Political Quotes

“I am pleased to reintroduce the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2015. This legislation was voted out of Committee in the previous Congress, and I remain hopeful that the full Senate will vote to approve this tribes bill this year. This legislation is critically important because it strives toward reconciling an historic wrong for Virginia and the Nation. While the Virginia Tribes have received official recognition from the Commonwealth of Virginia, acknowledgement and officially-recognized status from the federal government has been considerably more difficult due to their systematic mistreatment over the past century. More specifically, Virginia's Racial Integrity Act, a state law in effect from 1924 to 1967, stripped the identities of the tribal members of Virginia's Indian Tribes. The Act changed the racial identifications of those who lacked white ancestry to ``colored'' on birth certificates during that period. In addition, five of the six courthouses that held the vast majority of the Virginia Indian Tribal records were destroyed in the Civil War. Those records were crucial for documenting the history of the tribes for recognition by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Federal Acknowledgement. Furthermore, Virginia Indians made peace when they signed the Treaty of Middle Plantation with England in 1677.…”