Chickahominy Indians-Eastern Division: A Brief Ethnohistory

By Elaine and Ray Adkins

When Captain John Smith stepped ashore in the New World to found the Jamestown Settlement in 1607, the Chickahominy Indians were there. If you have wondered what life was like in the 1600s from the perspective of the First Americans, this brief ethnohistory will tell you the truth you may not have read in your school history books. The Chickahominy Indians-Eastern Division are the 21st century ancestors of the Indians who kept the colonizers alive and showed them how to grow the tobacco that made them rich. Four hundred years later, the ancestors of those Indians live in relative obscurity in the Tidewater area of Virginia. Find out what life was like then and how the modern Indians have survived in an often hostile and unfriendly world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 20, 2007
• ISBN: 9781462840656

Elaine

My name is Elaine. I served in the military for seventeen years. I earneda Bachelor of Arts Degreefrom Campbell University in Lillington, North Carolina and a Master of Public Administration Degree from Troy State University. I'm pursing a Ph.D in Public Policy and Administration from the College of Social and Behavior Science at Walden.My long term goal is to enter politics in Texas.

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Copyright © 2007 by Elaine and Ray Adkins.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission

in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

Front Cover Photo Collage, left to right: 1) Chief Edward Pemberton Bradby

with his wife Princetta and children, Helen and Leon. Reprinted by permission

of Joanne Hogge Howard; 2) Etokah Bradby Hoff’s beadwork, reprinted with

her permission; 3) Pottery by Roberta Mankin Bradby Adkins. Reprinted

by permission of Matthew Adkins; 4) Toy doll circa 1930, Hogge Archives.

Reprinted by permission of Norman Hogge; 5) Etokah Bradby Hoff’s beadwork,

reprinted with her permission; and 6) Chief Robert Walker Adkins II, circa 1960.

Reprinted by permission of Reme Adkins Holmes.

Cover Color Photos of Eastern Chickahominy Chiefs: L. Chief Gene

Pathfollower Adkins. Reprinted by permission of Elaine Adkins. R. Chief Marvin

Strong Oak Bradby. Reprinted by permission of Marvin Bradby.

Author Photo: Sandy Mallon, 2007.

Border on the back cover created from a photo of a stained glass window from

the Tsena Commocko Baptist Church designed and photographed by Norman

Hogge. From the Hogge Archives. Reprinted by permission of Norman Hogge.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

34402

Contents

Introduction

1

Our Forefathers Were There

2

The Birthplace of the CIED

3

The Birth of the CIED

4

Plecker’s War On Indians

5

Being Eastern Chickahominy

6

Schooling for the CIED

7

Challenges of the Future

Appendix A

List of Tribal Members

Appendix B

Transcription of Ralph Hamor’s Description of Negotiating a Treaty in 1614 with the Chickahominies

Appendix C

Culture of the Chickahominies in the 17th Century

Appendix D

Burial Sites of the Chickahominy Indians-Eastern Division

Appendix E

Some History of the Bradby Family in Eastern Virginia

Appendix F

Notes Prepared by Frank Speck Prior to a Meeting at the Department of Indian Affairs

Appendix G

Letter from E. P. Bradby to the U. S. Department of Indian Affairs Seeking Federal Recognition

Appendix H

Frank Speck Letter to M. W. Stirling

Appendix I

An Act to Preserve Racial Integrity

Appendix J

CIED Veterans

Appendix K

Joanne Howard’s Letter to Senator George Allen

References

Introduction

The writing of this book has been a labor of love for us—love for each other and love for the members of the Chickahominy Indians-Eastern Division. Their story is one of perseverance, courage, integrity, and faithfulness. We have not only learned much that we did not know about the history of the tribe, but we have also been inspired by the stories of its people. By way of introduction to this book, allow us to briefly share our individual perspectives.

Raymond’s Perspective

I am a member of the Chickahominy Indians-Eastern Division (CIED). My ancestors hunted, fished, and lived in the tidewater area of Virginia long before the English arrived in 1607. And that was where I was born and had my beginnings. When I was seventeen years old, however, my family moved to New York City. Several family members had already settled there, and although Manhattan was a drastic change from rural Virginia, we quickly became New Yorkers—learning to navigate the public transportation system instead of country roads and living amidst multi-story apartment buildings instead of tall pines.

To that point in my life, there had been little conversation in our home about being Indian. The social climate in Virginia during the first half of the 20th century was not sympathetic to our people, and we learned to work hard, say little, and blend in. I do not remember any chapters in our history books about Virginia Indians, and frankly, my background knowledge about the tribe was sketchy.

After graduating from Wheaton College in Illinois, I settled in the Chicago area. My career was in business, finance, and real estate sales and management.

In later years, whenever one of my grandchildren was assigned a report about Indians and called to get my opinion, I had a stock answer: When the English settlers landed in Jamestown in 1607, my forefathers were there. One of my granddaughters was quite baffled by this statement. She later told her mother, Grandpa says he had four fathers.

When Elaine and I were asked by the tribal council to write a book about the CIED, I anticipated the assignment with excitement. Together we would have the opportunity to research and digest all that had been written by others and to interview as many current tribal members as possible about their knowledge and memories related to being an Eastern Chickahominy.

I assumed the following responsibilities in the writing of this book: (1) bringing a First American perspective to the project (or at least one First American’s perspective), (2) editing and rewriting the manuscript to ensure its accuracy and clarity, and (3) encouraging family and tribal members to remember and reflect upon the challenges and achievements in their lives, during videotaped oral history interviews.

Elaine’s Perspective

I grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My grandparents immigrated to this country from the Netherlands. I too attended Wheaton College, remaining in the Chicago area after graduation and pursuing a career in education; I served as a teacher, media specialist, principal, and central office administrator. After Raymond and I married in 1993, one of our first trips together was to a Chickahominy powwow in Charles City, Virginia. It was a colorful event characterized by drumming, dancing, fry bread, and warm greetings from family I had never met. It was my first experience with a gathering of this kind, and I took dozens of pictures and several hours of video. I was fascinated by my new relatives, and I wanted to know more about their history. Although I am not a historian, I am a qualitative researcher, having written several education books based on wide-ranging interviews with educators. Asking questions is part of my business. But that weekend was not the time to ask them, I discovered. It was a family reunion.

In 1994 we retired to Arizona, formed a business partnership, and began a new full-time career in educational writing and consulting. Since that time I have written and Ray has copy edited more than 30 books for parents and educators, and we have presented dozens of workshops around the country. When the CIED tribal council approved our writing this book together, I was delighted at the prospect of finally having a reason to ask all of the questions I had wondered about for years.

My responsibilities in writing this book included these: (1) developing the structure and organization of the book by identifying the big ideas; (2) searching through published books and journals, newspapers, archives, and the transcripts of interviews with tribal members to find examples and illustrations of these ideas; and (3) preparing the book for publication.

Our Goals for This Book

We hope to accomplish the following goals with this book:

•   To leave a written record for the youngest members of the tribe and their unborn children and grandchildren that documents and explains the struggles and accomplishments of their forefathers and foremothers

•   To summarize the history of the Chickahominy Indians as a single tribe from 1607 to 1900

•   To provide the first written record of the heretofore unrecorded history of the CIED from its inception in 1921 to the present

•   To present an ethnohistory of the CIED in the words of its members

How the Book Is Organized

We do not pretend to be historians or anthropologists, but we have utilized the tools and techniques of both disciplines. We have written more than just a history because we have simultaneously attempted to uncover the culture and ways of contemporary CIED members and relate those to 400 years of Chickahominy history. We are calling our work an ethnohistory because we have used historical methods and materials to gain knowledge of the nature and causes of change in the CIED culture.

Chapter 1 summarizes the history of the Chickahominy Indians from 1607, when the English landed in Jamestown, to the beginning of the 20th century. To that point, there was only one Chickahominy tribe. However, in 1921, a small group of Chickahominies living in an area of New Kent County, then known as Windsor Shades-Boulevard, separated from the main tribe in Charles City County (about a 20-mile round trip) to form the Eastern Division of the tribe.

Chapter 2 describes the geography, landmarks, and non-Indians (the whites who owned the businesses that served and employed tribal members) of the Windsor Shades-Boulevard area. If you have never visited the village, as it is called by some tribal elders, the detailed descriptions in this chapter will serve to orient you to the community. If you have lived there for a lifetime, the photos and descriptions will bring back memories of a bygone era.

Chapter 3 picks up the history of the Chickahominies at the beginning of the 20th century, briefly describes their renaissance under the leadership of Chief William Henry Adkins II, his death, and the subsequent withdrawal of a small band of Chickahominies to form the CIED under the leadership of Chief Edward Pemberton Bradby in 1921. There have been three chiefs since Bradby’s death in 1958 to the present, and this chapter also provides a chronology of significant events during the tenures of Chief Robert Walker Adkins II and Chief Marvin Bradby as well as brief portraits of them. The fourth chief, Gene Adkins, will be described in Chapter 7.

Chapter 4 describes a tragic chapter in the history of all of the Virginia Indian tribes: the story of how Walter Plecker, director of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, sought to systematically erase all evidence of Indians in the state of Virginia by issuing an order that removed the designation of Indian from all birth certificates, replacing it with the term colored.

Chapter 5 describes what it was like to live, work, play, and attend church as a 20th century Eastern Chickahominy, both in Windsor Shades-Boulevard and also in two centers of CIED out-migration—Philadelphia and New York City. We tell this story in the words of tribal members and examine some of the cultural practices and behaviors that have been handed down through generations.

Chapter 6 looks at the topic of CIED schooling. There were several phases in the history of their schooling: home-schools, one-room Indian schools, Indian boarding schools, and integrated public schools. Each aspect of schooling had a different impact on CIED members. We also examine adult education in the CIED—how those who left school after the 7th grade acquired education on their own.

Chapter 7 profiles the current CIED chief, Gene Adkins, examines the quest for federal recognition by the CIED and sets forth the challenges and goals for the future.

Time lines pertinent to the topics of the chapters can be found at the end of Chapters 1-4 and Chapters 6-7.

Although this is a work of non-fiction, there are dozens of characters in it. Many of their names are similar and to help you keep track of them, Appendix A provides a complete list of the names of all of the tribal members who appear in the book. Dates of birth and death are provided for those individuals who are deceased. Short genealogies are included as appropriate. Following Appendix A, there are numerous other historical appendices: copies of important CIED documents, a census of three tribal burial sites, and a list of tribal members who served in the Armed Forces.

Although this book is not meant to be a scholarly treatise, we refer to many academic sources, both to support our assertions and to provide readers with a trail to follow, should they choose to research a topic for themselves. Any material that we have quoted or summarized from another source is cited in the following format: (Adkins & Adkins, 2007, p. 1). If you wish to track down a particular source, look for it by author and date in the list of references at the end of the book. There are occasional footnotes containing explanations or additional information. These are numbered and appear at the end of each chapter. Any quotations from individuals other than tribal members cite the date of our personal communication with them.

We are grateful to the many tribal members who participated in videotaped interviews, shared information via telephone and email, or completed questionnaires. Many of them are quoted by name throughout the book. Anonymous contributors are indicated with the letter A and a number, for example A1. This will enable you to connect quotations from anonymous contributors as you read and this method also maintains a historical record of which individuals made the contributions. Whenever the name of a tribal member is cited as a source, the information came to us between June 1, 2006 and March 15, 2007.

From time to time throughout the book you will encounter the personal possessive pronoun our modifying words like ancestors, tribe, history, or opinion. We chose to use our to emphasize the joint nature of our writing effort. However, the senior and tribal member of the team, Raymond, is speaking at that point in the text.

If you wish to comment on any aspect of this book or find an error that needs to be corrected in subsequent printings, please contact us at [e-mail].

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the following individuals for their wise counsel and assistance in the writing of this book:

•   Marilyn Power Scott, our copy editor on more than a dozen prior books, was the final arbiter of the punctuation, grammar, and style in this book. However, any errors of omission or commission in the final product must be credited to us.

•   Danielle Moretti-Langholtz, director of the American Indian Resource Center, College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, gave us advice and encouragement regarding our collection of oral histories.

•   Judy Ledbetter, professional volunteer at the Center for History in Charles City, Virginia, shared materials when we visited the center and cheerfully responded to emails.

•   Our daughter, Emily McEwan-Fujita, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of Pittsburgh, procured vast numbers of books and articles for our research, gave us mini-lessons on everything we needed to know about cultural and linguistic anthropology, and had faith in our ability to bring this project to completion. She also saved space on her office wall to display the framed cover of our book.

•   Our son, Patrick McEwan, Associate Professor of Economics at Wellesley College read early versions of the manuscript and provided helpful suggestions.

•   The staff at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia assisted us during our visit there and have continued to respond to requests for help via email.

•   The research staff at the American Anthropological Archives of the Smithsonian Institution assisted us with telephone research and permissions information.

•   Terry Lindsey, professional volunteer at the New Kent County History Center provided many leads and resources in New Kent County and valuable assistance with maps of the Windsor Shades-Boulevard area of New Kent County.

•   Unofficial tribal historian, Norman Hogge, read the manuscript and was a strong supporter and cheerleader for our efforts.

•   Byron Graves, Jr., provided invaluable information on the Graves General Store and The Windsor Hotel, as well as the ownership history of the stave and saw mills. He also generously shared a copy of his family’s history with us.

•   Sandy Mallon, professional photographer and a master at retouching old photos, not only was the photographer for the author photo, but also retouched and enlivened many of the old photos in the book.

•   Family and tribal member Leslie Adkins provided first-hand knowledge of both the stave mill and the game farm. His wife, Charlotte read and commented on the manuscript and shared pictures and genealogical information from her archives.

•   Pauline Etokah Hoff, matriarch of the CIED, answered hundreds of questions with honesty and humor, shared her bead and leatherwork with us, and provided the Ed Allard Genealogies of the Bradby and Adkins Families. They are among the most well worn research tools in our files.

•   Our son, Darrell Adkins, provided the impetus to the council regarding the importance of documenting tribal history as well as ongoing encouragement to us when the task seemed insurmountable.

•   Marvin Bradby read and commented on the accuracy of the manuscript from a First American perspective and educated us about the various organizations that have impacted the tribe in the 20th century. He also provided helpful photos and documents from his archives along with background knowledge that was essential to writing this book.

•   Joanne Hogge Howard shared her vast collection of newspaper clippings with us as well as her memories of the Virginia Indians’ trip to England.

•   Gene Pathfollower Adkins generously shared materials and helped us to understand the federal recognition application process as well as the politics of federal recognition.

•   We are grateful to all of the tribal members who sent and shared with us pictures, family trees, letters, recipes, report cards, sketches and drawings of places they had lived, and other memorabilia: Lois Janet Tupponce, Otis Ryland Emery, Elsie Adkins Anderson, Nantee Adkins Jefferson, Evelyn Adkins Douglas, Edna Bradby Allmond, Reme Dee Adkins Holmes, Marvin Strong Oak Bradby, Joanne Hogge Howard, Pauline Etokah Bradby Hoff, Norman Kendrel Hogge, and Jan Keith deCheubel.

•   A special thanks to the tribal members who honestly shared the stories of their lives with us. We laughed and cried with them and are grateful for the faith they placed in us. They have given the gift of history to their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and yet unborn members of the CIED.

1

Our Forefathers Were There

Any written history involves the selection of a topic and an arbitrary

delimitation of its borders. This selection and organization—a single act—

will be controlled by the historian’s frame of reference composed of things

deemed necessary and of things deemed desirable.

—Beard (1934, p. 228)

In this chapter we present a selective and highly condensed history of the Chickahominy Indians from 1607, when their lands were invaded by the English, to the early 20th century, when they had seemingly lost everything—their language, culture, and homelands. Knowing what Chickahominy life was like during this three hundred year period is essential to understanding the recent history and culture of the Chickahominy Indians, Eastern Division (CIED).

Writing about the history of the Chickahominies from a First American perspective has challenged us to put together the pieces of a complicated puzzle, initially for ourselves and then for our readers. We first put in place the piece that synthesizes the various scholarly perspectives related to the history and culture (ethnohistory) of the Chickahominies. Next to that piece we put in a second one explaining the perceptions of CIED tribal members about the history of their tribe. Then we discovered a third piece, one describing the Algonquian language. It died an untimely death in the 19th century but was recently resurrected by a linguist and a movie director. Next we assembled the background pieces—a variety of terms and concepts essential to understanding the first 300 years of Chickahominy history. Finally, we present the finished puzzle, our ethnohistory of the CIED tribe.

Puzzle Piece 1: The Scholarly Perspective

There is no shortage of history about the founding of Virginia. There are scores of diaries and books written by on-the-scene 17th century Englishmen,¹ many more books written by early historians interpreting, summarizing, and sometimes plagiarizing these primary sources,² and even more books and journal articles written by contemporary anthropologists and historians.

Few scholars have chosen to investigate the Chickahominies in the past 100 years. Compared to more exotic tribes that still retain their native languages, cultures, and artifacts, our tribe has attracted almost no attention. We can count on one hand the number of serious ethnohistorians who have studied Virginia Indians (we don’t count the ones who have only done Pocahontas and Powhatan or focused solely on colonial Virginia).

The individuals who have come with notebooks and cameras and stayed long enough to gain an understanding fall into three groups: (1) early 20th century activist anthropologists, James Mooney and Frank Speck, whose interests in Virginia Indians focused on documenting what they heard and saw and then advocating for the natives with whom they developed relationships; (2) academics Helen Rountree and Frederic Gleach, both Virginia natives with a lifetime commitment to scholarly research focused on the Powhatan tribes (including the Chickahominies) but also with a significant emphasis on popularized historical figures like Pocahontas and Chief Powhatan; and (3) contemporary activist anthropologist, Danielle Moretti-Langholtz, the director of the American Indian Resource Center at William and Mary, whose research is primarily focused on the preservation of contemporary native culture through taped interviews and video productions.

We can gain some insight into the difficulty that scholars experience when they try to walk a mile in someone else’s moccasins by examining the work of Helen Rountree (1986, 1989, 1990), a prolific chronicler of the history and ethnology of the Powhatan Indians. Early in her career, she did not feel compelled to consider how the First Americans of Virginia felt about having their country invaded by foreigners or possibly even how they felt about her digging into their past. In a later book, Rountree (2005) attempts a more balanced perspective, but concedes that no matter how much sifting out of Eurocentric biases I attempt, I suspect that I will never be able to ‘get it right’ until someone invents a time machine (p. xi).

Puzzle Piece 2: The Tribal Perspective

The invasion of North America by European men, machines, and microbes was primarily an aggressive attempt to subdue the newfound land and its inhabitants, and to turn them to European profit.

—Axtell (1981, p. 41)

In contrast, few books have been written about the English invasion of America. Scholars generally write from the colonial perspective, and Chickahominies (as well as other Virginia Indians) have rarely enjoyed the luxuries of reflection and research that are essential for writing historically or autobiographically. Marvin Strong Oak Bradby, hereafter known as Marvin, CIED chief for 33 years and now retired, explains it this way: Our history was hijacked. Meanwhile, we’ve been too busy staying alive.

The term hijack usually brings to mind the commandeering of vehicles or airplanes with intent to do evil. There is, however, an alternative meaning: to take somebody else’s idea and use it, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the person from whom it was taken. In the case of the First Americans, it wasn’t just an idea that was taken, but their story—a history of Virginia that featured only a minor role for First Americans.

Marvin isn’t alone in his thinking; there are several contemporary scholars who assert that the history of First Americans not only needs to be rewritten more completely and accurately, but also with more attention to the native perspective.³

First Americans are understandably suspicious of the motives of those who purport to be or have ambitions to be experts regarding all things native. They have seen what can happen to their ideas if they let down their guard and talk about how they really feel. Marvin says, They always want to put the settlers in a positive light. They try to make it look like the English immigrants were the ‘good guys’ and the Indians were the ‘bad guys.’ They don’t want the truth. The reticence and even suspicion that exists among many First Americans in Virginia has created an unfortunate dilemma that can be stated thus: "I don’t trust you enough to tell my stories to you because I fear how they will be used, but if I do not tell my stories to someone or write them myself, they will be lost forever—not only to the world, but to my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren."

When we asked the CIED natives whom we interviewed what they would like to know about the history of their tribe, many of them asked for a native perspective. The emotions that arose from confronting the conventional wisdom that exists regarding tribal history were powerful. In the case of some individuals, their feelings had been buried for decades and only rose to the surface with gentle probing and patient listening. In the case of others, the anger was deep and righteous: History was written by the victor, not the victims. We had to accept the fact that we lost our country (Marvin).

Pauline Etokah Bradby Hoff (known as Etokah) remarked, "There are still many people in Virginia who think of Indians as savages. One of my neighbors is irate that an Indian could buy