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Panel discusses Monacan history

Mr. Jefferson was wrong on at least one count: Although he wrote that the Monacan Indian Nation likely was doomed to extinction, a panel discussion in the Rotunda Dome room yesterday afternoon comprised of four tribal leaders and University Anthropology Prof. Jeff Hantman proved that prediction incorrect.

The panel was part of the University's "Engaging the Mind" lecture series, designed to make Virginians aware of the intellectual resources of higher education in the Commonwealth. The presentation detailed Hantman's collaborative efforts with the tribe in helping to rebuild their historical record and discussed the many challenges tribal people have had to overcome.

University Provost Gene Block said the discussion intentionally was planned to coincide with the University's decision last October to become a major partner in the University of Arizona's controversial Mt. Graham telescope project, which many Apache Indians criticized for being sited on sacred ancestral lands.

"We resolved to build strong relationships with the Virginia tribes" in addition to the Apache tribe following the decision, Block said. "The Grounds of the University are part of [the Monacan's] ancestral territory."

The Monacan tribe, whose presence once stretched from Richmond to the Blue Ridge Mountains, now is largely centered in Amherst County, near Lynchburg.

Hantman admitted that the relationship between Native Americans and social scientists has not always been ideal.

"The history of collaboration between Native Americans and anthropologists is a varied and sometimes troubled one over the past century," he said.

Hantman has worked with the tribe for over a decade on projects ranging from a traveling exhibit about the tribe for school children to the physical reconstruction of faces from exhumed ancestral remains.

Karenne Wood, a self-labeled "tribal historian," said the combined efforts of tribal members and Hantman are necessary to make up for Virginia's long neglect of Native American history.

"In Virginia, there's a whole history of deliberate attempts to eradicate Indian culture," Wood said. "We feel that what folks are learning in Virginia's [K-12] schools is abominable."

Discussion also turned to the tribe's still unrecognized status by the federal government and highlighted Virginia's barbaric practice of eugenics in the past, which led to the sterilization of many Monacan Indians.

"If they can federally recognize us to exterminate us, then why can't they federally recognize us to let us live?" Daniel Red Elk Gear said.

Gear said politicians fear the tribe would attempt to open a casino if federally recognized, but that the tribe has no intention of opening one.

Wood challenged the University to allocate resources to the study of native cultures, as has been done more prominently at Virginia Tech and the College of William & Mary.

"What we're offering U.Va. is a challenge," she said. "We would like to see a Native studies program -- we would like to see Native [people] on the faculty."

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