I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4750 
To extend Federal recognition to the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 23, 2025 
Mr. VINDMAN (for himself and Mr. WITTMAN) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To extend Federal recognition to the Patawomeck Indian 
Tribe of Virginia, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Patawomeck Indian 
Tribe of Virginia Federal Recognition Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds as follows: 
(1) The Patawomeck, or Patawomeke, Tribe, 
also referred to as the Potomac Tribe, Potomac 
Band, Patamacks, and White Oakers was situated in 
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and around Indian Point and Pasapatanzy in what 
are now Stafford and King George Counties, Vir-
ginia, and occupied a prominent place in the docu-
mented history of the first half-century of European 
contact with the Native Virginians. 
(2) In 1608, Captain John Smith visited the 
village of Patawomeke between Potomac and 
Accokeek Creeks. The population of the Tribe was 
estimated at about 800, with 160 bowmen. Around 
this same time, Smith also visited and recorded the 
Patawomeck villages at Passapatanzy, Quiyough, 
and other small Patawomeck hamlets in the area. 
(3) 
In 
1610, 
Japazaw, 
brother 
of 
the 
Patawomeck weroance, related the Patawomeck cre-
ation story to Captain Samuel Argall, the only sur-
viving Virginia Algonquian creation story recorded 
by the English. 
(4) 
In 
1642, 
Patawomeck 
weroance, 
Wahanganoche, and his family were baptized into 
the Christian faith by Father Andrew White. 
(5) In 1662, Wahanganoche was issued a silver 
badge by the King of England to wear for safety 
when traveling across English lands and as an ac-
knowledgement of Patawomeck sovereignty. The 
weroance was acquitted of charges of high treason 
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and murder brought against him by Captain Giles 
Brent at the General Assembly in James City that 
year, but died on his way home, or shortly after his 
arrival. 
(6) In July 1666, the General Council of Vir-
ginia declared war on the Patawomecks. Most of the 
men were killed and most of the women and chil-
dren, who were not already living in English fami-
lies, were captured as slaves. Others likely joined 
with nearby existing Indian groups such as the 
Doegs, Nanzaticos, and Portobagos. 
(7) In 1680, King Pattanochus signs the Trea-
ty 
of 
Middle 
Plantation 
of 
behalf 
of 
the 
‘‘Nansatiocoes, Nanzemunds, and Portabacchoes’’. 
By this time, displaced Patawomecks are living 
among these groups of people. 
(8) In 1692, A reference to payment for Rang-
ers in Stafford County notes the presence of ‘‘two 
Indians belonging to Stafford’’ in the detachment, il-
lustrating the continued presence within the area of 
Patawomeck ancestors. 
(9) 
Through 
most 
of 
the 
1700s 
the 
Patawomeck community lived in the Northern Neck, 
moving as necessary. Portions of the community set-
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tled near the area known as Indian Town in mod-
ern-day King George County. 
(10) In 1789, White Oak church was estab-
lished. This church, which still stands, became a sig-
nificant space that facilitated the continued inter-
action of members of the Patawomeck community 
who attended well into the 1900s and used the reg-
ular meeting opportunities as venues to pass down 
and maintain Tribal knowledge and traditions, meet 
suitable Patawomeck marriage partners, and con-
duct business in formal and informal ways. Genera-
tions of Patawomeck ancestors account for the vast 
majority of the interments in the cemetery, including 
members with the surnames of Newton, Green, Cur-
tis, Jett, and Monteith. 
(11) By the early 1800s, the majority of the 
Patawomeck community had again coalesced in the 
area of Stafford County known as White Oak, with 
some members living in nearby Passapatanzy, in 
King George County, only a few miles from the loca-
tions of their ancestral villages, dating back to the 
1300s. 
(12) In 1832, Wahanganoche’s badge was 
found at Camden, in Caroline County, a well-known 
location of coalescent Indian communities and the 
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likely location of a portion of the Patawomeck com-
munity in the late 1600s. 
(13) During the United States Civil War, van-
dalism, courthouse fires, and other disasters de-
stroyed many of the records within the Stafford and 
King George County courthouses, serving to reduce 
the archival footprint of the Patawomecks within 
their historic areas of habitation. 
(14) In the late 1910s and 1920s, the anthro-
pologist Frank Speck, visited the Patawomeck com-
munity to take photographs, conduct interviews, and 
collect objects related to Indigenous heritage, noting 
that the ‘‘northern divisions of the [Powhatan] Con-
federacy are represented by descendants on Potomac 
Creek in King George county . . .’’. Since this time, 
partnerships have existed between the Tribe and re-
searchers from institutions such as the Smithsonian 
Institution, the University of Pennsylvania, the Col-
lege of William and Mary, American University, the 
University of Mary Washington, and Santa Clara 
University. 
(15) In 1924, Virginia passed the Racial Integ-
rity Act which removed the category of Indian iden-
tity from official records. Instead, all people were re-
quired to be identified as White or colored. This law, 
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