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by KRISTIN JOHNSON.
Last weekend, as part of Native American Heritage Month, the Eastern Woodland Revitalization led four presentations at the Oakton, Pohick Regional, Reston Regional, and Centreville branches of the Fairfax County Public Library. This was a chance for the organization to share some traditions and history of the Native American tribes local to Virginia with county residents and for attendees to create a corn husk doll.
The Eastern Woodland Revitalization was developed by husband and wife Christopher and Raven Custalow and Raven’s sister Nokomis as a way for the 11 tribes in Virginia to come together. They wanted to revive some of the cultural legacies lost over time and create a more truthful narrative around the stories about Native Americans.
People “don’t get to learn a lot about it in school, and they don’t get to learn accurate information in school,” said Christopher. “The little blips that they get are like Pocahontas, you know, Plymouth Rock, the Mayflower, and then they fast forward all the way to World War II and the Code Talkers. That’s the last blip of native history that you get unless you go to a university or focus on some higher learning opportunities. And so people want to fill those gaps.”
Christopher added that looking local is the best way for anyone to start learning. While many tribes were forced out of their original homelands, Virginia has two state-recognized reservations, the Mattaponi Reservation and the Pamunkey Reservation.
According to 2020 Virginia Census data, .05% of the population, or close to 43,000 Virginians, self-identify as “American Indian and Alaskan Native Alone.” The number balloons to about 362,000 when you add in those who identify themselves as having more than one ethnicity. Virginia is considered a first-contact state, so Virginia’s treaties with Native American tribes began with the British.
“Once the Virginians go into the Revolutionary War, they just assume the responsibilities of the treaty,” said Christopher. “You probably have seen on the news where the tribes bring in the yearly tribute to the governor and that kind of thing. And so it’s continued to this day all the way from that treaty of 1677.”
The Eastern Woodland Revitalization uses the slogan, “We Carry the Canoe.” According to Raven, this is to remind the group that what they are doing is hard work. They are reconnecting people to traditions that were slowly lost over 400 years. She is hopeful that today’s hospitable climate continues and that more Native Americans will feel free to tell their stories.
“There was a very long period where it was not safe to say you were a native person. It was not safe to practice your traditions, not speak your language, not sing your songs, not dance. Because it wasn’t safe, that’s why a lot of our things were lost over time. In my presentation, I always talk about how I say that our ancestors chose to leave those things asleep, that they’re not dead,” said Raven. “People would call things dead languages knowing that it’s not dead. It’s just asleep because they had to so that they could continue to survive and persist so that I could be here, in this moment today, and reawaken those things because we are in a safer time.”
The Custalows wanted weekend attendees to come away with a greater understanding and a desire to learn more. Luis Aponte, an information services librarian at the Centreville Library who championed the weekend programs, shares this goal. He had once hoped to bring a representative from each of the 11 recognized Virginia tribes to his branch.
“I’ve always been fascinated by diverse cultures, particularly indigenous ones…I was excited to see how our library could help celebrate and honor these remarkable indigenous cultures,” said Aponte. “Public libraries play a vital role in the preservation of their community’s rich and shared history so that future generations can benefit from this knowledge.”
See Original Article at Fairfax County Times
