KING WILLIAM The Middle Peninsula boasts of its many old Virginia families with deep roots in history. But the true first families of Virginia live here mostly quietly and off the tourist path.

King William County is the unofficial center of Virginia's surviving Indian population. It is the home of the only two Indian reservations in a region where Indians have lived for close to 15,000 years.

The reservations belong to the Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes, which at the time of the Jamestown settlement were part of a nation dominated by Chief Powhatan. The Pamunkey and Mattaponi held onto land deeded to them in treaties in 1646 and 1677. Other local tribes, including the Upper Mattaponi and Rappahannock, were not so fortunate.

Neither of the reservations is much larger than a subdivision. The Mattaponi reservation encompasses only 150 acres; the Pamunkey reservation 1,200 acres, about half of it woods and marsh.

But the reservations hug the shores of the pristine rivers bearing the tribes' respective names. The Pamunkey and Mattaponi rivers meet farther downstream at the town of West Point to form the York River.

"The government probably thought at the time that it was sticking us in an undesirable area," said William Miles, chief of the Pamunkey. "Now it's prime waterfront, a beautiful place." Both reservations have the look and feel of close-knit rural towns. They offer small museums open to the public.

Young Indian men and women tend to leave the reservations because of the scarcity of jobs in the deep woods of King William, Miles said. "If you're not willing to commute an hour in any direction, you're probably not willing to live here."

Today, between 30 and 35 families live on the Pamunkey reservation, Miles said. Many tribal members, including his parents, left Virginia during the Great Depression to find work in New York. Miles came back to the reservation in 1982 and plans to retire there.

King William also is home to dozens of members of the Upper Mattaponi tribe, which has no reservation but has renovated a former Indian school into a center for tribal meetings and cultural events.

Dozens of Rappahannock Indians live in the neighboring counties of Essex, and King and Queen. The Rappahannocks operate a cultural center in the Indian Neck area of King and Queen and have bought land for a housing development.

Tribes recognized by Virginia in other parts of the state include the Chickahominy and Eastern Chickahominy in Charles City and New Kent counties, the Nansemond in and around Suffolk, and the Monacan -- part of the Sioux nation rather than Powhatan's nation -- farther west in Amherst County.

Miles said the Middle Peninsula tribes are fully integrated into modern Virginia. The Pamunkey chief works for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Richmond; Upper Mattaponi assistant chief Frank Adams manages a golf course.

But each tribe tries to keep its traditions alive through annual meetings and events, such as powwows and festivals. The Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes operate fish hatcheries to help restock shad in the rivers.

Interest by young people in the tribal traditions ebbs and flows, Adams said, but it increased recently with the tribes' involvement in the 400th anniversary celebration of Jamestown.

The Virginia tribes have maintained a low profile with a few exceptions: They have strongly opposed a plan to create a reservoir for Newport News that would inundate what they consider sacred ground. The reservoir project has advanced slowly but steadily despite them.

Last year, most of the Virginia tribes pressed for formal recognition by the U.S. government, which could entitle them to more money for education and health care. The campaign stalled after a promising start.

The Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes stayed out of the campaign. Miles said tribal leaders resented a demand by some congressmen that the tribes promise in writing not to open casinos on their land.

"We don't have any desire to bring in a casino," he said. "We wouldn't have enough land for one if we did. But it was the principle. We just feel that enough rights have been taken from our forefathers over the years."

Every Thanksgiving, the Mattaponi live up to the terms of the treaty that created their reservation in 1646 by presenting the governor of Virginia with a ceremonial tribute of fresh-killed game or fish at the state Capitol.
Contact Bill Geroux at (757) 625-1358 or bgeroux@timesdispatch.com.