The Pamunkey Reservation: Oldest in North America, Still There

In sixteen forty-six, nearly four decades after English colonists arrived at Jamestown, Virginia and the Pamunkey tribe signed a treaty. The Pamunkey ceded most of their territory and agreed to restrictions on where they could live and hunt. In exchange, the colonial government established a reservation on the York River, giving the Pamunkey a defined land base. That reservation still exists. It is the oldest Indian reservation in North America.

The Pamunkey had been part of the Powhatan Confederacy. After the confederacy's defeat in the wars of the sixteen thirties and sixteen forties, most of its member tribes lost their land bases and their political coherence. The Pamunkey survived as a distinct people on their treaty land for nearly four centuries, maintaining tribal governance, traditional pottery and fishing practices, and a continuous relationship with the watershed where they had always lived.

The United States government did not recognize the Pamunkey tribe federally until twenty fifteen. For three hundred and sixty-nine years after the colonial treaty established their reservation, they were recognized by the state of Virginia but not by the nation whose law governed the land around them. Federal recognition unlocked tribal rights to sovereignty and resources that state recognition could not provide. Three years later, the Upper Mattaponi tribe and four other Virginia tribes received federal recognition through the Virginia Tribal Recognition Act of twenty eighteen.

The Pamunkey reservation is approximately twelve hundred acres on the York River. The Pamunkey spent years pursuing casino plans, though it is not well documented that the tribe itself ultimately opened and operated a gaming facility. The Pamunkey were here before Jamestown and are here still.