special honor, and their rich cultures, accomplishments, contributions, and heritage are celebrated. The history of America begins with Native Americans. We can learn more about their culture and speak out against the grave injustices they have experienced by visiting: https://nationaltoday.com/native-american-heritage-day/. 

HISTORY OF NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE DAY

Dr. Arthur C. Parker of the Seneca nation first protested for National Native American Heritage Day between 1912 and 1915. At first, he was fighting for an “American Indian Day” to be recognized within the Boy Scouts of America. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed into law the legislation introduced by Congressman Joe Baca, to designate the day after Thanksgiving as American Indian Heritage Day. The law was established on November 28 as a day to pay respects to the Native Americans for their numerous contributions to the United States. The American Indian Heritage Day was supported by the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) and 184 federally recognized tribes.

The Native American Heritage Day encourages Americans of all backgrounds to appreciate the indigenous cultures appropriately, with ceremonies and activities. Schools are also encouraged to enhance their students’ awareness of Native Americans by providing classroom activities focused on their history, contributions, and achievements. 

The United States House of Representatives initially passed the Native American Heritage Day Act of 2009, with technical adjustments made by a collective consent in the United States Senate. The House of Representatives unanimously voted to pass the legislation again, including the Senate’s adjustments. The legislation was then signed into public law by President Barack Obama on October 30, 2009.

Native American Heritage Day and Month is a huge platform for Indigenous people to educate society about their communities. On this day, more than ever, they lead the discourse on culture, celebrate their heritage by donning traditional footwear (“rocking the moccasin”), and shed some light on the diverse tribal communities.

.--------------------------------------

 Nansemond Indian Nation Fights for Their Namesake River

Our Bass ancestry goes back to this tribe. Our great grandmother was Elizabeth "Bettie" Bass Rogers.

I wrote a blog about my Nansemond heritage.

National recognition of our tribe?

More news articles from earlier in 2014 about the Native American tribe of Nansemonds, from whom my Rogers family has descended through my great great grandfather, Col. Richard Bass. I started a year ago HERE, and several following posts are about my Native American connection.

This post also will talk about false pretenses..

Bill to recognize Nansemonds passes committee

Published 9:14pm Wednesday, April 2, 2014

A bill that would extend federal recognition to the Nansemond Indian Tribe and five others in Virginia passed the (US) Senate Indian Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

The tribes also include the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock and Monacan.

“I just hope we can finally get there,” Nansemond Indian Tribal Association Chief Barry Bass said on Thursday. “It’s been a long, hard road.”

The bill has passed the Senate Indian Affairs Committee before, but a vote in the full Senate has been blocked by senators who believe the tribes should have to go through the Bureau of Indian Affairs as other tribes have done.

But recognition through the bureau’s administrative process requires documentation that current tribal members have a continuous line of descent from the historical tribes. That has been difficult, if not impossible, for Virginia Indians to prove, in part because of Walter Plecker, who was the registrar of Virginia’s Bureau of Vital Statistics from 1912 to 1946. He replaced “Indian” with “black” for the race on many birth and death certificates that passed through his office, ensuring that no official documentation exists for many tribal members to prove their relationship to ancestors.

“Federal recognition of the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Monacan, Nansemond, Rappahannock and Upper Mattaponi tribes of Virginia is long overdue,” Sen. Mark Warner said in a press release. “Members of our Virginia Indian tribes are both part of the history of the Commonwealth and valued members of our present and should be recognized as such.”

“Committee passage of this legislation is a critical step toward granting these six Virginia tribes the recognition they deserve,” Sen. Tim Kaine said in the press release. “These tribes are an integral part of Virginia’s history and identity, and it is both troubling and tragic that they have never been recognized by the United States, even when more than 500 other Indian tribes have been granted recognition.”

Time for recognition

Published 9:58pm Friday, April 4, 2014

...Virginia has officially recognized Virginia’s Indian tribes, but the U.S. Senate has a chance now to finally make amends with them for Pleckerism. (see above)  Recognition of the tribes in Virginia — the first people Europeans encountered upon reaching the New World and the first people to call this place home — would help restore the identity that a truly hateful and bigoted man began tearing from them a century ago (Walter Plecker)

 Federal recognition would send a message that the nation is also proud of these First Peoples, their heritage and the important place they hold in Virginia’s — and the nation’s — history.

Source: http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/2014/04/04/time-for-recognition-3/
(underlines and bold typeface by BRogers)


I'm submitting this post to Sepia Saturday this week, where the topic does include false pretenses (which is this man's charged offense).  

I'd say Pleckerism definitely qualifies, and certainly was criminal, even unto the seventh (How many?) generations that follow and aren't recognized as American Indians.

...............................................................................................................

I personally find it interesting that still, if a persons parents are white and black, they automatically become black on various pieces of paper.  If American Indian and white, they become American Indian, and if American Indian and black, Pleckerism continues and they are usually considered black.

You don't have to wear a white hood and burn crosses to continue white supremicism. Racism is still an ugly truth in our lives today.  I live in the south still.  

I wonder how things are in the UK and Australia?

Nansemond Indians recognized in parade

 As I mentioned last post, my Rogers family has roots including the Nansemond Indians of Suffolk, VA, a small tribe among those who welcomed the first Western Europeans to the shores of North America in the 1600s.  Chuckatuck is apparently the community where the new American Indian village, Mattanock, will be built by the Nansemonds (see last post).

Last year there was a celebration including Chief Barry Bass...

Chuckatuck looks back — and ahead

Published 9:59pm Saturday, October 26, 2013

This was the...
second annual Founder’s Day in Chuckatuck, VA, with parade and speeches, children singing, and an antique car show....

 Folks lined Kings Highway for the parade to the Chuckatuck Volunteer Fire Department building. The event’s grand marshal, Chief Barry Bass of the Nansemond Indians, dressed in full regalia, and was driven by Jamie Bradshaw....

Fittingly, (co-chair of event, Kitty) Martin said, "Chief Barry Bass of the Nansemond Indians has been selected as the event’s grand marshal.  We wanted him to be a part, because their land is a part of our community,” she said, referring to 70 acres the city recently conveyed to the tribe, where it plans to develop an educational tourist attraction, Mattanock Town, recreating the tribe’s 1600s village that was located near the site.

Invited up to say a few words, Chief Bass said he was honored to have been selected as grand marshal. “It’s great being here,” he said.
Mayor Linda T. Johnson cited the 1600s Native American village the Nansemond tribe plans to build on 70 Chuckatuck acres recently conveyed to the tribe by the city.
“With Mattanock Town coming to Chuckatuck, we are just going to grow and become a very special place,” she said. “We already are, but it’s going to get better and better.”
  http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/2013/10/26/chuckatuck-looks-back-and-ahead/

Mattanock Town

Let's spend a moment or two catching up (perhaps) with the events and connections which I found about a year ago.  The Rogers family, through my great-great grandfather, Col Richard Bass, are descendents of the Nansemond Indians of Virginia, who are currently located in Suffolk, VA.  The tribe has a bit of a problem being recognized by US Congress...still.

But here are some articles the Suffolk News Herald has published in the last year.  I'll limit each day to one topic.

Surrounded by city officials, Nansemond Indian Tribe Chief Barry Bass signs a ceremonial document at the Aug. 17 2013 powwow.

Home again
By Tracy Agnew

Published 8:49pm Wednesday, September 25, 2013A step forward. A swoop of the pen. And just like that, the Nansemond Indian Tribe had its land back.
Except it didn’t happen just like that. European settlers forced the tribe off its land in the early 1600s, and the tribe didn’t start the process of trying to get it back until nearly 400 years later.
Once they started, there were planning meetings. City Council meetings. Unsuccessful votes, and more meetings.
Finally, the vote came. 7-1, but it was enough. The tribe had its ancestral land back.
Then came more meetings, lawyers, more votes. It was a long road to Aug. 17, 2013, when at the end of Pembroke Lane, under a tent, Chief Barry Bass stepped forward along with city leaders to sign his name to a ceremonial document. The actual deed had been recorded in the courthouse two days before.
Gifts were exchanged, here on this ground where hesitant contacts with European settlers resulted sometimes in gift exchanges, sometimes in death.
A monument was unveiled, here on this ground where the tribe’s ancestors once built their longhouses and kept gardens.
A celebratory powwow began, here on this ground where the tribe’s ancestors danced and drummed so long ago.
The mayor and the chief walked into the dance circle side by side, here on this ground where America’s long history of racial hostility began.
Soon the tribe hopes to change the land, which has been a city park for many years, into a development called Mattanock Town, named for its village that was near the site.
Here on this land, there will be longhouses once again. Gardens once again. Tribal crafts once again. A native burial ground once again.
Here on this land, Americans will learn rather than kill. Teach rather than conquer. Contribute rather than steal. Help build rather than burn down.
And the Nansemond Indian Tribe will once again have its own village.
http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/2013/09/25/home-again/ 

The Native connection

The Nansemonds have said that the book which is not considered accurate uses the surname Tucker to refer to the original Indians who married Western European settlers.  They seem to discount that name, and say any time Kesiah Tucker comes up as Elizabeth Bass's name, it stems from the book that isn't accurate.  But that had been her name as daughter of the Chief of the Powhatans.
 
If one book calls her that name, however, it seems to me that it is just like an alias, not to be discounted completely.  I see throughout the family tree, other women named Kesiah, which must be in honor of that matriarch.  So the book could not have been wrong about her having that other (Indian) name.  It probably would not have been acceptable if the family were strict Christians however.

And I haven't yet researched the religious affiliations of my ancestors...if any is known.  Early Virginians belonged to the Church of England, which became the Episcopal Church later in America.  It wasn't until near the Revolutionary War that Baptists petitioned for their own religious freedom.

The 10,000 name petition (dated 16 October 1776) has been digitized at the Library of Congress website. It was signed by people from all over Virginia who wanted an end to persecution of Baptists by the Established Church. Baptists and Baptist sympathizers alike signed the petition.

  And there were also Quakers in the Suffolk area as well.

Incidentally, the wife would be in charge of the household meals, bedding, clothing and child rearing, but at some point the families probably moved out of the long houses of the tribe and into cabins like the Europeans had.  I wonder when that happened.  Somehow I think it took several generations.

And especially important to remember about this family, and this tribe, is the persecution from the white culture.  No wonder they moved from VA to NC, and then TX.

Powhatan style home in Williamsburg,VA

http://cova-inc.org/resources/edu_ark_viintro.html
This link is for a resource kit.  Very well done archeological background of Virginia native peoples.

the best research link I’ve found is: 

 https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Nansemond_County,_Virginia

site has lots of original document links.

More History From http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Nansemond_Tribe#start_entry 

Time Line

• December 1608 - Christopher Newport returns to England from Jamestown accompanied by the Indian Machumps. John Smith, meanwhile, attempts to trade for food with Indians from the Nansemonds to the Appamattucks, but on Powhatan's orders they refuse.
• Early September 1609 - John Smith sends Francis West and 120 men to the falls of the James River. George Percy and 60 men attempt to bargain with the Nansemond Indians for an island. Two messengers are killed and the English burn the Nansemonds' town and their crops.
• June 1611 - Sir Thomas Dale leads a hundred armored soldiers against the Nansemond Indians at the mouth of the James River, burning their towns.
• August 14, 1638 - John Bass, who may be the son of Nathaniel Basse and Mary Jordan Basse, marries Elizabeth, a Nansemond woman who has converted to Christianity.
• 1792 - The Nansemond tribe sells its last known reservation lands, 300 acres on the Nottoway River in Southampton County.
• 1850 - The Indiana United Methodist Church in Chesapeake is founded as a mission for the Nansemond Indians.
• March 20, 1924 - Virginia passes the Racial Integrity Act, a law aimed at protecting whiteness on the state level. It prohibits interracial marriage, the only exception being a marriage between a white person and a person with one-sixteenth or less Indian blood.
• 1930 - The General Assembly passes a law defining Virginia Indians as those possessing one-quarter or more of Indian blood and less than one-sixteenth of black blood. The law also stipulates that such people will be considered black unless they live on a segregated Indian reservation.
• February 20, 1985 - The Nansemond tribe is formally recognized by the General Assembly in House Joint Resolution 205.
  

My Bass Family Tree,

My grandfather (my father's father): George Elmore Rogers, Sr., born in Galveston, Texas, died in Houston, Texas.

His mother: Elizabeth Bettie Bass Rogers (1860-1924) (my great-grandmother) born in Old Waverly, San Jacinto County, Texas, died in Galveston,Texas

 

Her father: Colonel Richard Bass ( 1819-1880) born in Perry County, Alabama, died in Waverly, Walker County, Texas.

Not my great great grandfather, but a Confederate pioneer

His father: John Bass (1784-1820) born in Wayne County, NC, died in Perry County, Alabama.

Not John Bass, but a portrait from 1800s

His father: Edward Bass (v.1761-1802) (birth date and place not yet substantiated, could be Craven or Wayne County, NC; He died in Wayne County, NC.

Not Edward Bass, but an outfit worn around 1770

Sarah Bass 1764-1849 (the death date isn't the same as Edward's wife, but the birthdate is right)

His father: Richard Bass (1732-1793) born in Craven County, North Carolina. He died in Wayne County, North Carolina (SEE note below about Waynesborough)    He also was in the Revolutionary War, but I'll talk about that when I honor his birthday.

Not my relative...George Romney's Young Man with a Flute wears a gold figured waistcoat under his coat, Dallas Museum.

His father: Andrew Bass (1698-1770) born in Norfolk Independent City, Nansemond County, Virginia.

His father: Richard Taylor Basye (1658-1722) born in Norfolk Independent City, Nansemond County, Virginia

His father: John Basse (1616-1699) born in London, Middlesex County, England,  and WIFE: Elizabeth Basse, (a.k.a. Kesiah Tucker, Native American), (1618-1676) born in Kecaughton, Nansemond County, Virginia

NOTE on Richard Bass and Waynesborough... Wayne County NC was the place Richard Bass died in 1793.  His uncle Dr. Andrew Bass, b.1735, d. 1791, apparently was one of the early founders of Waynesborough, as per Wikipedia

Prior to 1730, Native Americans were the only known occupants of the territory now known as Wayne county. Settlers trickled into the territory, but there was no general movement of immigration until after 1750. Wayne County was established on November 2, 1779 from the western part of Dobbs County. It was named for "Mad Anthony" Wayne, a general in the American Revolutionary War.  By 1782 the commissioners were named. In 1787 an act was passed establishing "Waynesborough on the west side of the Neuse River on the land of Doctor Andrew Bass where the courthouse now stands.^"

---

... Waynesborough grew quickly into a bustling town. Its location along the Neuse River promoted plantation growth and successful river boat businesses. Stage coaches brought much activity and many passengers to the town, many of whom enjoyed the local taverns.

Built just over a mile away in 1839, the Wilmington-Weldon Railroad led to the emergence of Goldsboro, a town built directly along the tracks. Residents of Waynesborough began to move their homes and businesses into the new town. Within a decade, Waynesborough declined and never again recovered. By 1865 only five buildings remained in Waynesborough, all of which were burned by Union Forces in the Civil War.

Union Church, Old Waynesborough, NC

There's now an effort to establish Old Waynesborough as a tourist attraction.  Don't miss the irony of the building above depicted, after the Union Army had destroyed all the buildings remaining in Waynesborough, so my question is, where did this church come from?  Maybe built right after the Civil War?

I'm 11 generations removed from a full blooded Native American ancestor.  That doesn't give me a very big percentage.  And I'm not forgetting that most of my ancestors were Western Europeans mainly from England.  I just have learned about great grandmother, Bettie Bass' grandmother however many times removed, Elizabeth Tucker Basse, and am thrilled.

Chapter three Native American roots

Thelma Dennis, Pocahontas Cook, Walter Bradby(?)
Pamunkey Tribe
Richmond, Virginia, c.1920
Virginia Historical Society, Foster Collection # 27610

 

Nansemond Pow Wow dancer

 

Nansemonds and Suffolk city council work on terms for Mattanock Town project

By Jeff Sheler
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 1, 2013

 

SUFFOLK VA:The city and the Nansemond Indian Tribal Association have signed an agreement that clears the way for the transfer of city park land to the tribe for an Indian cultural center and tourist attraction.
The signing was announced by the city late Thursday. The agreement broke a deadlock that threatened the tribe's plans to build Mattanock Town, a replica Indian village on 71 acres in city-owned Lone Star Lakes Park.
The city's announcement said keys to the property were handed to tribal leaders following the signing.

Going back in earlier articles shows the efforts that have taken place since the town agreed to the idea proposed by the Nansemonds.

• 
• Suffolk returns 100 acres of Indian ancestral homeland
• By Jeff Sheler
  The Virginian-Pilot
  © November 26, 2010
  Growing up on the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp in Chesapeake, Barry Bass remembers, he was always aware of his Indian heritage.
  His grandfather, Earl "Running Deer" Bass, was chief of the Nansemond tribe. His ancestors were part of the empire ruled by Powhatan, the father of Pocahontas. They traded and fought with the Jamestown settlers and farmed and hunted along the banks of the river that now bears their name before the English ran them off in the mid-1600s.
  Earlier this week, Bass, now the Nansemond chief, returned to his ancestral homeland - mostly to remember, but also to celebrate the historic return of the land to the Nansemond people by the city of Suffolk.
  After a nine-year struggle, the city agreed last week to give the Nansemonds roughly 100 acres of prime riverfront land in Lone Star Lakes Park.
  The tribe plans to use it for Mattanock Town, an $8 million replica of a 17th century village, cultural center and burial ground.
  "When I'm here, I can sense that my ancestors are still here," said Bass, sitting under a colorful autumn oak and gazing out upon the rippling river. "It took a while, but now I feel like we're home."
  Over the next five years, Bass and his tribe will raise funds and oversee the design and construction of what the city hopes will be a popular tourist attraction, drawing up to 50,000 paying visitors a year.
  Plans call for a museum, tribal center, gift shop, hiking trails and other tourist-friendly facilities. The project is to be privately funded.
  A key historic feature, Bass said, will be a dispersed Indian village - a series of wooden longhouses scattered around the property and separated by garden plots, just as a Nansemond village would have appeared in the 17th century.
  "We want this to be a working village, not like something you see in a museum," he said. "When people come here in different seasons, we want them to see the changes, the different crops, and so on."
  Bass said the project already has received some donations and pledges of support. Once the paperwork is completed and the tribe officially takes ownership, he said, they will seek grants, corporate sponsors and individual donors.
  Supporters hope Mattanock Town will complement Jamestown as a tourist destination for history buffs, school groups and others interested in experiencing a re-creation of traditional Indian culture.
  The tribe has been working closely for years with historians, archaeologists and anthropologists to see that the village accurately resembles 17th century Indian life in the Tidewater region.
  "They are re-creating the Algonquian culture, of which the Nansemonds were a part," said Helen Clark Rountree, a retired Old Dominion University professor and expert on the Algonquians. "They had ways of life and language very similar to other Indians living up and down the James River."
  The original Mattanock Town, Rountree said, was one of four Nansemond villages in the Lone Star Lakes vicinity that were mentioned in the writings of Capt. John Smith. "We can't be sure of the exact site, but the modern village is very close to the original site."
  Bass traces his own roots to the 1638 marriage of Englishman John Bass to the daughter of a Nansemond chief who became a Christian convert. Virtually all modern Nansemonds are descendants of that marriage, Rountree says.
  Like most Nansemonds, Bass' family scattered centuries ago and its members gradually were assimilated into the English culture.
  For Bass and the rest of his tribe, one reason for undertaking the project is to preserve and transmit the Nansemond culture among their own. Of some 350 members of the Nansemond Indian Tribal Association, Bass said, the largest concentration is in southern Virginia. But many are scattered around the country.
  To join the tribe, one must establish a genealogical connection to a known Nansemond. While some members, like Bass, have known of their roots for generations, some, he said, have dis covered their heritage recently and know little about Indian ways.
  "We wanted this land back because it means so much to us," said Bass, who works for a Virginia Beach construction company. "But we want to give back to the city, too, and to share our history and culture with the public and with our own people. If that means being a tourist attraction, then that's what it will be."
  Jeff Sheler, (757) 222-5563, jeff.sheler@pilotonline.com
  
  
  

  

  The Nansemond Indian Tribe held a reception Sunday to thank supporters of its quest to receive part of its ancestral land back to build a tourist attraction called Mattanock Town. From left, Chief Barry Bass, Assistant Chief Earl Bass and Mattanock Town project facilitator Dot Dalton present friendship feathers to former City Councilman Joe Barlow and current Councilman Robert Barclay.

  Published  Monday, January 10, 2011

  
  

  The Nansemond Indian Tribe welcomed dozens of supporters to its ancestral land for a “thank-you” reception on Sunday.

  The invited guests crammed into Lone Star Lakes Lodge for food and fellowship with members of the tribe and other supporters. The tribal association recently won its 10-year quest to get the city to transfer part of its ancestral land back to the tribe.

  “I had so many people that I had to thank,” said Chief Barry Bass. “They’ve stuck with me about 10 years.”

  ...

  Outside the lodge, small wooden stakes with orange flags stand at intervals around the property, indicating that surveying work already has begun. Assistant Chief Earl Bass said he anticipates a deed-signing ceremony within the next few months.

  “We’ll have the deed-signing, and that will kick it up a notch,” he said.

  ...
  

  Various other supporters included former mayor Andy Damiani, anthropologist and author Helen Rountree, tribe members, Chuckatuck residents and local business owners.

  “Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Barry Bass told the gathered supporters Sunday. “This is a thanks for you and all y’all have done for us.”

  http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/2011/01/10/nansemonds-thank-supporters/
  
  
  Barry Bass, chief of the Nansemond tribe, celebrated a 2010 council vote to return ancestral grounds at Lone Star Lakes in Suffolk. But plans for a museum and village have not broken ground. (Steve Earley | Virginian-Pilot file phot0.

  
  Tribe's dispute with Suffolk leaves land locked
  

  • By Jeff Sheler
    The Virginian-Pilot
    © January 15, 2013
    SUFFOLK
    Two years ago, with considerable hoopla, the city agreed to deed 70 acres of prime riverfront property to the Nansemond tribe for Mattanock Town...
    For the tribe, it meant reclaiming part of its ancestral homeland and a chance to showcase life in an Indian village in the early 1600s.
    Today, the property has yet to be conveyed, and the $8 million project is in limbo because of a dispute over conditions the city has placed on the land.
    The city says it wants to ensure the property is used for the stated purpose, yet the tribe says it needs an unencumbered title to get financing. City officials say a development agreement must be executed before the property is transferred, but negotiations are stalled.
    "The ball is in their court," Deputy City Manager Patrick Roberts said.
    He noted that when the City Council, after considering the matter for years, approved the transfer in November 2010, among the conditions were that the project would not include a casino, that the property would never be sold or transferred and that construction would begin within five years, or the land would revert to the city.
    "That's what they agreed to in 2010," Roberts said. "It's not something we're suddenly trying to impose on them now."
    Gregory Stillman, a lawyer representing the Nansemond Indian Tribal Association, said the tribe has never had a problem with the casino ban and has no plans to sell the property or use it for anything other than the replica village.
    The sticking point, he said, is the city's insistence on a conditional right to retake the property in five years.
    "They've got to convey a fee-simple title to the property, or we don't own it," Stillman said. "And if we don't own it, nobody is going to give us a grant or loan us money on it."
    Not all real estate lawyers agree with that assessment.
    "There's no question it would place a restriction on the marketability of the land," said Bruce Mills, a real estate lawyer in Virginia Beach. "But as long as they do something within that five years... they should be able to borrow money on it."
    Dot Dalton, president of the Mattanock project's board of directors, says another problem with the proposed agreement is a requirement that the tribe make yearly financial reports to the city even after the project is completed.
    "It's like they are giving us a long-term lease instead of a title," Dalton said. "It's just not acceptable."
    ...........
    "Some of the original boundaries went out into the river," Roberts said. "We're not interested in transferring river beds." Consequently, he said, a survey completed by the city in June 2011 shows the property ending at the shoreline.
    Dalton said that was unacceptable.
    "I own waterfront property, and my property line extends out into the creek," she said. "This would prevent us from building docks or having access to the river. We never agreed to that."
    .......
    "It's very important, and we need to do it right," Brown said. "It will be good for the city, and we want to see it go forward."
    Despite the delays, Dalton said, the tribe has continued working with engineers and architects on the project's design.
    Plans call for a museum, tribal center, gift shop, hiking trails and other tourist-friendly facilities. They also include an Indian burial ground.
    A key feature, according to the tribe, would be a dispersed Indian village, a series of wooden longhouses scattered around the property and separated by garden plots, just as a Nansemond village would have appeared in the 17th century.
    Dalton said the project's board has met with several potential financiers who have shown an interest in the project.
    "Even in this economy, there is all kinds of grant money out there," she said. "We're raring and ready to go. Now all we need is the land."
    Jeff Sheler, 757-222-5563, jeff.sheler@pilotonline.com
    http://hamptonroads.com/2013/01/tribes-dispute-suffolk-leaves-land-locked 

  Mattanock agreement signed

  Published 7:19pm Thursday, January 31, 2013

  
  

  Suffolk officials reported Thursday evening that a development agreement has been signed with the Nansemond Indian Tribal Association, paving the way for the planned Mattanock Town development.........
  Fed up with the delay, City Council voted Jan. 16 to give the tribe an ultimatum: Sign the agreement by June 30 or risk losing Mattanock Town forever.
  City Chief of Staff Debbie George said Thursday evening the signing occurred after a meeting between Chief Barry Bass, Assistant Chief Earl Bass, Mayor Linda T. Johnson and City Manager Selena Cuffee-Glenn. .......
  George added that the agreement was “materially unchanged,” because any changes would have had to be approved through City Council again.
  “This project has been a long time coming,” Johnson was quoted as saying in a press release. “We know that with trust and our ability to work together, Mattanock Town will be an overwhelming success.”
  Chief Barry Bass was also quoted in the press release.
  “We are pleased that we were able to reach an agreement with the city,” he said. “We look forward to making Mattanock Town a reality. We appreciate the faith that Mayor Johnson and City Council have in the project. We are also thankful for the continued support of the citizens of Suffolk. We will make this a project that not only preserves our heritage but also is something the citizens of Suffolk will be proud to have in their city.”
  
  

  http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/2013/01/31/mattanock-town-agreement-signed/
  
  
  
    Well, now all the information I've read today is gathered here in one place.  This is good.  These people have worked very hard so far.  They still have a long way to go with plans and construction ahead of them.  I will keep an eye out to see what is happening, and probably share it here again.