Tribal Nations in Virginia are trying to stop development just outside Richmond at the historical birthplace of Powhatan— the father of Pocahontas and a sacred chief of their ancestors.
Tribal leaders met at the Rappahannock Tribal Center this week to explain the site’s importance.
"Chief Powhatan ruled over 32 tribes back in the 1600s. And this place that we're talking about is a sacred, vital, sovereignty place that has gone back for many,
many centuries," said Lois Custalow Carter, a member of the Mattaponi Tribe.
Carter was describing Tree Hill Farm, a 530-acre property that overlooks Richmond and the James River. For thousands of years before colonization, Indigenous people lived and prospered there.
Ashey Spivey is a citizen of the Pamunkey Tribe and an anthropologist. "There's evidence that our ancestors were there. And that the other historical moments that are in that landscape, the Civil War, the plantation history, the enslaved history, is also present there."
Spivey said more archaeological work needs to happen. "Because it's only been preliminary work, there's much more work in our opinions that needs to be done to fully understand the extent of the village that was Powhatan, where our ancestors were buried. And that work hasn't been done."
The site has great spiritual meaning to the Tribes.
"That is a sacred site to us, even walking on the land and touching artifacts that have been excavated from it," Chickahominy Second Assistant Chief Troy Adkins noted. "It's a humbling feeling that I'm walking on land that my ancestors did."
Eastern Chickahominy Chief Joanne Howard reinforced that idea. "I heard one person say, it's like taking President Washington's home place, Mount Vernon, and making it into a subdivision. To America, that is very historical. But to us, this is very historical."
The site is now included on Preservation Virginia’s list of most endangered historic places.