Rappahannock Indian Tribe Prominent in Shallop Rendezvous
on Tuesday August 14, 2007 11:52AM
Chief Anne Richardson of the Rappahannock Indian Tribe will make welcoming remarks during the historical presentations portion of the Rendezvous of the John Smith Shallops program at the Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville on Sunday, August 26. The presentations will highlight a two-day public event August 25-26 celebrating the arrival of Captain John Smiths shallop in the Deltaville area nearly 400 years ago.
During the celebration, there will be on-the-water and interactive displays coinciding with the arrival of a replica of Smiths shallop currently retracing the route of the voyage of discovery around Chesapeake Bay by the early Jamestown settlers. At the Fishing Bay Yacht Club, the voyaging replica constructed by the John Smith Four Hundred/Sultana Project of Chestertown, Maryland, will meet up with replicas created by the Deltaville Maritime Museum and the Reedville Fishermens Museum.
It is fitting that Chief Richardson, a fourth generation chief of the Rappahannocks and first female chief of any Virginia tribe since the 1700s, will deliver the welcoming remarks. Her ancestors were among the first Virginia natives to encounter Captain John Smith in Virginia.
The Rappahannocks first met Captain John Smith in December 1607 at their capital town "Topahanocke" on the banks of the river bearing their name. At the time, Smith was a prisoner of Powhatan's brother, Opechancanough. He took Smith to the Rappahannocks for the people to determine if Smith was the Englishman who, three years earlier, had murdered their chief and kidnapped some of their people. However, Smith was found innocent of this crime. The perpetrator was a tall man, but Smith was judged to be too short and too fat to fit that description. Smith returned to the Rappahannock's homeland in the summer of 1608. He mapped 14 fourteen Rappahannock villages on the north side of the river. The Rappahannock's territory on the south side of the Rappahannock River was their primary hunting grounds.
Along with museum interactive shallop displays during the two day event, the Rappahannock Tribe will host a Native American Cultural Display that will include pottery, beadwork, baskets and other artifacts of historical interest.