"COARSE POUND CORN PEOPLE"

  The Chickahominy Tribe is located in Charles City County, Virginia, mid-way between Richmond and     Williamsburg, near where the tribe lived in 1600.  When Jamestown was founded, the Tribe lived in established villages along the Chickahominy River from the mouth of the river near Jamestown to the middle of the current county of New Kent.  Because of proximity to Jamestown, the Chickahominy people had early contact with the English settlers, helping the settlers survive during their first few winters here by trading food for other items.  Later, the Tribal members helped teach the settlers how to grow and preserve their own food. 

As the settlers began to prosper and expand their settlements, the Chickahominies were crowded out of their homeland.  In the treaty of 1646, the Tribe was granted reservation land in the Pamunkey Neck area of Virginia, near where the Mattaponi reservation now exists in King William County.  Eventually, the Tribe lost its reservation land and the Tribal families began a gradual migration to the area called the Chickahominy Ridge, where they now reside.  The families began to purchase land to live on and established Samaria Baptist Church, which serves as an important focal point for the community.  They also purchased land here for Tribal use.

In the early part of the twentieth century, the families of the Tribe pooled their meager resources to build Samaria School on the Tribal land so that their children could get an education.  They also paid the teacher’s salary out of these donated funds.  Grade levels were added through the years and eventually, children could attend school up to the eighth grade.  To further their education, many of the Chickahominy students went on to Bacone High School and Junior College, a Baptist-affiliated school for Indians located near Muskogee, Oklahoma.  Later, Samaria School became part of the county school system and eventually the high school level was added, allowing the Indian students to get a complete secondary education in their home community.  In 1968, the county fully integrated the school system and the Indian school building became the county primary school. 

In 1972, the Tribal members again pooled their resources for the benefit of the Tribe, this time to purchase additional land and to construct a tribal center.  This building is used for business meetings and community gatherings.  In addition, the Chickahominy children have attended classes here to learn pottery, beadwork, leather craft, dancing and Tribal history, all taught by Tribal members.  Each year, a Fall Festival and Pow-wow is hosted by the Tribe on its property near the Tribal Center, with people in attendance from all over the United States, particularly the East Coast.  The Fall Festival is a big social event for the Indian people and is a homecoming for many of the Chickahominy tribal members.  It is open to the public and allows the general public to learn more about Indian dance and culture.

At the time of the settlers’ arrival, the Tribe was led by a council of elders and religious leaders called the mungai or ‘great men’, rather than by a single person.  Today, it is led by a Tribal Council consisting of twelve men and women, including a chief and two assistant chiefs, all elected by vote of the members of the tribe. 

There are approximately 750 Chickahominy people living within a five-mile radius of the Tribal Center, with several hundred more living in other parts of the United States. 

The Chickahominy Tribe was granted official recognition by the state of Virginia in 1983 and since 1996, has been working hard towards recognition by the Federal Government.