Going Powhatan #4: Going to the Library

I live in Henrico County, VA.  I used to think we have a nice library system.  I was wrong.  We actually have a scintillating library system.

Back in November, as I was lining up resources and information for my Going Powhatan project I seemed to recall that Henrico County Public Library (“HCPL”) had an “ask a librarian” function on the website.  So I jumped over and took a look.  Sure enough, there it was.  “Can’t go inside on account of COVID,” I thought.  “Might as well give it try.”  I clicked the link and typed a quick message asking for assistance compiling a reading list of the most highly-referenced books on the lifeways of the native tribes of Virginia with an emphasis on the frontier period and prior (pre-1912).

I immediately got a phone call — a phone call! — from a nice librarian named Kareema (I found out later she was Kareema Hamdan, Area Branch Manager of HCPL).  She said that they were working on it and they’d get back to me.  “This is  the sort of thing that librarians live for,” she said.  I didn’t know what to expect, but I thought it would be fun to see what they came up with.  I thanked her and waited patiently for a reply.

About a week later I got the following email from Kareema which said,

Hi Mitch,

I sent out a request to our librarians for any information we could provide to assist with your research and reading list. As you will see, we gathered more than just book titles so I hope some of this information is helpful to you. Please feel free to follow up with us if we can assist further.

Thank you,

Kareemah

Librarians who contributed:

Lisa Kroll
Elizabeth Hadley
Kelsey Crossley
Barbra Salas

Below are the resources and links they provided to me.  I’m still stunned by the amount of work they put into this, awed by its comprehensiveness, and deeply appreciative for the contribution they made to the project.  I told Kareema that she and her entire team were going in the book’s dedication, and I meant it.

The most insightful resources were the two relating to depiction of Native Americans in literature.  I’m not an insensitive person, but I can be a little naïve.  I honestly felt that sincerely immersing oneself in the language and lifeways of Virginia’s Native Americans was in and of itself a gesture of the greatest respect.

It never occurred to me that a reasonable person could view this project as disrespectful or exploitative.  But when I saw the references provided by the librarians, an old memory resurfaced.

Many years ago I met a fellow who assumed my first book was by and for neo-Nazis just because it had a red and black cover that featured a crow which he thought was an eagle.  I had been gut-punched.  I assured him that my book was most certainly not in any way inspired by, associated with, related to, or sympathetic toward anything Nazi — neo- or otherwise.  But was he still laboring under the misconception?  You know what they say about first impressions.

It all came back to me and my stomach knotted like kudzu.  What if somebody misunderstood what I was doing with this project?  How could I have forgotten that painful lesson?  Back then I had an excuse.  It was my first book as a self-published, freshman author.  But I’ve written six books since then.  I hope I’m older and wiser.

Thanks to the nudge of some kind librarians, and to the memory of an old lesson re-learned, I determined to break my back trying as hard as possible to see this project the way others might.

I started by reading a couple of contemporary books by and about local native peoples — Chickahominy Indians – Eastern Division: A Brief Ethnohistory by Elaine and Ray Adkins and  The Chickahominy Indians of Virginia Yesterday and Today by Eleanor West Hertz. I will read more.  And I will also get the opinions of local tribespeople before I publish.

Print titles owned by Henrico County Public Library

• Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland by Helen Rountree ( Any title by Helen Rountree should be worthy of reading)
• The Powhatan Landscape: An Archaeological History of the Algonquin Chesapeake by Martin Gallivan
• Indians in Seventeenth Century Virginia by Ben McCary
• The Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes.  Detroit: Gale, 1998.
• Encyclopedia of native tribes of North America by Michael Johnson
• The Powhatan landscape : an archaeological history of the Algonquian Chesapeake  Martin D. Gallivan,
• Powhatan Indian place names in Tidewater Virginia Martha W. McCartney
• The true story of Pocahontas : the other side of history : from the sacred history of the Mattaponi Reservation people by Linwood Custalow
• Pocahontas and the Powhatan dilemma : an American portrait  Camilla Townsend, Camilla
• Monacan millennium : a collaborative archaeology and history of a Virginia Indian people by Jeffrey L. Hantman
• The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail edited by Karenne Wood.
• RELATION OF VIRGINIA : a boy’s memoir of life with the Powhatans and Patawomecks by Henry Spelman (on order as of 11/2020) https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/1636
• First People: The Early Indians of Virginia | UVA Press Incorporating recent events in the Native American community as well as additional information gleaned from publications and public resources, this newly redesigned and updated second edition of First People brings back to the fore this concise and highly readable narrative. Full of stories that represent the full diversity of Virginia’s Indians, past and present. www.upress.virginia.edu

From the William & Mary Libraries: Virginia Indian Research References

• https://www.wm.edu/as/anthropology/research/centers/airc/references/index.php#books

Websites affiliated with VA tribes or with tribe specific information

• http://www.chickahominytribe.org/ (Providence Forge)
• http://wolfcreekcherokee.com/index.html (Henrico County)
• www.monacannation.com/museum.shtml (Monacan Ancestral Museum)
• www.naturalbridgeva.com/native_american_village.htm (Monacan Village at Natural Bridge)
• https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/a-native-travel-guide-to-virginia-N5ZXkPaGz063vSbcwvXgQA A Native Travel Guide to Virginia

Publishing / Book Guidance by Native Americans about Native Americans in literature :

• http://www.oyate.org/ “Oyate is a Native organization working to see that our lives and histories are portrayed with honesty and integrity, and that all people know that our stories belong to us.”
• Established in 2006 by Dr. Debbie Reese of Nambé Pueblo, American Indians in Children’s Literature (AICL) provides critical analysis of Indigenous peoples in children’s and young adult books. Dr. Jean Mendoza joined AICL as a co-editor in 2016. https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/

Resources on Indigenous Virginians from HCPL Databases (you will need your library card number to access)

• Bates, Denise E. We Will Always Be Here : Native Peoples on Living and Thriving in the South. Other Southerners. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2016. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e862xna&AN=1087641&site=ehost-live.  A modern history of the Southern and Southeastern US, including Virginia; has discussion of contemporary Indigenous culture and cultural restoration.
• Birch, Jennifer, and Victor D. Thompson. The Archaeology of Villages in Eastern North America. Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2018. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e089mna&AN=1801783&site=ehost-live. Includes a chapter on Powhatan placemaking and sociopolitical functions of religious practice.
• Gallivan, Martin D., and Victor D. Thompson. The Powhatan Landscape : An Archaeological History of the Algonquian Chesapeake. Society and Ecology in Island and Coastal Archaeology. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2016. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e089mna&AN=1087657&site=ehost-live. Historical ecology, placemaking, and the evolving relationship between Indigenous peoples and the landscape.
• Gold, Debra L. The Bioarchaeology of Virginia Burial Mounds. Tuscaloosa: University Alabama Press, 2004. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e089mna&AN=420095&site=ehost-live.  Osteological evidence in support of diet and lifestyle among Monacan (Siouan).
• Hantman, Jeffrey L. Monacan Millennium : A Collaborative Archaeology and History of a Virginia Indian People. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2018.  http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e089mna&AN=1900398&site=ehost-live. Monacan (Siouan) ethnohistory from 1000 CE; includes extensive bibliography for further research.
• Mancall, Peter C. The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624. Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia. Chapel Hill: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press, 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e089mna&AN=965210&site=ehost-live. Virginia in world context at Contact, includes section on Indigenous Virginians.
• Meltzer, David J. First Peoples in a New World : Colonizing Ice Age America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e862xna&AN=305985&site=ehost-live. Paleolithic settlement of North America; a broad overview of North America.
• Voorhies, Barbara. Prehistoric Games of North American Indians : Subarctic to Mesoamerica. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2017. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e862xna&AN=1641673&site=ehost-live. Mostly Mesoamerica, with some info about Mississippian culture.

Ebsco eBooks High School:

• Goodchild, Peter. Survival Skills of the North American Indians. Vol. 2nd ed. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1999. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e862xna&AN=384710&site=ehost-live. Not specific to Virginia, but guide to essential life skills (food, tools, shelter, clothing, etc); includes appendix of edible plants helpful for foraging.
• Sullivan, Tristan L. Native American Recipes. Focus on Civilizations and Cultures. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc, 2015. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e862xna&AN=936930&site=ehost-live. Emphasis on USDA distribution to Reservations, and its impact on traditional recipes; may be interesting companion to The Sioux Chef.

If you liked this post…

There’s a good chance you’d love my e-book The Wildwood Workbook: Nature Appreciation and Survival.  Click here to download it in any format.  35 exercises guaranteed to deepen your relationship with nature and get your heart and mind engaged like never before.  120 pages.

Want to study Frontier Rough ‘n’ Tumble martial arts?  Click here to enroll in the Bobcat Frontier Martial Arts distance learning program for just $19,99/month — all learning materials, testing and certificates included (and a free hat and t-shirt when you sign up too).