Transcripts For CSPAN2 Virginia 20240704

Talking history lecture series. Tonights presenter is diana gates who will speak with us about virginia indian women in leadership roles they will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the lecture. A member of virginias nottoway tribe she is a managing senior travel specialist with the National Center on tribal Early Childhood development where her projects focused on embedding native culture and language into highquality Educational Opportunities for native youth. She is also the founder of everything eastern, a nonprofit with a mission of preserving and sharing existing Community Knowledge and practice, conducting community engageded research, and Building Partnerships with tribal communities along the east coast. Inrt addition to earning a bachelor of arts degree in international and humanitarian affairs from James Madison university, ms. Gates earned a masters of social work from Columbia University and a masters of education from Delta State University picture currently lives in richmond, virginia, with her husband, daughter, and dog please join me in welcoming diana gates. [applause] [laughter] hi, everyone. I have to start by saying how interesting it is to take off a mask and talk to people in a room. Were, like, a year postintroduction of covid is, so its definitely an interesting experience to have. Thank you all so much for coming tonight. The title of this discussion is exceptional women virginia indian women and leadership. And i just want to start by saying to all the virginian Indigenous Women in the room or who may be watching this recording, this presentation is especially for you. And i hope you find strength and power in the stories of our grandmothers that are included here tonight. I know personally their tenacity, strength and commitment to community especially through trying times and adversity is a message that we can all gain some inspiration from. [laughter] if so up first, lets talk about these things. So instead of a formal agenda slide, i sort of open with some points of discussion that we will talk through tonight. And so well start with a land acknowledgment, we will talk about what time immemorial means, and then well go through some four general phases that i think categorize some time periods in virginia indian women and leadership including matriarch key, exceptional women, tenning the embers and remate ration, and well close out with time immemorial revisited and then well have some question and answer time. Okay. So, first, for land acknowledgment, i want to start this presentation with an acknowledgement that we are in the traditional territory of the pow a tan chiefdom. The original treaties made with the original inhabitants of Turtle Island occurred in this traditional territory, but id also like to add a reminder that the people existed here long before that contact and negotiation was ever made and will continue to exist long after. So these are some pictures of our beautiful territory here. So up first we have time immemorial. And, basically, im providing a kind of framework for the evening and the different general phases that well talk about, as i mentioned earlier. I want to sort of flip the script on historical presentation that focus on dates, so you wont hear me refer to specific dates very often. Because thinking that date specific about history focuses on how we fit into a specific timeline that has been imposed upon us rather than reflecting n what we learned during that time and to where we can and should go next. So that being said, we will talk through four phases of metis are great exceptional women, and paredesmatriarchy is a social sn which women hold the binary power positions and roles of Political Leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property. So i would like to start this phase by talking a little bit about european bias and critique of that in the way that the counselor recollected by english about indian people in virginia. English speak of the native men Hunting Fishing and fighting and going to report at their leisure of women to the drudgery. And somebody means by drudgery are things like working Agricultural Production and working in the home this is definitely bias of the European Society. Because for man to hunt and fish he has to own land. These are considered leisurely activities and farm animals with most societies and specifically lowerclass mentor working in the fields doing hard labor some in the coming ac women are, they dont see women producing 60 70 percent of the diet of the community. Here. They see is the drudgery type of activity when in reality, that is part of what creates the society is the control. Of the Agricultural Production so an native cited said the type hunting and fishing are the primary ways of securing fronting for the diet while women remain around the town and working in the fields and raising children and so all of these activities great Matriarchal Society maintain rights for women in a native society that European Society will not see for hundreds of years from the point of initial contact in the early 16 hundreds. In addition, some other aspect of matriarchy down here in our communities women are heads of households, they hold and own property. The three doing to divorce and another relationships and gain custody of the children and of the vast majority of the property the household and the household itself read so kind of flipping the script on what we initially see in the town send in late account of what was actually crating and Matriarchal Society. And additionally the quality found within the native societies, both european women and African Women are inside the brought to this continent, so that when they are captured or run away to native societies, they become resistant to returning at it so it so printed that the government actually put out false captive narratives to dissuade people from running away from the European Society d kind of false narrative about this treatment that was not appearing. Also during this phase want to lay the foundation for defining Political Leadership and communal leadership. So by Political Leadership, i mean access to power that provides an opportunity to lead and guide within a governmental structure mike communal leadership i mean access to power the provides an opportunity to lead and guide within a community worried and so i want to acknowledge first that in matriarchy, these are not the best definitions because as we know native society Political Leadership is still communal leadership and you are accountable to your community but i think making that distinction early on in the dark about how leadership with virginia indian women has evolved over time to make sense as we set that dichotomy up at the beginning. Okay, so our next phase is exceptional women. Ive two definitions year of exceptional women. The first definition is unusual, the first definition is unusual or untypical of the second definition is unusually good or outstanding. So we have to kind of different definitions here i will talk a little bit about how these woman are both exceptional and in different ways. In this picture we have here, is a couple, the woman on the left is marrying some ancient century style clothing in the northeast area. And more exceptional women so we will talk about how they were exceptional in the first sense of the definition of an unusual or untypical from the european or American Perspective read but will also discuss how they were exceptional in the sense of our second definition of unusually good or outstanding. That will come from our own community perspective. So during this, changes from how virginia indian woman access Political Leadership but you will also see how communal leadership is making a constant part of our lives. Our first exceptional woman is a woman born sometime in the mid 15 hundreds and died in 1610. She was a female chief of an tribe tribe and she was a member of a confederate street around 30 tribes at that time. In a possibly related closely to the royal line on the were not exactly sure what the connection was. And so here in this early contact time, we see that women in Political Leadership roles across the society was a common occurrence but it was very rare in european societies. So sort of initial set up of seeing in very high Political Leadership positions was not a common occurrence for europeans who were here first. They had just had their First Experience with a clean monarch rolling, 50 or 60 years versus this was a very common part of the society at the time. So during one of the initial encounters between the english and a man named Gabriel Archer was one of the first at jamestown and his account called this woman fat and is both hilarious and awesome at the same time lusty in fat. She maybe my alter ego if i were to rename myself ive probably rename myself her name. The most importantly, she was a fearless unflinching and persuasive leader she was commonly adored with a crown just absolutely dripping in copper jewelry which was a huge a status symbol and it still is today. It still retain that mentality but it was clear that she was the chief or the queen during those initial interactions and it one of the original accounts of the english interacting with the her was newport who she requested it one of his men to shoot their guns in front of her to see how they operate and they fired the gun and she did so without flinching or blinking so she is pretty tough woman having ever seen that most likely never seen that technology and showing absolutely no fear in the initial fire. So basically of the next few years the tribe this appomattoc tribe, it became more and more wary of the continuing colonial encroachment at jamestown and in the summer of 1610, opposoquionuske invited 15 to medico which is a town that she provided over. Presided over and so claiming that the women of the village would be afraid of their weapons, she persuaded the men to leave them in the vote and she invited them to sit down for a meal at which time she had them ambushed and men killed all but one who managed to escape and survivor was a man named thomas and he managed to return back to the vote and report back to jamestown what it happened and unfortunately, along conflict between the settlers and the appomattoc tribe and she was shes a first exceptional moment, named one of the virginia women in history in 2007. Illustration that you have here, comes from john whites watercolors around 1585. This is a depiction of the wife of a chief on the tribe on the outer banks of North Carolina. Theres no depiction of opposoquionuske that we are aware of so this is kind of the closest depiction of a woman of high status but opposoquionuske was also known to be dripping in copper jewelry. So not quite exactly as you would look but pretty close. Enter next exceptional woman, she was a lie around 1640 1686 and she is the clean or chief and she Land Protection as sovereignty for tribes really comes into play with her leadership and talk a little bit more about what, i mean, by that and as second. And also the legacy of protecting and hunting and fishing rights for all virginian indians today is largely due in part to leadership during that time. In the mid 16 hundreds theres a prolonged conflict between the english and the virginia indians and essentially during that rebellion and prolonged conflict landowners on with the frontier virginia demanded that all indians on certain land or killed and king charles the second commissioned to virginia to mate with several that indian leaders and broke the treaty and that treaty became known as the treaty of metal plantations of 1677 and so in part of those negotiations, she was a very strong leader in those negotiations. A lot of the protections that we still have today for hunting and fishing, are largely like i said due in part to her leadership in that treaty negotiation. So entitled to land specifically is a huge piece from that treaty, couple of tribes were able to retain their traditional lands as a result of this treaty. So she is an exceptional woman and decided that we have here is of her which was essentially a silver piece that we think was originally adorned on front of a crown but does the remaining piece that we have and was commissioned by king charles the second it to give to cockakoeske for her involvement in that treaty and peace negotiations. On the just recently made his way back to this continent which is great. And she is included in the virginia womens monument on the Capitol Grounds so if you ever get a chance to visit the Capitol Grounds, there is a set of maybe ten or so Virginia Limited who have been recognized as exceptional leaders. And she is one of them so you can go see her bronze statue there. So our next exceptional woman is edith turner, she was not away and born around 1754 and lived to around 1838. She was the chief of the queen of the nottoway tribe and shes very tenacious and Community Minded leader. She negotiated numerous land allotments for the nottoway tribe people. She brought discriminatory politicians or states people to justice through multiple court cases. And that she was a fluent conversationals and nottoway but not particularly literate in the sense of being able to prominent take people to court, but really impressive and also she was a mother and advocate for tribal children in which is really important. So she started her in part in the transactions as early as 1794 but as a chief she let it push to divide the reservations land among the many tribe people. And it fortunate because of the time, nottoway were forced to sell the reservation land to pay debt so increasingly, we are seeing parts of the reservation it be sold off to pay the debt and that makes traditional ways of life increasingly difficult and so she sort of entered into these problems and owned a farm and encouraged the adoption of farming practices a lot of which still are in the nottoway family today and some elements of culture that in terms of farming and that has maintained until today. She also in thinking about her as a foster mother, she had so much compassionate for tribal children it, records from 18 oh eight show her acting as a foster mother for two nottoway children and we also know that she successfully negotiated with trustees of the state politicians in charge of managing the tribe and she was o negotiation to bring four children back into the reservations and that is before that we know of. And even at the age of 76, she was still looking after at least two children and her own. So for at least 70 years she continually brought nottoway and other local tribe children into her care. And she was like you mentioned before, affluent and very skilled conversationalist in both english and in nottoway and so she instructed that the children in the traditions of the tribe and she was one of the last first language speakers of the tribe. So she took a role as a communal leader especially very seriously and passing that culture unto on two children. She was named one of the virginia women in history for 2008. If youd like to learn more about her you can look her up that way. This damage year, means older sister. This woman was part of a, an illustration of three nodaway who had migrated up north to live with another tribe and she is what we think is the older sister of one of the two men are also pictured in this illustration. This is the same time, illustration of a nottoway woman. Its a very obscure, you have to redo all of his notes to even, the artist notes to even surmise about. This is definitely the only that we know of illustration of a nottoway woman during that time. And our fourth exceptional woman is molly holmes adams, born in 1881 and passed in 1973. She was a huge advocate of Tribal Cultural preservation. She is credited with the survival of local remedies inches also named one of the virginia women in history for 2010 here so little bit more about molly holmes adams. She was born into the upper mattapan i tried and she married jasper who was the chief for five decades she joined up as a tribal leader and was involved in the purchase and construction of the shared Indian School in 1919 and the Indian Baptist church in 1942. And in her role as a tribal elder she played a pivotal role in the preservation of feather weaving, or knitting an art which was almost lost which she passed onto on to others, e still in existence today. People in the audience who i know you know how to do so y exciting to acknowledge you. And so with your contribution she assist entomologist with a variety of studies including discussing herbal remedies puts a lot of information we have about Medicinal Plants and herbal remedies is because of her leadership to enter activism provide a strong base of support for continuing tribal identity anytime there is increasingly even dangerous to continue tribal identity. I look to her as a great example of leadership. And thats Mollie Holmes adams. I think on the next slide i have a picture of this southern mantle here that Mollie Holmes adams created around the 1930s, and that is on display upstairs in theed focused exhibits. So you keep can see an example of original work which is really amazing. You have a chance, go check that out to see all of the craft women ship that it took to create that. What i want to talk about next is what i refer to as that tending the embers phase. So forth tending the embers the definition i have is a motion about the caretaking and stoking, a gentle coaxing and potent remembering that lights are fire. As i mentioned earlier the distinction of Political Leadership and Community Leadership, so as you see over time Political Leadership with virginia indian women dwindled to some extent but the Community Leadership maintained a constant. And just some policies that were in place that sort of encouraged exclusion of women in Political Leadership, even as early as the 1600s, native women were left out of government, government meetings when it was discussing trade, land borders, military alliance, or the ending of conflict or violence. English settlers would refuse to meet with native womenit who wee in Political Leadership positions and it would only meet with men. Native women were barred from the governors meeting room as well, so this was a really rampant sort of policy of excluding native women from Political Leadership positions. After the American Revolution this policy was set instant was something called the american civilizations act, which would not allow women to be heads of household or toho participate in or theat leaders of government, which as you recall at the beginning that was a critical element off what makes a matriarchy which is what our society was for. So disassembling of matriarchy and womens access of Political Leadership. During the time of contact through the mid1900s we see that dwindling of virginia Indian Womens leadership Political Leadership access to it but again i definitely want to stress that Community Leadership has continued to exist throughout this time period. So information we have about traditional arts, skills, lifeways still in existence today is due in large part to the work of women, and so like i just mentioned drawing a parallel to precontact or early contact matriarchy, a lot of the ways that women still today pass on tribal culture through Community Leadership is still an element of matriarchy, even if the Political Leadership aspect is not as prevalent. Women were both young girls and young boys first teachers. Boys only went to learn from man. Six when it was, to receive their first bow and arrow, even though lots of women also taught their signs archery during the time period mike. So that original education was always done by women in the home. So thatom hasnt changed as muc. So i would like to bring attention to that as well that is still an element of matriarchy. Its just that in our current Country Society womens work is often devalued work within the home is devalued here and it is worked there it is definitely worth. Its notor always unpaid and i think women and moms in the audience will shake yes, thats true. So we can look at this phase and submit and criticize the power structures and influences that prevented women from havingg consistent access to Political Leadership. But i dont want us to look at this time period back and think women were not leading at all because i couldur not be further from the truth and thats again without distinction of leadership is important. So our last phase is a phase that i am calling rematriation here and rematriation is sort of a new word that is being constantly defined and redefined. So theres no specific definition of this but its essentially a return to womens of existingays being and knowing. So rematriation is really the response of women returning to those, especially those politicalng leadership opportunities and we in franchising themselves in their communities to step up and be leaders and be recognized in ways that are a beyond Community Leadership. I have to say thats my baby right there and she is somewhere out there. Shes out there, and this is another mother and daughter. Mother is here tonight i just love these two pictures because i think the huge way that rematriation is occurring in our societies, communities today is through cultural or revitalization in language revitalization for any sort of working too reestablish that traditional equity that women and men had in traditional society. This work thats happening to rematriation o and to return to ways is not perfect but its hard. Its a struggle and the internalizationf of sentries of patriarchy and statemandated patriarchy, state and country mandated exclusion of women and Political Leadership has found its way intoal our communities d our mindsets and so some of our women still today have barriers to access governmental structure, Political Leadership, or outright banned in some cases still today. I just want to note that historically our communities did not operate this way. This occurred through generational transference, or the transfer from generation after generation that women are not meant for Political Leadership. Where we see the still in our communities today, there are a lot of women fighting that mentality. And so i just joined them and say continue your work and i support you. Because its not traditional to disenfranchise women in our communities. Se along the lines of rematriation a couple of bright spots i also want to mention that i really exciting is the mother can try. The actually in their constitution further tried and the cause of states the majority of counsel members must be women which i think is amazing there are other tribes that have predominantly women led tribal councils. In 2020 when concluding the tribe of North Carolina currently has eight of its 11 Council Seats filled by women. So changes happening or it can be slow and frustrating, but its possible and women are working really, really hard to make thatll happen. In our communities either, the working really hard read is definitely a process for rematriation that took 500 years to lead to the disenfranchisement so its a lot to unpack and work on the time being. Another bright spot that i have to add is virginia leadership today, we are accessing traditions of Political Leadership and unprecedented positions of Political Leadership at an unprecedentedly high amount. These are just some of the amazing women i know, virginia indian women i know. These are their jobs, and some of us have multiple jobs appear. The work is never done, but i just would like to point out that we have chiefs, multiple chiefs that are women, meaning many counsel women in our tribes. We also have the director of indigenous and native american outreach within the secretary of the commonwealth in the Governors Office but she is a virginia indian limiter we also have Advisory Board members on several boards that advise the governor of virginia. We have virginia indian women on the council on women, the council on Environmental Justice including the most previous chair of that council is a virginia indian woman. Virginia indian or Virginia Advisory Committee on juvenile justice and the virginia virginia fine art board of trustees. These are someee of our major Political Leadership roles that virginia indian women are in at this time. We also have several nonprofit founders. We have a public defender. We have Program Specialists and Program Analyst for federal offices working directly with tribes and organizations. We have language and cultural revitalizes,w awardwinning artists, artists with work displayed in the Virginia Museum of fine arts. We have an awardwinning screenwriter, Tribal Resilience Program director, nurse practitioner, Environmental Program manager complaint manager, conservation advocates data probably could have failed five or more slides with the amazing leadership positions that virginia indian women today take on. This is w the most exciting slie to me. That women are recognized as leaders across the commonwealth and the country at this high of a rate is really exciting, and anyone of us o that have childr, being able to show our contribution to this increases as a really special thing for all of us. So, yeah. So before we wrap up i want to revisit time immemorial. So time immemorial really is kind that reaches beyond your memory. Cells time thatxi exists beyond the recollection of history. Answer as i mentioned in the land acknowledgment, virginia indians have indians have been there since time immemorial. We will continue to be here for time immemorial to come. Answer just thinking about where we are in phases of leadership, we are currently repatriating our societies. Will returning to the women centrist indigenous ways of knowing. Some things i think are interesting think about is what comes after rematriation. What does the future of virginia indian womennd leadership look like . Does anything come after rematriation or have we restored traditional equity and thats the notification of success . And also what is the future of virginia indian women in leadership . These are some things that keep me up at night and i think about a lot, i just feel very inspired that women are carving out a new way of blending Political Leadership and Community Leadership, and also taking great care and finding ways to transfer this new way of thinking from generation to generation to sort of combat that generation to generationha transference of patriarchal concept we are trying to overwrite some of those effects to our rematriation initiative. As i mentioned before it is hard, long, arduous work but when working very hard to restore the traditional equity that we found in our communities, and that we will, i will say we will find again. In closing, i just wanted to thank the jamestownyorktowno foundation and for the opportunity to speak, for the opportunity toun speak tonight, andht also encourage their commitments to letting virginia indian voices speak for themselves in this space. Its very important to bring the perspective from the folks were from those communities. And so i just encourage the foundation and the museum to continue to push themselves and find new ways to represent more inclusive and equitable story that more fullyit represents the interactions of indigenous peoples, and i i thank them for that opportunity to do some of that work tonight. And thank you all for coming, and i would be happy to answer any questions or talk more about what you think is the future of rematriation. Thank you for coming. [inaudible] my question to you on the nottoway [inaudible] and you said that some of her farming, is still today. [inaudible] sodi some of the traditional farming practices that are still in existence today, there is still the most recent landfill, nottoway land was retained even to the mid1900s and a lot of nottoway folks are repurchasing that farmland which is great. One specific practice that is popular is a certain way of notching pig ears to differentiate their pics from other pics in the area, so thats one specific way that that practice has continued on today. Yeah, thank o you. [inaudible question] thats a good question. I think i think seeing, i think growing up in our communities and seeing, not seeing myself reflected in leadership, even from a young age, iag can remember not feelig good about that and not feeling that that was right answer even from a young age i just kinda felt like i was boundary pressure without it i think i just got a certain point in my adult life especially around the time ofhi having a child, spatil and daughter, that i thought its beyond feeling a certain way and now we need to act and push and do things so that we, our children can look at us as grandmothers and feel the same inspiration and sort of play that role pics i think really especially having a daughter just was a major turning point for me because like i cant look at her and thinking thu should be excluded from anything. I think for me that new motherhood was definitely a critical turning point for me. Thank you. [inaudible question] thats a really loaded question. So i dont, i dont know. Iw dont i havent been in Virginia Public School system for a while, but i can say from my experience, not a lot. I dont think that we were ever mentioned after jamestown in particular. I cant recall ever being mentioned peer and so when we refer to especially virginia indian people in that one time period not, the stories of women are not t stories told in any of our social curriculum even speak from a couple decades ago, i dont know that much as changed by also dealt want to step on anyones toes who is a virginia indian person working to fix that so i just want to draw, to make that note, just not aware of that. But i do know even in some children, young childrens schools, some inappropriate songs and thanksgiving activities and things like that are still occurring but its hard to tell if that is a directive from the school versus teachers that mages need additional diversity and equity training. [inaudible] theres a lot of folks who were even in the audience and are contributing to educating the on just their own children. I think that is definitely a part of the work that us, those of us who are parents, i dont think, well, i know i wont be able to sit by if something untrue or inappropriate comes home with my child. Yeah, i think that is definitely going to be a considerable part of a our work moving forward. Yeah, thank you. So this answers a little bit of my question. I with an organization, virginia tribal educational program. Its an organization of the federal [inaudible] we are actually working to enhance and connect the history of virginia native americans [inaudible] so we are in the early stages of our grant, so we have great opportunities of their, and i would love to stay connected with our board. I think you would be a fabulous person. Thank you. I would love to. And thank you for answering that text thats i wanted to clarify. I dont want to step on anyones toes because after the summer doing that right now, i just dont know who they are. So thank you for offering that answer. Yes. [inaudible question] yes. Right now we have at least one tribe that has a female chief. No. Two, so i could have a female chief but im not aware of any recent tribal elections. [inaudible] the rappahannock tribe has a limit chief and the nottoway virginia tribe has a limit chief. Yes. So they all live in different areas. The chief of the appomattox tribe she lived around what is presentday chesterfield so thats where she was from. The chief or queen lived in william county. And then edith turner lived in southampton county, and molly adams alsoo lived in King Williams county. Im looking at my best recollection of getting it right. So kind ofm a mix of different places. [inaudible]. [inaudible]. Diana clinical when we think about highquality education a lot of things that we are referring to is your standards of education are there within also the methods of which we present information and are conducive to indigenous learning so even instructional methods may be different and more communal more communal, less focused on individual students competing against each other and more of a focus in the classroom of learning thats one thing but beyond just instructional methods about making sure children feel represented in the curriculum so using indigenous names andic places, using indigenous terminology items, even math, we count the slices of pizza to learn fractions, we can count fruits, theres different ways to make sure children feel their identities are with the curriculums but our key focus is linguistically and culturally responsive education, the binary means we feel is high quality. [inaudible] yeah, its really think about are common, therell are a ton of places we grew up with so we just assumed its a name of place but a lot of places are named after the original inhabitants of the area where the original language so anytime you see the name of a town or street they think i dont think thats from english and doing extra research and thinking where did that come from . [inaudible] im not sure, i tried to look at the date but i couldnt find it. I know its the library of virginia but the research might have a specific date. [inaudible] is another reason to go upstairs. [laughter] thank you so much, it was awesome. [applause] if you enjoy American History tv, sign up using the qr code on the screen to receive a weekly schedule of upcoming programs like lectures in history, presidency and more. Sign up for the American History tv newsletter today and watch American History tv every saturday or anytime online, cspan. Org history. 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