NEVER SAY DIE;Pocahontas' Tribe Wins Federal Recognition

The Pamunkey's chief says it was left without status after US independence, despite 17th century treaties with England.

 

 

More than four centuries after they first greeted English settlers at Jamestown, a Virginia Native American tribe has won official US recognition.

     The Department of Interior on Thursday granted the designation to the Pamunkey, which claims Pocahontas among its lineage.
The move allows its 200 members to receive federal benefits on such things as medical care, housing and education.
The Pamunkey was once considered the most powerful tribe in the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom, which met the first English colonists.

        They are only the second tribe to win recognition since US President Barack Obama took office.

Nationwide, there are 566 federal recognized tribes, and hundreds more vying for the designation.
Pamunkey Chief Kevin Brown told Sky News: "It means that we've won a long tough battle.
"It means a historic justice for us and now we can start a new chapter of nation-building, because that's what we're doing - building a nation."
He said the tribe was proud of its lineage from Pocahontas, who he said was half-Pamunkey and half-Powhatan.
     Mr Brown said the tribe was originally recognised by England in 1646 and 1677 treaties.
But the Pamunkey were left without status when the US won independence a century later.
Their battle for federal recognition began in 1982, he added.
Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus had opposed granting the status.
The African-American lawmakers said the Pamunkey had a history of banning interracial marriages with blacks.
The tribe has said that policy was repealed in 2012.
Mr Brown has previously blamed the intermarriage ban on Virginia's past plans to use racial intermixing to divest the tribe of its Indian status.