HR 1294 RFS
and Queen County where they settled along the 
ridgeline between the Rappahannock and Mattaponi 
Rivers, the site of their ancient hunting village and 
1682 reservation; 
(27) during the 1760s, 3 Rappahannock girls 
were raised on Thomas Nelson’s Bleak Hill Planta-
tion in King William County; 
(28) of those girls— 
(A) 1 married a Saunders man; 
(B) 1 married a Johnson man; and 
(C) 1 had 2 children, Edmund and Carter 
Nelson, fathered by Thomas Cary Nelson; 
(29) in the 19th century, those Saunders, John-
son, and Nelson families are among the core Rappa-
hannock families from which the modern Tribe 
traces its descent; 
(30) in 1819 and 1820, Edward Bird, John 
Bird (and his wife), Carter Nelson, Edmund Nelson, 
and Carter Spurlock (all Rappahannock ancestors) 
were listed on the tax roles of King and Queen 
County and taxed at the county poor rate; 
(31) Edmund Bird was added to the tax roles 
in 1821; 
(32) those tax records are significant docu-
mentation because the great majority of pre-1864 
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records for King and Queen County were destroyed 
by fire; 
(33) beginning in 1819, and continuing through 
the 1880s, there was a solid Rappahannock presence 
in the membership at Upper Essex Baptist Church; 
(34) that was the first instance of conversion to 
Christianity by at least some Rappahannock Indians; 
(35) while 26 identifiable and traceable Rappa-
hannock surnames appear on the pre-1863 member-
ship list, and 28 were listed on the 1863 member-
ship roster, the number of surnames listed had de-
clined to 12 in 1878 and had risen only slightly to 
14 by 1888; 
(36) a reason for the decline is that in 1870, 
a Methodist circuit rider, Joseph Mastin, secured 
funds to purchase land and construct St. Stephens 
Baptist Church for the Rappahannocks living nearby 
in Caroline County; 
(37) Mastin referred to the Rappahannocks 
during the period of 1850 to 1870 as ‘‘Indians, hav-
ing a great need for moral and Christian guidance’’; 
(38) St. Stephens was the dominant tribal 
church until the Rappahannock Indian Baptist 
Church was established in 1964; 
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(39) at both churches, the core Rappahannock 
family names of Bird, Clarke, Fortune, Johnson, 
Nelson, Parker, and Richardson predominate; 
(40) during the early 1900’s, James Mooney, 
noted anthropologist, maintained correspondence 
with the Rappahannocks, surveying them and in-
structing them on how to formalize their tribal gov-
ernment; 
(41) in November 1920, Speck visited the 
Rappahannocks and assisted them in organizing the 
fight for their sovereign rights; 
(42) in 1921, the Rappahannocks were granted 
a charter from the Commonwealth of Virginia for-
malizing their tribal government; 
(43) Speck began a professional relationship 
with the Tribe that would last more than 30 years 
and document Rappahannock history and traditions 
as never before; 
(44) in April 1921, Rappahannock Chief 
George Nelson asked the Governor of Virginia, 
Westmoreland Davis, to forward a proclamation to 
the President of the United States, along with an 
appended list of tribal members and a handwritten 
copy of the proclamation itself; 
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(45) the letter concerned Indian freedom of 
speech and assembly nationwide; 
(46) in 1922, the Rappahannocks established a 
formal school at Lloyds, Essex County, Virginia; 
(47) prior to establishment of the school, Rap-
pahannock children were taught by a tribal member 
in Central Point, Caroline County, Virginia; 
(48) in December 1923, Rappahannock Chief 
George Nelson testified before Congress appealing 
for a $50,000 appropriation to establish an Indian 
school in Virginia; 
(49) in 1930, the Rappahannocks were engaged 
in an ongoing dispute with the Commonwealth of 
Virginia and the United States Census Bureau 
about their classification in the 1930 Federal cen-
sus; 
(50) in January 1930, Rappahannock Chief 
Otho S. Nelson wrote to Leon Truesdell, Chief Stat-
istician of the United States Census Bureau, asking 
that the 218 enrolled Rappahannocks be listed as 
Indians; 
(51) in February 1930, Truesdell replied to 
Nelson saying that ‘‘special instructions’’ were being 
given about classifying Indians; 
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