Tsenacommacah is for natives

I always knew the story of Powhatan and Pocahontas and John Smith. Even if I hadn’t grown up in the middle of the Powhatan Nation on the reservation that claims the buried remains of the great Chief of Tsenacommacah - the word meant to indicate the territory of what is now known as Virginia. But what I didn’t know until I was much older was how skewed that story was in mainstream American culture and how people had used the story and imagery of Pocahontas to turn my ancestors into cartoonish caricatures. I also didn’t know that the United States Government had worked to systematically dismantle the Virginia (and many other) tribes in the 1800 and 1900s in the name of justice. I didn’t know why so many of our Pamunkey tribal citizens fled to Pennsylvania and why there was such deep seeded tension between tribal citizens and the folks that we saw at the grocery store in town. I strongly encourage you to listen to The Dollop podcast episode (Warning: NSFW) about Walter Plecker and the paper genocide of the Virginia Indians as a introduction to these injustices.

I have a lot of reasons for starting this project and putting it on the internet. I want to educate myself, my family and my community and I want to feel more connected to my tribe and indigenous culture at large. I want to shine a light on the epidemic of abuse and murder of native women and I want to showcase their their resiliency and strength through my Native States print series. I was raised by strong Pamunkey women and some of my favorite memories are of listening to my mom, grandma, aunts and cousins sit around and tell stories. Story telling is a time honored tradition in indigenous culture and I want to tell some stories through my work.

I’m not going to get this perfect and I know that I’ll make mistakes along the way but if I can get a few things right and educate and inspire a few other folks (if only my own children), I’ll feel like I accomplished something good in the middle of all of the bad in the world right now.