119-hr5144

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5144 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

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119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 5144

 To extend Federal recognition to the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian 
 Tribe of Southampton County, Virginia, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 September 4, 2025

 Mrs. Kiggans of Virginia introduced the following bill; which was 
 referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To extend Federal recognition to the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian 
 Tribe of Southampton County, Virginia, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe 
of Southampton County, Virginia, Federal Recognition Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

 Congress finds the following:

    (1) The Hand Site Excavation

    (44SN22) in Southampton County 
 in 1965, 1966, and 1969, carbon dates the ancestors of the 
 Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton County, 
 Virginia, to 1580. The site existed as early as A.D. 900 as 
 highlighted by a Department of Historical Resources-approved 
 State site marker whose narrative reflects the site was ``long 
 claimed'' by the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe.

    (2) The Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indians made first 
 ethnohistorical contact with the Colonials in 1608 when 
 Nathaniel Powell and Anas Todkill met them at a village called 
 Tomihitton in Nottoway County while looking for information 
 germane to the Roanoke Island's survivors and the Lost Colony 
 of 1585.

    (3) In 1607, the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe was 
 called Man-goaks or Men-gwe by the Powhatan Confederation's 
 Algonquian speakers as listed in the upper left-hand quadrant 
 on Captain John Smith's 1607 map of Virginia.

    (4) In 1650, per the diary entries of James Edward Bland, 
 the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indians were called by the 
 Algonquian speakers NA-DA-WA meaning ``snake, enemy, stealthy'' 
 in the Algonquian language, which the Colonials reverted to 
 NOTTOWAY.

    (5) In May 1676, Tribal warriors of the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe joined forces with Bacon in what became 
 known as the infamous Nathaniel Bacon's Rebellion, resulting in 
 the downfall of the Occoneechee Indians at Occoneechee Island 
 on the Roanoke River which was a catalyst that lead to the 
 Woodland Plantation Treaty of 1677.

    (6) The King of the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe, 
 ``Sarahoeque'', signed the Woodland Plantation Treaty in 1677 
 in Williamsburg, Virginia, bearing his signature mark of ``3 
 rivers'' representing the Nottoway River, and the Blackwater 
 River forming a fork where it met the Chowan River--hence 
 ``People at the fork of the stream''.

    (7) The true name of the ``Nottoway'' Indians, as penned 
 from 1728 to 2016, in the papers and books authored by 
 historians Lewis Binford, Albert Gallatin, James Tresevant

    (Trezevant) , Floyd Painter, Gary Williams, and William Ashley 
 Hinson, and the War Papers of 1796, is CHEROENHAKA meaning 
 ``People at the fork of the stream''.

    (8) In 1711, Colonial Lieutenant Governor Alexander 
 Spotswood met with the Chief

    (King) and Chief Men of the 
 Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe offering Treaty Tribute 
 forgiveness of the Treaty of 1677 (20 beaver pelts) if the 
 Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Chief Men were to send their 8- 
 to 10-year-old sons to the ``Brafferton'', a school for Indians 
 at William & Mary College. On November 11, 1711, it was noted 
 that 2 of the Chief Men's sons were attending the Brafferton.

    (9) In the 17th century, the Iroquoian-speaking Tribes 
 occupied lands east of the inner Coastal Plains of southeastern 
 Virginia. These Tribes were the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) , the 
 Meherrin, and the Tuscarora.

    (10) On April 7, 1728, William Byrd II of Westover visited 
 the village of the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe in 
 Southampton County, Virginia, recording a description of the 
 Palisade Fort and how of all the Indigenous Tribes in Virginia, 
 the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe was the only Tribe 
 remaining in Virginia of any prominence.

    (11) Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian surnames continued to 
 appear on the enrollment roster of the Brafferton throughout 
 the 1750s (e.g., Captain Tom Step, Captain Sam, Alexander 
 Scholar, Billy John

    (s) , and School Robin a.k.a. Robert 
 Schalor), as documented in the 1984 Graduate Thesis, ``So 
 Greater Work'', by Karen A. Stuart for her M.A. degree at 
 William & Mary College, all of whom submitted a petition for 
 pay on March 8, 1759, for serving in the French and Indian War 
 under George Washington.

    (12) In 1816, new trustees were appointed for the 
 Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian's Reservation. These trustees 
 were empowered to make reasonable rules and regulations for the 
 Tribe and for the expenditure of the money held in trust for 
 them, which was to continue so long as any number of the Tribe 
 was still living. Any funds remaining on hand were then to be 
 paid into the public treasury.

    (13) On March 4, 1820, John Wood, a former William & Mary 
 College professor of mathematics, met with the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe's Queen, according to Thomas Jefferson, 
 by the name of Edy Turner, a.k.a. ``Wane Rounseraw'', (1754-
 1834), on the Tribe's land in Southampton County, and recorded 
 the language of the Tribe.

    (14) In 1838, the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe's 
 Queen Edy

    (Edith) Turner's last will and testament was probated 
 in the courts of Southampton County, Virginia. On March 27, 
 2008, the Library of Virginia honored Queen Edy Turner, 
 posthumously, in their special awards ceremony, titled ``Women 
 In History'', by presenting an award on her behalf to the 
 current Chief of the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of 
 Southampton County, Virginia.

    (15) The Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton 
 County, Virginia, has more than 325 Tribal citizens on its 
 rolls, all of whom, via a paper trail, can document their 
 genealogical line to an ethnohistoric surname of the 
 Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton County, 
 Virginia.

    (16) The Tribe currently owns 263 acres of Tribal land in 
 Southampton County, Courtland Virginia, formerly Jerusalem, 
 which is part of its original 41,000 acres of reservation land 
 that was granted to the Tribe by the House of Burgesses in 
 1705.

    (17) The Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924 under the 
 direction of the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics, per 
 Walter Plecker, its first director, via ``paper genocide'' 
 negated out Virginia Indians by reclassifying the Indians as 
 ``colored or mulatto''. This reclassification has created 
 genealogical gaps, making it nearly impossible for Virginia 
 Tribes to gain Federal recognition via the Bureau of Indian 
 Affairs

    (BIA) process.

    (18) In 1705, the House of Burgesses granted 2 tracts of 
 reservation land to the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe--
 the Circle Tract (18,000 acres) and the Square Tract (23,000 
 acres), totaling some 41,000 acres of reservation land. The 2 
 tracts fell within the confines of what was then Isle of Wight 
 County, now Southampton and Sussex Counties. The Tribe's 
 reservation land was sold off between 1735 and 1875, with the 
 last acres belonging to the Sykes family being sold in 1953 for 
 back taxes.

    (19) As a result of reservation land sales, in the early 
 1830s, many members of the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe 
 of Southampton County, Virginia, the Turners, Rogers, Woodson, 
 Artis, Brown, Sykes, Cutler, and Bailey, left the Tribe's 
 reservation and relocated to now Highway No. 686, 2 miles back 
 in the woods, and settled off the banks of Jenkins and Bean 
 Creeks, to a place that became known as Artis Town.

    (20) In July 1808, the Governor of the Commonwealth of 
 Virginia mandated a ``Special'' Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian 
 Census be taken of those Indians, documenting by name (colonial 
 names given) of Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indians still living on 
 the remaining 7,000 acres of the Tribe's reservation land in 
 Courtland, Virginia.

    (21) From 1918 to 1957, Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian 
 children living in ``Artis Town'', and their descendants living 
 on Artis Town Road in accordance with the 1920, 1930, and 1940 
 census, attended Diamond Grove school, a Rosenwald School built 
 in 1918, and their descendants continued to attend the school 
 until the school closed in 1957.

    (22) The Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton 
 County, Virginia, is an officially State-recognized Tribe by 
 the Commonwealth of Virginia via H.J. Res 171 (Virginia House 
 of Delegates, 2010) and S.J. Res. 127 (Virginia Senate, 2010).

    (23) The Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe's King, 
 ``Ouracoorass Teerheer'' a.k.a. William Edmund, signed a stand 
 alone treaty with Virginia's provisional Lieutenant Governor 
 Alexander Spotswood on February 27, 1713, that required a 
 ``Peace Tribute'' of 3 arrows to be delivered and presented to 
 the Virginia sitting Governor, annually, on Saint George's Day, 
 April 23.

    (24) The Tribe has presented the Spotswood treaty tribute 
 to the sitting Virginia Governor on the 299th, 300th, 301st, 
 302d, 303d, 304th, 305th, 306th, 307th, 308th, 309th, 310th, 
 311th, and the 312th anniversaries of the treaty.

    (25) On February 2, 2002, the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian 
 Tribe of Southampton County, Virginia, reorganized the 
 ethnohistoric Tribe by bringing together family clusters of 
 Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indians still living in Southampton 
 County, Virginia. In March 2002, the Tribe launched its 
 constitution and bylaws and elected its first modern-day 
 Chief--Chief Walt Red Hawk Brown.

    (26) On December 7, 2002, the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian 
 Tribe submitted a letter of intent to the Bureau of Indian 
 Affairs

    (BIA) , Office of Federal Acknowledgment

    (OFA) stating 
 that it would be filing for Federal recognition via the BIA.

    (27) On December 2, 2005, the Tribe received a letter from 
 the Department of the Interior, OFA, listing the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe as ``Petitioner #264''.

    (28) On September 21, 2004, the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe participated as 1 of the 500 Tribes, some 20,000 
 Natives, in the grand opening of the National Museum of 
 American Indian

    (NMAI) in Washington, DC. In honor of the 
 Tribe's participation, the name of the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe is engraved on the NMAI Honor Wall (panel 4.22, 
 line 20 of the wall).

    (29) On November 26, 2006, the Tribe conducted a ``Public'' 
 Peake

    (Peace) Belt and Pipe Ceremony by the bank of the 
 Nottoway River, on the grounds of the Southampton County Court 
 House; wherein, elected officials from the Counties of 
 Nottoway, Sussex, Surry, Isle of Wight, and Southampton passed 
 the peace pipe and presented the Tribe with proclamations of 
 Tribal recognition under their counties' official seal.

    (30) From 2002 to 2024, the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian 
 Tribe has given Native American ethnohistoric presentations to 
 every military installation, aircraft carriers, colleges and 
 universities, community colleges, elementary and middle 
 schools, the Daughters of the American Revolution and 
 Archeological Society of Virginia, ``annually'', throughout 
 Hampton Roads, Southside Virginia, North Carolina, Northern 
 Virginia, and on the Hill in Washington, DC, including--
        (A) hosting 35 American Indian Powwows and School 
 Days, celebrating 444 years of Tribal history; and
        (B) two television documentaries, sharing the 
 Tribe's Native history with some 1,500,000 individuals.

    (31) The Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe has published 
 6 Tribal journals, issue I-VI, titled the ``WaSKEHEE'' (``to 
 see'' in the Tribe's Iroquoian language), all of which have 
 been accepted in the collections of the Library of Virginia, 
 documenting the history of the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian 
 Tribe of Southampton County, Virginia.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

 In this Act:

    (1) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
 of the Interior.

    (2) Tribal citizen.--The term ``Tribal citizen'' means an 
 individual who is an enrolled member of the Tribe as of the 
 date of the enactment of this Act.

    (3) Tribe.--The term ``Tribe'' means the Cheroenhaka

    (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton County, Virginia.

SEC. 4. FEDERAL RECOGNITION.

    (a) Federal Recognition.--

    (1) In general.--Federal recognition is extended to the 
 Tribe.

    (2) Applicability of laws.--All laws (including 
 regulations) of the United States of general applicability to 
 Indians of nations, Indian Tribes, or bands of Indians 
 (including the Act of June 18, 1934 (25 U.S.C. 461 et seq.)) 
 that are not inconsistent with this Act shall be applicable to 
 the Tribe and Tribal citizens.

    (b) Federal Services and Benefits.--

    (1) In general.--The Tribe and Tribal citizens shall be 
 eligible for all services and benefits provided by the Federal 
 Government to federally recognized Indian Tribes without regard 
 to existence of a reservation for the Tribe.

    (2) Service area.--The service area for the purpose of 
 delivery of Federal services to Tribal citizens shall be 
 determined in coordination and consultation with the Secretary 
 not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this 
 Act.

SEC. 5. MEMBERSHIP; GOVERNING DOCUMENTS.

 The membership roll and governing documents of the Tribe shall be 
the most recent membership roll and governing documents, respectively, 
submitted by the Tribe to the Secretary before the date of the 
enactment of this Act.

SEC. 6. GOVERNING BODY.

 The governing body of the Tribe shall be--

    (1) the governing body in place as of the date of enactment 
 of this Act; or

    (2) any subsequent governing body elected in accordance 
 with the election procedure specified in the governing document 
 of the Tribe.

SEC. 7. RESERVATION OF THE TRIBE.

    (a) In General.--Upon the request of the Tribe, the Secretary of 
the Interior shall take into trust any land held in fee by the Tribe 
that was acquired on or before January 1, 2007, if such lands are 
located within the boundaries of Southampton County, Virginia.

    (b) Deadline for Determination.--The Secretary shall--

    (1) make a final written determination not later than 3 
 years after the date on which the Tribe submits a request for 
 land to be taken into trust under subsection

    (a) ; and

    (2) immediately make that determination available to the 
 Tribe.
            (c) Reservation Status.--Any land taken into trust for the benefit 
of the Tribe pursuant to this section shall, upon request of the Tribe, 
be considered part of the reservation of the Tribe.

SEC. 8. GAMING.

 The Tribe may not conduct gaming activities as a matter of claimed 
inherent authority or under the authority of any Federal law, including 
the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (25 U.S.C. 2701 et seq.) or under any 
regulations thereunder promulgated by the Secretary or the National 
Indian Gaming Commission.

SEC. 9. HUNTING, FISHING, TRAPPING, GATHERING, AND WATER RIGHTS.

 Nothing in this Act expands, reduces, or affects in any manner any 
hunting, fishing, trapping, gathering, or water rights of the Tribe and 
Tribal citizens.
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