A Monument to Survival

Tribes greet the National Museum of the American Indian with pride -- and a sense of proprietorship

Pamunkey Chief William P. "Swift Water" Miles, right, greets Harry Sztenderowicz of Perkasie, Pa., and his daughter Sara, 4, as they prepare to fish the Pamunkey River on the reservation. Sztenderowicz, who married into the tribe, was down from Pennsylvania to visit his in-laws. (Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post)

PAMUNKEY RESERVATION, Va. -- The Native Americans who live on the Pamunkey Indian Reservation welcome visitors, but do not go out of their way to court them.

An easily overlooked sign on a two-lane road halfway between Richmond and Williamsburg points the way 10 miles down a twisting lane. About 85 people live in brick ramblers and two-story frame houses tucked among woodlands and farm fields.

The 1,200-acre reservation holds only a few hints of the Pamunkeys' illustrious past. A modest stone monument at the entrance commemorates their most famous ancestor, Pocahontas. Images of her legendary father, Chief Powhatan, adorn markers outside a small museum. His burial mound lies beyond the railroad tracks. About 5,000 people, mostly schoolchildren on field trips, visit annually.

Now, this tiny, low-key tribe is about to get more attention in a day than it used to attract in a year.

The Pamunkey are among the first of 24 tribes chosen from around the hemisphere to be featured in the exhibit halls of the Smithsonian's new National Museum of the American Indian. For a section called "Our Lives," illustrating contemporary communities, curators have videotaped Pamunkey digging clay for pottery, milking eggs from shad and boating down the Pamunkey River.

Like other tribes in Virginia and Maryland, the Pamunkey are thrilled that, at last, a museum dedicated to Native American history and culture has been built on the Mall.

"We're very flattered and honored that we were selected," said William P. Miles, an administrator for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and chief of the tribe. "We all got a strong sense that they wanted to tell our story the way we wanted it told. We're anxious to see how they put it together."

Across the Washington region, Native Americans are anticipating that the museum's opening on Tuesday will be a milestone. They are descendants of the indigenous people who had the first contact with the English colonists who established a satellite settlement in North America at Jamestown in 1607. But today, many of them believe that their history has been all but forgotten, reduced to little more than a caricature.

The museum opens at a time when Native Americans in both states have been waging unsuccessful campaigns for government recognition. Six of Virginia's eight tribes are seeking federal recognition, which would make them eligible for various benefits, but their efforts have been blocked by lawmakers who fear it could lead to casino gambling as it has in some states. Maryland's half-dozen tribes have been repeatedly rebuffed for state recognition, denying them access to some scholarships, health benefits and business contracts.

With these battles as a backdrop, the National Museum of the American Indian, with its sinuous architecture and soaring atrium sited on the country's most ceremonial ground, strikes many as a long-overdue recognition of their existence and contributions.

"We're very supportive of the museum," said Karenne Wood, a Monacan storyteller who heads the Virginia Council on Indians and has worked for the museum compiling research about the tribes in Maryland and Virginia.

"The museum has taken a proactive stance in working with native communities and making sure the native voice is heard. It's very exciting. For so long, educational material presented that Indians were a thing of the past, and if they exist at all they're still wearing feathers and living in teepees. The museum helps dispel that notion. It really showcases the fact we're still here. The overall message is, we survived the past 400 years, and we're still a viable and contemporary people. We're adapting, but we're keeping our traditions."

Acutely aware that the museum is in the back yard of their ancestral homelands, many area tribe members say it gives them a strong sense of proprietorship. "I'm extremely proud of it being here," said Kenneth Branham, chief of the Monacan Nation. "I wouldn't feel the same way if it were in Arizona."

Together with the state's Department of Historical Resources, Virginia's tribes plan to hold a reception to welcome other tribes to Washington for the opening. The event will be at the Cannon Office Building on Monday.