booktv. And on sundays booktv brings you the latest in Nonfiction Books and authors. Funding for cspan2, some of these Television Companies and more including comcast. Are you thinking this is just a command center . Comcast is partnering with a thousand Community Centers to create wifi enabled list sounds so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. Comcast along with these Television Companies supports cspan2 as a public service. Im Jamie Helmick and i welcome you to our first lecture in the jamestown foundations fos talking history lecture series tonight presenter is diana gates who will speak with us about virginia indian women inde leadership roles. There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the lecture. A member of virginias tribe she is a managing senior tribal specialist with the National Center on tribal Early Childhood development. Where projects focusde on embedding native culture and language into highquality Educational Opportunities for native youth. She is also the founder of everything eastern, a nonprofit withsh the mission of preserving andan sharing existing Community Knowledge and practice, conducting Community Engaged research, and Building Partnerships with tribal communities along the east coast in addition to earning a bachelor of arts degree in International International and he managing the affairs of James Madison university, ms. Gates earned a masters of social work from Columbia University and a masters of education from delta state university. Richmond,tly lives in virginia, with her husband, daughter, and dog please join me in welcoming diana gates. [applause] hi, everyone. I have to start by saying how interesting it is to take off the mask and talk to people in a room here we are like a year post introduction of covert, and so it is 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 in leadership. And i just want to start by saying to all the virginia indian or Indigenous Women in the room orn who may be watching this recording, this presentation is especially for you. U. And if hope you find strength d 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. 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 the children card she was named one of the virginia women in history for 2008 so if you would like to learn more about her you can look up that way. This image here is, means older sister. This woman was part of an illustration of three nottoway who had migrated up north to live with another tribe. And our we think she is the older sister of one of the two men were also pictured and so this is the only contemporary or the same period of time that illustration of the nottoway woman. Its very obscure coming up to read through all the notes and even, the artist notes even if from my stat so this is definitely the only that we know of illustration of a nottoway woman during that time. In our fourth exceptional woman it is molly adams, she was born in 1881 and passed in 73 and she was a huge advocate of Tribal Cultural preservation is credited with their survivings and knowledge of local plans for herbal remedies and shes also named one of the virginia women in history from 20 tenths of a little bit more about molly atoms born into the upper tribe and she married jasper who is the chief of that tribe for five decades. She joined him as tribal leader and was involved in purchasing construction of the Indian School in 1919 and the Baptist Church in 1942. And in her role as a tribal elder, she played a pivotal role in the preservation it of knitting and art which was almost lost when she passed on to others and is still in existence today. Mollie holmes adams. And i know that some people in the audience know how to do this so i want to acknowledge do so with her contributions, she never put a lot of anthropologists discussing herbal remedies and so, a lot of information that we have obtained about the remedies, is because of her leadership. In her activism provided a strong base and support for continuing tribal identity in a time that was increasingly even dangerous to continue tribal identity so it really was to her as a great example of leadership. And that is Mollie Holmes adams and i think in the next site, have a picture of the southern mantle here. Mollie holmes adams created this in the 1930s and that is actually on display upstairs in the focused exhibits and please see an example of her original work. Its really amazing. So you have a chance, like a check that out to see all of the craft that it took to create that. Its what i want to talk about next is what i refer to as the inverse phase. The definition that i have is emotion about caretaking and stoking a gentle coaxing and remembering of that which might start fire and so as i mentioned earlier, the distinction of Political Leadership in communal leadership so as we see over time, Political Leadership with the women, dwindled to some extent freighted with the communal leadership maintain a constant. And just some policies that were in place that sort of encouraged the exclusion of women in Political Leadership, even as early as the 16 hundreds, native women were left out of government pleadings whether it was discussing trade land borders, military alliance, or the ending of conflict or violence. English refused to meet with the native women who were in Political Leadership positions they would only meet with men. A native women were parted from the government meeting room as well so this was a really rampant sort of policy excluding native women from Political Leadership positions. And after the american revolutions policy was set in stone with something called the american civilizations act which would not allow women to be heads of household or to participate in or be leaders of government which as you recall of the beginning, that was a critical elements of what makes a matriarchy which is what our societies work. Socially through policy and systematic disassembling of matriarchy and womens access to Political Leadership. During the time of contact through the mid 19 hundreds, we see that sort of dwindling a indian women leadership, political ownership access but again i definitely want to stress that communal leadership has continued to exist throughout this time. So information that we have about traditional art, skills, life ways and are still in existence today is due in large part to the work of women and is so like they mentioned, drawing a parallel to pretty contact early contact matriarchy, a lot of the ways of women still today tribal culture through communal leadership is still an element of matriarchy even if the Political Leadership aspect is not as prevalent. Women were both young girls and younger boys first teachers, the boys only went to learn from men and we surmises around the age of six when it was common to receive the first even though lots of women tie their sins archery during this time. So that original education was always done by women in the home site has not changed as much so i would like to bring attention to that as well but that still an element of matriarchy and is just that in our current country society, the womens work is often devalued, work within the home is devalued and it is work in us definitely work and its often not always unpaid and so women and moms in the audience will shake their heads yes printed that is true read and so we can look at this phase and criticize the power structures and influences that prevented women from having consistent access to Political Leadership but i dont want us to look at this time. And think that women werent leading at all because that could not be further from the truth. Mexican with the distinction of leadership is important read so our last phase is a phase that im calling meet entered pre made creation is a new word is being constantly defined and redefined so theres no specific definition of this business eventually returned to womens indigenous ways of existing being and knowing. It is really responsive woman returning to those discussions of political opportunities and re in franchising themselves within stepping up and begin leader being recognized in ways that are beyond community leadership. I have to say, that is my baby. Shes out there is another mother and daughter here tonight and they just love these two pictures because i think there huge ways that is occurring in our societies and communities today is through Cultural Revitalization and is sort of working to reestablish that traditional equity that women and men have in traditional society. This work is happening of the rematriation in ways that women are being comments on her finger is hard and it is a struggle and the internalization of of a patriarchy in the state and country mandated the exclusion of women and Political Leadership has found its way into our communities and our mindsets and so some of our women still today have barriers to access governmental structure Political Leadership or are out right banned in some cases still today i still want to note that historically our communities do not operate this way. This occurred through generational transference or the transfer from generation after generation that women that are not meant for Political Leadership to where see that still not communities today, there are a lot of women fighting that mentality. So i joined them in saying to continue your work i support you because its not traditional to disenfranchise the women in our communities. Along the lines of rematriation a couple of bright spots and i want to mention that are really exciting is the monica and tried actually the constitution for the tribe, have because it states the majority of councilwoman of the members must be women which i thank you so women and their other tribes and have predominantly Tribal Councils 2021 including the smithsonian tribe currently has eight of its 11 seats by women is so the change is happening and can be slow and frustrating but as possible and women are working really really hard to make that happen. Not to discount the men 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 unprecedentedly high amount these are just some of the amazing woman i know, these are the jobs and some of us have multiple jobs appear in the work is never done but it just would like to point out that we have chiefs, multiple chiefs that are women, many many councilwoman in our tribe. We also have the director of indigenous and native outreach within the secretary of the commonwealth in the Governors Office shes a virginia indian woman we have Advisory Board members and several that advised the governor of virginia, we have virginia indian women on the council and the justice including the most previous chair of the council is a virginia indian woman of pride and Advisory Committee on justice and the virginian fine arts board of trustees so these are some of our major Political Leadership roles the virginia india women are in at this time we also have several nonprofit founders and a public defender, Program Specialist and Program Analyst federal offices working directly with tribes and native american organizations and we have cultural and awardwinning artists. It we have whose works displayed in the fine arts and an awardwinning screenwriter Tribal Program director. Practitioner, environmental manager, grandson conservation advocates. I could probably fill five or more slides and we will see a few things leadership positions that virginia indian women it take on. So this is the most exciting side to me that women are recognizes leaders across the commonwealth in the country at the side of hibernate is really exciting and for anyone of us to have children being able to show our contribution to this increases as i really special thing for all of us. So before we wrap up i want to re visit memorial, it really is time reaches beyond your memory sometime betty exist beyond the recollection of history and so site mentioned in in the land acknowledgment, virginia indians have been here since time in memorial we will continue to be here for time in memorial to, jt thinking about where we are in phases of leadership recurrent sleep rematriation our society e returning to the women centered indigenous ways of knowing rated some things that i think are interesting to think about is what comes after rematriation and what does the future of virginia indian women look like a pretty does anything come after rematriation or heavily restore traditional equity and that is the definition of success and also what is the future of virginia indian women in leadership. Here are some things that keep me night that i think about a lot. But it just feel very inspired that women are carving out a new way of blending Political Leadership and communal leadership and also taking great care in finding ways to transfer this new way of thinking from generation to generation to sort of combat that generation to generation transference of the concept and we are trying to overwrite some of those effects through rematriation initiative and i mentioned before, it is hard and long arduous work but we are working very hard to restore the traditional equity that we found in our communities and that i will say we will find again. In closing, i just want to thank the jamestownyorktown foundation and for the opportunity to speak tonight and also encourage their commitments to letting it virginia and invoices speak for themselves in the space. Its very important to bring the perspective from the folks who are from those communities. And so i just encourage the foundation in the museum to continue to push themselves and find ways to represent more inclusive and equitable story the more fully represents the interactions of the Indigenous Peoples and i thank them for that opportunity to do some of that work tonight. In the thank you all for coming and i would be happy to answer any questions or talk more about what you thank you so the future of rematriation. Thank you for coming. Have a question for you. You said that some you said that some of her farming is still today. Can you [inaudible] yeah pure some of the traditional farming practices that are still in existence today, there are still the most recent land sale, not a way land was retained even to the mid1900s and a lot of not away folks are repurchasing that farmland which is a great. Line specific practice that is popular is a certain way of notching page years to differentiate their pics from other peaks in the area and so thats one specific way that that practice has continued on today. Yeah, thank you. [inaudible question] thats a good question. I think i think seeing, i think growing up in our communities and seen, not seeing myself reflected in leadership, even from a young age i can remember not feeling good about that and not feeling that was right. So even from a young age i felt like i was boundary pressure without. I think i got to a certain point in my adult life especially around the time of having a child and especially a daughter i thought its beyond feeling a certain way and now we need to act andno push and do things so that our children can look at us as grandmothers and feel the same inspiration and play that role. I think really especially having a daughter was a major turning point for me because i cant look for and think anyway you should be excluded from anything. I think for me that new motherhood was definitely the critical turning point for me. [inaudible question] thats a really loaded question. I dont know. I havent been in Virginia Public School system for a while, but i can see from my experience, not a lot. I dont think we were ever mentioned after jamestown in particular. I cant recall ever being mentioned. So when we refer to especially virginia indian people and that one time period magic, the stories of these women are not stories that are told in any of our curriculum. So even speaking from a couple of decades ago i dont know that much has changed but it also dealt want to step on anyones toes who is a virginia indian person working to fix that. I just want to draw, to make that known, im not aware of that. I do know even in some childrens, 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 may just need additional diversity and equity training. [inaudible] and theres a lote of folks who were even in the audience and are contributing to educating beyond just their own children. 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 byab if something untrue or inappropriate comes home with my child. But yeah, i think that is definitely going to bee a considerable part of her work moving forward. Yeah, thank you. This answers a little bit of your question. Im with an organization, Tribal Education system. Its an organization of the federal [inaudible] enhanced and correct the history of virginia native americans in our Public School systems. So where in the early stages of our grant. There are great opportunities of their. Would love for you to stay connected with our board. I think youll see a fabulous thank you. I would love to. And thank you for answering that. Thats why wanted to clarify. I dont want to step on anyones toes because im sure there are some of 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 has a female chief here know, 2twomac tribes, sorry, that has a female chief but im not aware of any recent tribal elections. The rappahannock tribe has a woman chief and the nottoway tribe of virginia has a woman chief. [inaudible question] so they all lived in different areas. The chief of the appomattox tribe she looked around what is presentday chesterfield. So thats where she was ay from. The chief or queen lived with the william county. And then turned her lived in southampton county. Make some getting it right. Kind of a mix of different places. [inaudible question] yeah. So i think when we think about highquality education a lot of the things we are referring to is standards of education are there but also the methods at which we present information are conducive to indigenous learning. So even instructional methods may be different, more communal, less focused on individual students competing against each other and more of a communal focus in the classroom of learning. Thats one thing. But i think beyond just the instructional methods and instructional design its also aboutruou making sure that the children feel represented in the curriculum. So using indigenous names, using indigenous places, using indigenous, you know, terminology, items, even in math. We count the slices of pizza. Theres nothing that says we have to count the sizes of the pizza till infraction spirit we can count seeds in fruit. Theres different ways we can make sure children feel like their identities are reflected in the curriculum that are taught from. Our key focus is really on linguistic and cultural responsive education andnd thats really the primary means that we feel is high quality. [inaudible question] yeah, its really interesting to think about, i mean, in our n our commonwealth there are a ton of place names that we grew up with them so we just assume thats the name of a place. But a lot of places are named after the original inhabitants of that area or words from those original languages. Soso anytime you see the name oa town or a street, you think, i dont think thats a from english. Its always good to do some extra research in the thinking about where did that come from. [inaudible question] im not sure. Actually tried to look at the date for the photo but i couldnt find it. I know it at the library of virginia. Some more research might find the specific date, but thats a good question. I try to find it. I just couldnt. Is it upstairs . Okay, cool. Just another reason to go upstairs. Awesome. Thank you so much, diana. That was awesome. Thank you. [applause] a healthy democracy doesnt just look like this. It looks like this, where americans can see democracy at work, where citizens are truly informed, republic size. Get informed straight from the source on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. From the Nations Capital to where ever you are. Because the opinion that matters most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Listening to programs on cspan through cspan rader just got easier. Tell your Smart Speaker play cspan radio and listen to washington general daily at 7 a. M. , important congressional hearings and other Public Affairs events throughout the day and weekdays at 5 p. M. And n today for fastpaced report on the stories of the day. Listen to cspan anytime. Just tell your Smart Speaker play cspan radio. 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