Trying to locate documentation regarding Native Americans is very difficult. An outrageous example of this difficulty is the goings-on in Virginia in the early-to-mid 1900's, an era when the eugenics movement was in its heyday.

Plecker was the "vital records czar" for the state of Virginia during the era of the "one drop law."   W.A. Plecker, acting as Virginia's first Registrar of Vital Statistics, was determined to designate all so-called Melungeons as other than white.

Michael Everette Bell, Ph.D. (Department of History, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, says:

"For a balanced examination of Plecker and his ideology, see the 'Richmond's History' article by Arthur Zilmence, Walter Ashby Plecker: A Contextual Evaluation."

Ron Welburn (rwelburn@english.umass.edu) says:

"One of the best discussions of what Plecker was doing is in Helen Rountree's POCAHANTAS' PEOPLE: THE POWHATAN INDIANS OVER FOUR CENTURIES; read the chapter, 'The Racial Integrity Fight.'"

Virginia's former registrar of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dr. Walter Ashby Plecker, a small-town doctor who became registrar of the state's Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1912, spent decades trying to deny the existence of Indians in Virginia. He believed there were no real native-born Indians in Virginia and anybody claiming to be Indian had a mix of black blood and, because in Virginia at that time one drop of African blood rendered an individual completely Aftican, Plecker thereby classified Indians as Blacks. Plecker ran the Bureau from 1912 to 1946.

The "ancestral registration" provisions of the law were strictly enforced by Plecker. In 1925, he began a campaign to force the U.S. Census Bureau to report no Indians in Virginia in 1930. The Census Bureau conceded to mark Virginia Indians with a footnote: "Includes a number of persons whose classification as Indians has been questioned." Plecker believed that all Indians had 'polluted' their blood by mingling it with free African-Americans. Plecker thus saw those who claimed Indian ancestry as opportunists seeking what Helen Rountree called a 'way station to whiteness'--in other words, he saw all Indians as blacks attempting to 'pass.'"

Nonetheless, in 1930, the U.S. Census reported 779 Indians in Virginia, noting for the first time there were 59 Indians in Caroline County.

Plecker even issued in 1943 a list of surnames belonging to "mongel" or mixed-blood families suspected of having Negro ancestry who must not be allowed to pass as Indian or White.

Plecker's successor, Russell E. Booker Jr., termed Plecker's activities from 1912 to 1946 as "documentary genocide".

Plecker helped pass the 1924 Racial Integrity Act, a strict race classification and law which institutionalized the "one drop rule," under which any person, including Indians, who was believed to have "one drop" or more of "Negro blood" was designated as Black. A person with no "non-Caucasian blood" was classified as white, as well as persons who claimed 1/16th or less "Indian blood," which applied to those who had been proud of their so-called impurity: prominent white persons who claimed to be descended from Pocahantas. To be anything but white in Virginia meant exclusion from employment, education, and basic services. The aristocratic descendants of Pocahontas--resentful of being lumped in with "Negroes, Mongolians, American Indians, Malayans, or any mixtures thereof, or any other non-Caucasian strains" twisted arms until the legislature decreed that persons with no more than one-sixteenth Native American ancestry might still be considered white.

"As for those who 'mingled their blood' with African-Americans, they, too, would be absorbed--though they might not like the consequences. Let us consider the example of the Gingashins. This eastern tribe had two strikes against it: Its members refused to give up their traditional lifeways; even worse, they intermarried freely and unashamedly with blacks.

"This was anathema to Virginia elites. Intermarriage with whites could be, and was, tolerated. Intermarriage with blacks, however, was an intolerable challenge to the arbitrary color line that had been in place since the first chattel slavery law passed in 1661. Thus, in 1813, the Gingashins made their way into the history books, becoming the first U.S. tribe to be terminated.

"Needless to say, Gingashin identity did not die with the legal decree. As late as 1855, Rountree notes, county maps showed an "Indian Town," an Indiantown Creek, and a settlement of seven houses. Eventually, however, white antagonism, not to mention opportunism, forced the Gingashins to merge into a sympathetic African-American community. Tribes such as the Pamunkeys, Mattaponis, Upper Mattaponis, Nansemonds, Rappahannocks, and Chickahominies took note of the lesson--and learned how to resist.

"A century later, armed with the awesome power of the state, Plecker declared war on these people. Consulting a listing of surnames associated with Native American ancestry--such as Beverly (from beaver), Sparrow, Penn or Pinn, Fields, Bear, and so on--and drawing his authority from century-old census records that were likely to list Indians as "mulattoes"--particularly if the census were taken in summertime, Houck notes--Plecker embarked on a crusade to re-classify every Native American in the state as an African-American." ("Battles in Red, Black and White" http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html)

Plecker changed and/or destroyed labels on vital records to classify Indians as "colored, mongrel, mulatto," investigated the pedigrees of racially "suspect" citizens, and provided information to block or annul interracial marriages with Whites. He not only did this to Indians, but other races as well.

Knowledge of this historical development is vitally necessary for those who are searching their Native heritage to understand why records in the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics are incorrect or missing.

 

 

A Plecker-altered record contained the following statement attached to its obverse side:

"WARNING-- To be attached to the backs of birth or death certificates of those believed to be incorrectly recorded as to color or race.

"Howe in his History of Virginia, 1845, pages 349-350 says of the Mattaponi and Pamunkey Indians of King William County: "Their Indian character is nearly extinct by intermixture with the white and negroes."

"Encyclopedia Britannia, Eleventh Edition, Volume 14, page 460 and 464, says of Chickahominy Indians. "No pure bloods left, considerable negro and mixture," and of Pamunkeys, "All mixed-bloods: some negro mixture."

"The Handbook of American Indians (Bulletin 30), Bureau of American Ethnology, under the heading "Croatan Indians," The theory of descent from the colony may be regarded as baseless, but the name itself serves as a convenient label for a people who combine in themselves the blood of the wasted native tribes, the early colonists or forest rovers, the runaway slaves or other negroes, and probably also of stray seamen of the Latin races (Italian, Portuguese, etc) from coasting vessels in the West Indian or Brazilian trade.

"Across the line in South Carolina are found a people, evidently of similar origin, designated- "Redbones." In portions of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee are found the so-called "Melungeons" (probably from French melange, "mixed") or "Portuguese" apparently an offshoot from Croatan proper, and in Delaware are found the "Moors." All of these are local designations for people of mixed race with an Indian nucleus differing in no way from the p resent mixed-blood remnants known as Pamunkey, Chickahominy, and Nansemond Indians in Virginia, excepting in the more complex loss of their identity. In general, the physical features and complexion of the persons of this mixed stock incline more to the Indian than to white or negro.

"The same under "mixed-bloods," says; "The Pamunkey, Chickahomniy, Marshpee, Narraganset, and Gay Head remnants have much negro blood, and conversely there is no doubt that many of the broken coast tribe have been completely absorbed into the negro race."

"In 1843, 144 freeholders of King William County in a petition to the legislature to abolish the two Indian reservations of that county, B.12d7, State Library, say: "There are two parcels or tracts of land situated within said County, on which a number of persons are now living, all of whom by the laws of Virginia, would be deemed and taken to be free mulattoes, in any Court of Justice; as it is believed they all have onefourth or more of negro blood; and as proof of this, they would rely on the generally admitted fact, that not one individual can be found among them, of whose grandfathers and grandmothers, one or more is or was not a negro; which proportion of negro blood constitutes a free mulatto, see R C Vol. 1st page." These conclusions are confirmed by responsible citizens now living in that county December 1927.

"A. H. Estabrook and Ivan E. McDougle in their book, "Mongrel Virginians," 1926, describe a group of mixed bloods centering in Amherst County and extending to the Irish Creek Valley in Rockbridge, and to other surrounding counties, known locally as "Issue" or "Free Issue." They say, page 15: "These freed negroes mated with themselves or the half-breed Indians in the County.

"Therefore: In consideration of the above and other similar evidence relating to all or practically all groups claiming to be "Indians", The Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics accepts the belief that there are no descendants of Virginia Indians claiming or reputed to be Indians, who are unmixed with negro blood, and in accordance with the requirements of the Vital Statistics and Racial Integrity Laws that births and deaths be correctly recorded as to race, classifies as negro or colored, persons, either or both of whose parents are recorded on the birth or death certificate or marriage license, or who are themselves recorded are Indian, Mixed Indian, Mixed, Melungeon, Issue, Free Issue, or other similar non-white terms.

"The Bureau of Vital Statistics has consented to accept an interrogation mark as indication that the writer of the certificate considered the individual as probably of colored origin, but preferred not stating the fact, to appear in the local record.

"This warning will apply also to any who may be incorrectly recorded as white, when known to be of Negro, Malay, Mongolian, West Indian, East Indian, Mexican, Filipino, or any other non-white mixture.

"The above statement of information now available, is given for the guidance of those to follow us in this work, and is intended to apply to the individual whose birth is reported on the certificate Vol._____No.____ to which this is attached."

 

The following is a transcribed copy of a 1943 official bulletin from Dr. Plecker to Virginia county officials which includes a watchlist of surnames.

Commonwealth of Virginia
Department of Health
Bureau of Vital Statistics Richmond

January 1943
Local Registrar, Physicians Health Officers, Nurses, School Superintendents and Clerks of the Courts

Dear Co-workers:

Our December 1942 letter to local registrars, also mailed to the clerks, set forth the determined effort to escape from the negro race of groups of "free issues;" or descendants of the "free mulattoes" of early days, so listed prior to 1865 in the United State census and various types of State records, as distinguished from slave negroes.

Now that these people are playing up the advantage gained by being permitted to give "Indian" as the race of the child's parents on birth certificates, we see the great mistake made in not stopping earlier the organized propagation of the racial falsehood. They have been using the advantage thus gained as an aid to intermarriage into the white race and to attend white schools, and now for some time, they have been refusing to register with war draft boards as negroes from Caroline County were sentenced to prison on January 12 in the United States Court at Richmond for refusing to obey the draft law unless permitted to classify themselves as "Indians."

Some of these mongrels, finding that they have been able to sneak in their birth certificates unchallenged as Indians are now making a rush to registrar as white. Upon investigation we find that a few local registrars have been permitting such certificates to pass through their hands unquestioned and without warning our office of the fraud. Those attempting this fraud should be warned that they are liable to a penalty of one year in the penitentiary (Section 5099 of the Code). Several clerks have likewise been actually granting them license to marry whites, or at least to marry amongst themselves as Indian or white. The danger of this error always confronts the clerk who does not inquire carefully as to the residence of the woman when he does not have positive information. The law is explicit that the license be issued by the clerk of the county or city in which the woman resides.

To aid all of you in determing just which are the mixed families, we have made a list of their surnames by counties and cities, as complete as possible at this time. This list should be preserved by all, even by those counties and cities not included, as these people are moving around over the State and changing race at the new place. A family has just been investigated which was always recorded as negro around Glade Springs, Washington County, but which changed to white and married as such in Roanoke County. This is going on constantly and can be prevented only by care on the part of local registrars, clerks, doctors, health workers, and school authorities.

Please report all know or suspicious cased to the Bureau of Vital Statistics, giving names, ages, parents, and as much other information as possible. All certificates of these people showing "Indian" or "White" are now being rejected and returned to the physician or midwife, but local registrars hereafter must not permit them to pass their hands uncorrected or unchallenged and without a note of warning to us. One hundred and fifty thousand other mulattoes in Virginia are watching eagerly the attempt of their pseudo-Indian brethren, ready to follow in a rush when the fist have made a break in the dike.

Very truly yours,

(signature)

W. A. Plecker, M.D. State Registrar of Vital Statistics

(attached to the above letter is the list of surnames by county as follows)

Albemarle:
Moon, Powel, Pumphrey

Amherst:
(Migrants to Allegheney and Campbell) Adcock (Adcox), Beverly (this family is now trying to evade the situation by adopting the name of Burch or Birch, which was the name of the white mother of the present adult generation), Branham, Duff, Floyd, Hamilton, Hartless, Hicks, Johns, Lawless, Nukles (Knuckles), Painter, Ramsey, Redcross, Roberts, Southwards (Suthards, Southerds, Southers). Sorrells, Terry, Tyree, Willis, Clark, Wood

Bedford:
McVey, Maxey, Branham, Burley (see Amherst)

Rockbridge:
(migrants to Augusta), Cash, Clark, Coleman, Duff, Floyd, Hartless, Hicks, Mason, Mayse(Mays), Painters, Pults, Ramsey, Southerds (see Amherst), Sorrell, Terry, Tyree, Wood, Johns

Charles City:
Collins, Dennis, Bradby, Howell, Langston, Stewart, Wynn, Custalow(Custaloo), Dungoe, Holmes, Miles, Page, Allmond, Adams, Hawkes, Spurlock, Doggett

King William:
Collins, Dennis, Bradby, Howell, Lanston, Stewart, Wynn, Custalow(Custaloo), Dungoe, Bolnus, Miles, Page, Allmond, Adams, Hawkes, Spurlock, Doggett

New Kent:
Collins, Bradby, Stewart, Wynn Adkins, Langston

Henrico and Richond City:
(see Charles City, New Kent, and King William)

Caroline:
Byrd, Fortune, Nelson (see Essex)

Essen and King and Queen:
Nelson, Fortune, Byrd, Cooper, Tate, Hammond, Brooks, Boughton, Prince, Mitchell, Robinson

Elizabeth City and Newport News:
Stewart (descendants of Charles City families)

Halifax:
Epps (Eppes), Stewart (Stuart), Coleman, Johnson, Martin, Talley, Sheppard (Shepard), Young

Norfolk County and Portsmouth:
Sawyer, Bass, Weaver, Locklear (Locklair), King, Bright, Porter

Westmoreland:
Sorrells, Worlds (Worrell), Atwells, Butridge, Okiff

Greene:
Shifflett, Shiflet

Prince William:
Tyson, Segar (see Fauquier)

Fauquier:
Hoffman (Huffman), Riley, Colvin, Phillips, (see Prince William)

Lancaster:
Dorsey (Dawson)

Washington:
Beverly, Barlow, Thomas, Hughes, Lethcoe, Worley

Roanoke County:
Beverly (see Washington)

Lee and Smyth:
Collins, Gibson (Gipson), Moore, Boins, Ramsey, Delph, Bunch, Freeman, Mise, Bolden (Bolin), Mullins, Hawkins - Chiefly Tennessee "Melungeons"

Scott:
Dingus (see Lee)

Russell:
Keith, Castell, Stillwell, Meade, Proffitt (see Lee and Tazewell)

Tazewell:
Hammed, Duncan, (see Russell)

Wise:
(see Lee, Scott, Smyth, and Russell Counties)

End of document

THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN COPIED FROM:  http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html

We wish to retain the text here in case the original web site is removed from access as other sites of interest have been. The site contains pictures and a copy of a pleckerized marriage certificate captioned:

"A marriage certificate from 1940. Note that "mixed" is handwritten below the typed designation "Indian."

 

Walter Ashby Plecker was unassuming in appearance: a small-town doctor whose penchant for number-crunching earned him the position of registrar in Virginias Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1912. But appearances were indeed deceiving. With Plecker at the helm, the bureau went on an all-out war against "amalgamation".

Plecker was not the author of the Racial Integrity Law of 1924--Virginia's infamous "one drop" statute, which created two racial categories, "pure" white and everybody else. But he--and allies such as John Powell of the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America--pushed hard to enforce the act's provision for "ancestral registration".

Virginians shied away from compliance in that area, according to J. David Smith in The Eugenic Assault on America: Scenes in Red, White, and Black. Indeed, "passing" might have been commonplace among whiter-skinned African- Americans since at least 1662, when the first anti-miscegenation laws were passed in Virginia, but even for allegedly "pure" whites, proof of racial purity might have been difficult to obtain.

Detail from John Rolfe and Pocahontas, J. W. Glass, early 1850s.   See http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html

And at least one group of whites who had been proud of their so-called impurity lobbied successfully to have the act revised. The aristocratic descendants of Pocahontas-- resentful of being lumped in with "Negroes, Mongolians, American Indians, Malayans, or any mixtures thereof, or any other non-Caucasian strains"--twisted arms until the legislature decreed that persons with no more than one-sixteenth Native American ancestry might still be considered white.

But Plecker's power to grant birth, death, and marriage certificates gave him unprecedented and awesome powers over Virginians who had less clout than the Pocahontas contingent. With the stroke of a pen, Plecker could write an individual into "Negro" status--and legal and social oblivion. Plecker was only too willing to exercise that power, thus making him a figure of dread to Indians in general, but particularly to the Powhatan remnants in Rockbridge and Amherst counties, until his retirement and subsequent death in 1946.

William Terrill Bradby, a Pamunkey, in full regalia. The Pamunkeys were very conscious of the importance of maintaining a "wild" image and even sent a representative to the 1893 World's Fair. See http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html

According to Helen Rountree, a Old Dominion University professor who has written extensively on Virginia's Powhatan tribes, Plecker believed that all Indians had "polluted" their blood by mingling it with free African-Americans--or "free issues", in the local vernacular. Plecker thus saw those who claimed Indian ancestry as opportunists seeking what Rountree called a "way station to whiteness"-- in other words, he saw all Indians as blacks attempting to "pass."

Plecker's beliefs placed him squarely in the mainstream of the American eugenics movement, which assaulted the rights of poor whites as vigorously as those of racial minorities. (Compare, for example, the case of Carrie Buck, an 18-year-old Caucasian girl from Lynchburg who was believed, it now appears erroneously, to be "feeble- minded." In a case that went before the Supreme Court, the state vigorously pursued and won the right to sterilize Buck to prevent her from passing on her "imbecility.") But the desire to make Native Americans simply "vanish," whether into the African-American population or into thin air, had much deeper roots.

Peter Houck, author of Indian Island in Amherst County, cites Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 as the first sustained and coordinated effort in Virginia to drive the Powhatans from their land. But we cannot forget that the nation's Indian removal policy was formulated by that great defender of liberty Thomas Jefferson and carried out by that great defender of the common man Andrew Jackson. Indeed, long before Ulysses S. Grant had developed "vanishing" into an official "Peace Policy," Virginians had mastered the mechanics.

"In time, you will be as we are," Jefferson promised in his 1809 Indian address. "You will become one people with us. Your blood will mix with ours; and will spread with ours over this great Island..." Absorption into the white race--a consummation devoutly to be wished from one perspective--was the lure Jefferson tossed before the tribes.

The Majors, a Mattaponi family, ca. 1900.   See http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html

As for those who "mingled their blood" with African-Americans, they, too, would be absorbed--though they might not like the consequences. Let us consider the example of the Gingashins. This eastern tribe had two strikes against it: Its members refused to give up their traditional lifeways; even worse, they intermarried freely and unashamedly with blacks.

This was anathema to Virginia elites. Intermarriage with whites could be, and was, tolerated. Intermarriage with blacks, however, was an intolerable challenge to the arbitrary color line that had been in place since the first chattel slavery law passed in 1661. Thus, in 1813, the Gingashins made their way into the history books, becoming the first U.S. tribe to be terminated.

Needless to say, Gingashin identity did not die with the legal decree. As late as 1855, Rountree notes, county maps showed an "Indian Town," an Indiantown Creek, and a settlement of seven houses. Eventually, however, white antagonism, not to mention opportunism, forced the Gingashins to merge into a sympathetic African-American community. Tribes such as the Pamunkeys, Mattaponis, Upper Mattaponis, Nansemonds, Rappahannocks, and Chickahominies took note of the lesson--and learned how to resist.

A century later, armed with the awesome power of the state, Plecker declared war on these people. Consulting a listing of surnames associated with Native American ancestry-- such as Beverly (from beaver), Sparrow, Penn or Pinn, Fields, Bear, and so on--and drawing his authority from century-old census records that were likely to list Indians as "mulattoes"--particularly if the census were taken in summertime, Houck notes-- Plecker embarked on a crusade to re-classify every Native American in the state as an African-American.

A marriage certificate from 1940. Note that "mixed" is handwritten below the typed designation "Indian."
See http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html

Plecker intimidated mid-wives, wrote threatening pamphlets, editorialized in newspapers, and trained an entire generation of county clerks and health service workers in his methods. When all else failed, he simply changed records to suit his prejudices, striking out the designation "Indian" and replacing it with "Negro" or "colored" or "mulatto"--or writing notations on the back.

But while Powhatans suffered under Plecker's tyranny, they refused to vanish. When necessary, they sacrificed both family ties and good will in the African-American community by refusing to attend Jim Crow schools or segregated churches.

These isolationist tactics cost them--Indian communities in Amherst were often poor and poorly educated--but they appear to have worked. It is worth noting that Amherst Indians who successfully held themselves aloof from "black contamination" regained tribal recognition in the 1980s. Another group, also living in Amherst County, which proudly claimed African, Native, and Caucasian ancestry--the Buffalo Ridge Cherokee--did not.

 

References:

• http://www.dickshovel.com/dela.html
• http://www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/hoos/images/pleck.jpg
• Helen Rountree's article in the Chesopian magazine (vol 10, 1972, p. 87) gives excellent detail on the racism in Virginia with which the Indians had to deal in the first half of the 20th Century.
• "Battles in Red, Black, and White: Virginia's Racial Integrity Law of 1924," a brief overview by Kendra Hamilton at   http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html
• http://www.lynncjackson.com/family/main.htm   "Moors & Nanticokes"
• http://www.mitsawokett.com/   "Mitsawokett"
• E-mail messages from Ned Heite, Lynn Jackson, Paul Heinegg, Ron Welburn, Michael Everette Bell
  
  








COMMENTARY

 

Note: The following message addresses a problem in Virginia.  While not as blatantly egregious as the Virginia situation, records of the Native American-descended population of Delaware also suffered and will be discussed below.

From: B. Fulton (b-dfulton@erols.com) 5 Oct 2000:

Trying to locate documentation regarding Native Americans is very difficult. Dr. Walter Ashby Plecker spent decades trying to deny the existence of Indians in Virginia.... Virginia's former registrar of the Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dr. Plecker, believed there were no real native-born Indians in Virginia and anybody claiming to be Indian had a mix of black blood. He classified Indians as Blacks and even issued in 1943 a list of surnames belonging to "mongel" or mixed-blood families suspected of having Negro ancestry who must not be allowed to pass as Indian or White.

Plecker ran the Bureau from 1912 to 1946. He helped pass the 1924 Racial Integrity Act, a strict race classification and law. Dr. Plecker changed and/or destroyed labels on vital records to classify Indians as "colored, mongrel, mulatto", investigated the pedigrees of racially "suspect" citizens, and provided information to block or annul interracial marriages with Whites. He not only did this to Indians, but other races as well. Any wonder why we have difficulty locating records? This law is still in place.

Please, understand, I'm not trying to be political. But, I think it is necessary for those who are searching their Native heritage to understand why records in the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics are incorrect or missing. The following is a transcribed copy of the certificate that Plecker had affixed to all "suspect" birth, death, and marriage certificates in Virginia.

“WARNING-- To be attached to the backs of birth or death certificates of those believed to be incorrectly recorded as to color or race.

“Howe in his History of Virginia, 1845, pages 349-350 says of the Mattaponi and Pamunkey Indians of King William County: "Their Indian character is nearly extinct by intermixture with the white and negroes."

“Encyclopedia Britannia, Eleventh Edition, Volume 14, page 460 and 464, says of Chickahominy Indians. "No pure bloods left, considerable negro and mixture," and of Pamunkeys, "All mixed-bloods: some negro mixture."

“The Handbook of American Indians (Bulletin 30), Bureau of American Ethnology, under the heading "Croatan Indians," The theory of descent from the colony may be regarded as baseless, but the name itself serves as a convenient label for a people who combine in themselves the blood of the wasted native tribes, the early colonists or forest rovers, the runaway slaves or other negroes, and probably also of stray seamen of the Latin races (Italian, Portuguese, etc) from coasting vessels in the West Indian or Brazilian trade.

“Across the line in South Carolina are found a people, evidently of similar origin, designated- "Redbones." In portions of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee are found the so-called "Melungeons" (probably from French melange, "mixed") or "Portuguese" apparently an offshoot from Croatan proper, and in Delaware are found the "Moors." All of these are local designations for people of mixed race with an Indian nucleus differing in no way from the present mixed-blood remnants known as Pamunkey, Chickahominy, and Nansemond Indians in Virginia, excepting in the more complex loss of their identity. In general, the physical features and complexion of the persons of this mixed stock incline more to the Indian than to white or negro.

“The same under "mixed-bloods," says; "The Pamunkey, Chickahomniy, Marshpee, Narraganset, and Gay Head remnants have much negro blood, and conversely there is no doubt that many of the broken coast tribe have been completely absorbed into the negro race."

“In 1843, 144 freeholders of King William County in a petition to the legislature to abolish the two Indian reservations of that county, B.12d7, State Library, say: "There are two parcels or tracts of land situated within said County, on which a number of persons are now living, all of whom by the laws of Virginia, would be deemed and taken to be free mulattoes, in any Court of Justice; as it is believed they all have onefourth or more of negro blood; and as proof of this, they would rely on the generally admitted fact, that not one individual can be found among them, of whose grandfathers and grandmothers, one or more is or was not a negro; which proportion of negro blood constitutes a free mulatto, see R C Vol. 1st page." These conclusions are confirmed by responsible citizens now living in that county December 1927.

“A. H. Estabrook and Ivan E. McDougle in their book, "Mongrel Virginians," 1926, describe a group of mixed bloods centering in Amherst County and extending to the Irish Creek Valley in Rockbridge, and to other surrounding counties, known locally as "Issue" or "Free Issue." They say, page 15: "These freed negroes mated with themselves or the half-breed Indians in the County.

“Therefore: In consideration of the above and other similar evidence relating to all or practically all groups claiming to be "Indians", The Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics accepts the belief that there are no descendants of Virginia Indians claiming or reputed to be Indians, who are unmixed with negro blood, and in accordance with the requirements of the Vital Statistics and Racial Integrity Laws that births and deaths be correctly recorded as to race, classifies as negro or colored, persons, either or both of whose parents are recorded on the birth or death certificate or marriage license, or who are themselves recorded are Indian, Mixed Indian, Mixed, Melungeon, Issue, Free Issue, or other similar non-white terms.

“The Bureau of Vital Statistics has consented to accept an interrogation mark as indication that the writer of the certificate considered the individual as probably of colored origin, but preferred not stating the fact, to appear in the local record.

“This warning will apply also to any who may be incorrectly recorded as white, when known to be of Negro, Malay, Mongolian, West Indian, East Indian, Mexican, Filipino, or any other non-white mixture.

“The above statement of information now available, is given for the guidance of those to follow us in this work, and is intended to apply to the individual whose birth is reported on the certificate Vol._____No.____ to which this is attached.”

 



 


From Rarihokwats (four_arrows@canada.com), 6 Oct 2000


In 1924, the Racial Integrity Law institutionalized the "one drop rule", under which any person, including Indians, who was believed to have "one drop" or more of "Negro blood" was designated as Black. A person with no "non-Caucasian blood" was classified as white, as well as persons who claimed 1/16th or less "Indian blood".

This exemption was to protect prominent white persons who claimed to be descended from Pocahantas. To be anything but white in Virginia meant exclusion from employment, education, and basic services. The "ancestral registration" provisions of the law were strictly enforced by Dr. Walter Ashby Plecker, a small-town doctor who became registrar of the state's Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1912.

In 1925, he began a campaign to force the U.S. Census Bureau to report no Indians in Virginia in 1930. The Census Bureau conceded to mark Virginia Indians with a footnote: "Includes a number of persons whose classification as Indians has been questioned." Plecker believed that all Indians had 'polluted' their blood by mingling it with free African-Americans.

Plecker thus saw those who claimed Indian ancestry as opportunists seeking what Helen Rountree called a 'way station to whiteness'-- in other words, he saw all Indians as blacks attempting to 'pass.'" Nonetheless, in 1930, the U.S. Census reported 779 Indians in Virginia, noting for the first time there were 59 Indians in Caroline County. Plecker's successor, Russell E. Booker Jr., termed Plecker's activities from 1912 to 1946 as "documentary genocide"

A copy of the Plecker letter quoted earlier on these pages is at

http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/hoos/images/pleck.jpg

Helen Rountree's article in the Chesopian magazine (vol 10, 1972, p. 87) gives excellent detail on the racism in Virginia with which the Indians had to deal in the first half of the 20th Century. See also

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/POCA/POC_law.html

 



 

Stewart/Bradby Story from Jackie Stewart Jennings, 6 Oct 2000:



I'm posting this story here for those that have expressed interest. I'm not pretending to know the full story - only parts. Only recently was this story related to me by my father who lived on the Pamunkey reservation.

Plecker's information was of interest to me because it tied into the story of my father's life on the reservation. I am certain my father is not aware of any Plecker decree or how it affected his, or his family's or the tribe's lives.

He was the youngest of the seven Stewart children. His older siblings may be aware of Plecker but I'm not sure - and I don't know how to bring it up. Here it is.

During the Depression most of the Indians on his reservation were starving. My father remembers not being fed for many days. Sometimes he would eat once a week. He said it was always like that during the depression. Apparently an agency took pity on these people and one day sent a truck of food (cheese and bread) only to be sent away by the families because they were too proud to accept handouts. They asked for work instead.

My father was about 6-7 years old at the time. So much for Plecker's "mongrels" and "pseudo-Indians." I do not know how they ate during that time but the Pamunkey River did provide some sustenance. He spoke of eating shad roe from the river.

I do believe this was a form of "genocide." I don't think Plecker counted on them sticking it out and helping each other. Their sense of family was very great. During this same period, my father's oldest sister, Daisy, and he found work in a cannery somewhere in VA. While my Aunt Daisy packed the cans, my father, Aubrey sterilized them.

My Aunt Daisy told him the following (and I'm paraphrasing): "We always canned during the summer months and it was very hot all the time. We worked in a large building with no ventilation. Aubrey, I remember looking up at you stirring the cans and the sweat was just pouring off of you. I knew it was over 100 degrees in that building but because you were always working in that steam it had to be 140. I couldn't stop crying, you were so little and had to work so hard." He was 9 years old!

They were lucky, because they found work occasionally during that time. My father's response to this story was that he felt it did not hurt him it only helped. My father told me everybody was starving and they tried to look after each other. These people are examples of the "Greatest Generation." I know that there are many people with similar depression-era stories.

And we know the minorities were hit the hardest during the depression. Both blacks and indians or mongrels, as Plecker fondly called these extraordinary people, had it the worse. I believe, the indians really were hit the hardest because of Plecker's decree and the intense prejudice it produced. My father and his family were shunned from society - even by poor whites. I can remember when I was young understanding my father's need to be sensitive to others of color. He never expressed it that way - we just never said an unkind word about another race. He remembers being called the "n....." word through most of his childhood.

In Plecker's letters he mentioned that these Virginia indians were trying to evade the draft. Interesting, maybe some did but from my family's experience, that was not the case. All my uncles, including my father served their country with distinction during WWII. My father, Aubrey, was a sailor and enlisted when he turned of age. He was part of the clean-up operation in the Pacific. He also witnessed an atomic explosion on a Pacific atoll knowing that being that close could cause cancer. All the sailors knew about the affects of atomic radiation. My Uncle Stanley served in the Army during WWII. He chased Rommel all over Africa during the African campaign and fought on the Cassarine (sp?) Pass. I understand that one of my uncles was part of the Normandy Invasion. They all volunteered and they all came back alive. So much for evading the draft.

These people are so modest that they feel they've done nothing special. Everyone of them succeeded through hard work and perservence. Not one of them could attend a public school. My father attended the one-room elementary Pamunkey school that, I think, still sits on the reservation. He was sent away to a Cherokee High School or boarding school. After the war he went on to college, the only one in his family that did.

After the war, most of his siblings moved off the reservation to find work in Philadelphia. His two sisters remained on the reservation. Every one of them succeeded in life. It's interesting to note that most of them started up their own businesses and financially did very well. My Aunt Daisy, who was one of the sisters that remained on the reservation, became a very prominent figure in the tribe and a talented potterer.

I'm sure there's much more to their history but they are very reluctant to talk about it. When I pressure my father to recount more of their story, he just says, "It was a very painful and terrible time. No one wants to remember."

 




 


From Thomas F. Brown, 7 Oct 2000:



<<In Plecker's letters he mentioned that these Virginia indians were trying to evade the draft.>>

Interesting, maybe some did but from my family's experience, that was not the case. Some of the draft-age men of the "tri-racial" groups refused to serve in the colored regiments, but were willing to serve in white regiments. My recollection from the literature is that in some cases they were accomodated by allowing them into white units, and in other cases were excused from service altogether because of the racial classification issue.

 


From Gene R. Griffith ( Littlewolf), 9 Oct 2000:


My family was one of the families that Walter Plecker took an interest in to the point that he took one of my aunts and cousins when they were little less than teenagers and had them declaired feebled minded and had them put into a home for the feebled minded in Lynchburg,VA. Had them sterlized and then experimented on each of them. Some were left almost blind and other things too numerous to mention.

The last of my aunts who Plecker did this to, died just this past month and until the day that she died she was still cursing Plecker's name for what he had done to her. She was 71 and had lived all these years in the torment that he made for her. May the Great Spirit finally give her the peace she so richly deserves.

Only in the past two years were we finally given permission to regain our true race of Monacan Indian the state of VA. made it possible for all native people to submit the change of race forms who had been so disposed of. I am now listed as a True Indian as is my mother her mother and her mother before her.