Exhibit

As a leading attraction during America’s 400th Anniversary, the Beyond Jamestown exhibit examines Virginia Indian history from Indian perspectives and shows that Virginia Indian cultures today are vibrant and thriving.

Visitors entering the exhibit encounter images of modern Virginia Indians against a background depicting a bark-shingled wigwam, stalks of corn, and trees. With the sounds of birds, rustling leaves, water and Native flutes, visitors enter the homeland of Virginia Indian peoples.

Inside, visitors encounter objects and images from the distant past.  Beautifully colored engravings of the regions’ Native peoples and their environment are accompanied by displays of pre-Contact Native tools, including a complete set of stone points and axe heads, bone fish hooks, inscribed hair pins, examples of decorated potsherds, and whole ceramic pots. These items are some of the finest examples of early Native craftsmanship.

Other highlights of the exhibit include a replica of a wigwam complete with log benches, a dugout canoe that visitors can touch and sit in, and a recreated one-room school, with log walls, antique students’ desks, and rare photos of Virginia Indian schoolchildren from 1914 through 1940. 

The exhibit also includes a display focused on contemporary Virginia Indian artisans, with beadwork, leather craft, flutes and other wood carvings, pottery, and contemporary drawings by Virginia Indian artists.

The Beyond Jamestown exhibit is guest-curated by Virginia Indian anthropologist Karenne Wood, editor of the recently published Virginia Indian Heritage Trail.

“Native peoples have lived in the area we now call Virginia for as many as 15,000 years, but if you ask Virginia Indians how long they have been here, they will probably say, ‘We have always been here”, Wood said. “Our histories, our ancestral connections, and our traditions are intertwined with the land called Tsenacomoco by the Powhatan peoples. It is a bountiful land, given to us by the Creator as the place most fitting for us to live.”

Virginia Indians Yesterday and Today

For an in-depth article on the history of Virginia Indians, please click here.

• Powhatan was the paramount chief, the mamanatowick (spiritual leader) of 32 tribes in 1607. He believed in God. His people’s name for God was Ahone.
• Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas, was about 10 years old when the English arrived. Scholars argue whether the famous "rescue of John Smith" actually happened at all. If it did, it was most likely a Native ritual misunderstood by Smith. Pocahontas was a child. She did not fall in love with John Smith. She was not an heir to Powhatan’s leadership; thus, she was not a “princess”.
• Once the English colonists established dominion over Powhatan lands, they passed laws permitting Indian people to be killed for various reasons. “Friendly” Indians were required to wear silver badges issued by the Virginia Governor, which symbolized their allegiance to the colony.
• The Treaties of 1646 and 1677, between the King of England and the Virginia Indian tribes, established terms of peace. Two tribes, the Pamunkey and the Mattaponi, have continued to observe the tribute required by those treaties. Every year, on the day before Thanksgiving, they present a tribute of fish and game to Virginia’s Governor.
• Virginia first passed “race laws” in 1705, which described Virginia Indians and other peoples of color, and regulated their activities. Additional laws were passed during the 1800s. The Racial Integrity Act of 1924 declared that marriage between people of color and people determined to be white was illegal, and those who violated the law could be sent to prison.
• Walter Plecker, head of the division of vital statistics in Virginia for more than 30 years, was a staunch eugenicist and white supremacist. He changed many Indian people’s birth certificates, without any scientific proof, from “Indian” to “colored.”
• Virginia Indian students were not permitted to attend public schools until 1963. Mission schools, located near tribal populations, provided up to a seventh-grade education. For some tribes, high school education was not available at all. For others, the only option was to send their children to schools operated by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, located as far away as Oklahoma. Children who had never left their home counties were given $200 and a train ticket. They were not able to return home for at least nine months.
• Eight Virginia tribes were recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1983-1989. Although more than 560 tribes are recognized by the federal government today, the Virginia tribes are not. Six of the eight Virginia tribes have submitted a bill to the U.S. Congress, requesting federal acknowledgment of their sovereign status. Their motto is: “First to welcome, last to be recognized.”