Encounter: Virginia Indians Today
Listen Now!
Listen to Encounter: Virginia Indians Today
Download the MP3 
Email Us Comments or Questions
To suggest people, themes or stories for future Humanities Feature Bureau reports, contact Lydia Wilson at 434-924-6895 or lydiawilson@virginia.edu.
Additional Resources
Virginia Council on Indians - Governor Kaine's advisory board which studies and researches issues regarding the Indian Tribes in the Commonwealth, and makes recommendations to the Commonwealth on those issues.
Virginia Indian Heritage Program - a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities that creates opportunities for Virginians, as well as tourists, to learn about the history and cultures of Virginian Indian people and communities, past and present.
Made Possible By:
The "We The People" initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities provided the funds to make this series possible.
Pocahontas. Powhatan. Opechancanough. The Jamestown 400th anniversary is drawing attention to the history of Virginia's Indians. It is also serving as a reminder that Virginia Indians are not people of the past: that today, nearly four thousand Virginians are members of the Commonwealth's eight state-recognized Indian tribes.
Each tribe's membership may be relatively small, but their heritage is rich, and their contemporary challenges resonate in major issues affecting Virginia as a whole. Contemporary Virginia Indians want to maintain their tribal identities, even as they live in broader American society.
Their stories of history, tradition, community identity, and change are stories well worth telling. In January, VFH Radio staff and Karenne Wood (Monacan), who was then chairwoman of the Virginia Council on Indians, approached Virginia's tribal leaders with the idea for a five-part radio series to explore the question of what it means to be an Indian in Virginia today. Tribal leaders offered their often passionate perspectives on the issues that they believe matter most to their people. The result is a five-part series that is a first for VFH radio programming, and began airing statewide May 7 - 11, 2007.
In This Series
- Jesse Dukes, With Good Reason Associate Producer, talks with Chief Anne Richardson and other members of the Rappahanock Tribe about tribal identity during a practice of their traditional drum and dance groups.
- Martha Woodroof, feature reporter for WMRA in Harrisonburg, visits Amherst County's Monacan tribe to hear how they teach the next generation what it means to be Monacan.
- Mike MacKenzie, a freelance reporter based in Richmond, hears from Chickahominy Chief Stephen Adkins about the impact of Virginia's complex education history on his tribe today.
- Nancy King, With Good Reason Feature Producer, explores how the state determines what today's public school children learn about the history of Virginia Indians and arguments for revising these parts of the curriculum.
- Peter Solomon, WCVE jazz host, interviews Mattaponi chief Carl Custalow and his son Todd about how their traditional values are reflected in their partnership with the Commonwealth to repopulate the state's rivers with Shad.
