News Flash

Ashley Spivey, Director of the Pamunkey Indian Tribal Resource Center, presents “Union Tooth and Nail: The Pamunkey Indian Tribe and The Civil War in Virginia” as part of the Hampton History Museum’s “Port Hampton Lecture Series” on Monday, August 6, 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 pm.

Most Americans have at one point in time heard the story of Pocahontas and John Smith, but very few have learned the rich history of Virginia’s Indian communities beyond the colonial period. Through the voices of Pamunkey men and women recorded by the Southern Claims Commission in 1871, the story of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe and the Civil War in Virginia comes to life. Pulling from their intimate knowledge of the riverine landscape, Pamunkey men put their lives on the line to serve the Union as pilots and scouts on Union gun-boats that traversed Virginia waterways. Pamunkey women held ground on the Reservation, working to aid Union soldiers who encamped near the community throughout the War.

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe is one of 11 Virginia Indian tribes recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the state's first federally recognized tribe, receiving its status in January 2016. When the English arrived in 1607, the Pamunkey were one of the most powerful groups of the Powhatan chiefdom. They inhabited the coastal tidewater of Virginia on the north side of the James River near Chesapeake Bay. The Pamunkey tribe is one of only two that still retain reservation lands assigned by the 1646 and 1677 treaties with the English colonial government. The Pamunkey reservation is located on some of its ancestral land on the Pamunkey River adjacent to present-day King William County, Virginia.

Ashley Spivey

Pamunkey Tribal member Ashley Spivey is an anthropologist and acting Director of the Pamunkey Indian Tribal Resource Center located on the Pamunkey Indian Reservation. Ashley graduated from James Madison University with Honors and earned a B.A. in Anthropology in 2007. In 2009 she received her M.A. from the College of William and Mary. Her thesis research focused on material culture, specifically Pamunkey pottery and its importance as a traditional practice imbued with multiple values associated with continuity, economy and cultural persistence. Ashley recently completed her Ph.D. in Anthropology at the College of William and Mary and her dissertation is entitled “Knowing the Land, Working the River and Digging for Clay: Pamunkey Indian Subsistence Practices and the Market Economy 1800-1900.” Combining archaeological evidence, archival sources, and oral testimony from Pamunkey Tribal members Ashley’s dissertation traces the history of Pamunkey responses to and engagement with an expanding capitalist economy in nineteenth century Tidewater Virginia. Ashley has received several awards for her dissertation research including the Society for American Archaeology’s Native American Graduate Archaeology Scholarship and the Southern Regional Education Board’s Dissertation Fellowship. Being both Pamunkey and an archaeologist, Ashley is dedicated to the practice of collaborating with Native communities in archaeological and anthropological research. For example, she works diligently to help her Tribe manage their museum and historic preservation affairs to encourage Pamunkey leadership in safeguarding the community’s cultural and historic resources.

Hampton History Museum

Admission to the lecture is free for museum members, $5 for non-members. The Hampton History Museum is located at 120 Old Hampton Lane in Downtown Hampton. There is free parking in the garage across the street from the museum. For more information call 757-727-1102.