I 
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5130 
To extend Federal recognition to the Rappahannock Tribe, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 6, 2006 
Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Resources 
A BILL 
To extend Federal recognition to the Rappahannock Tribe, 
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. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) During the initial months after Virginia was 
settled, the Rappahannocks had 3 encounters with 
Captain John Smith. The first occurred when the 
Rappahannock weroance (headman) traveled to 
Quiyocohannock (a principal town across the James 
River from Jamestown) where he met with the Eng-
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lishman to determine if Smith had been the ‘‘great 
man’’ who had previously sailed into the Rappahan-
nock River, killed a Rappahannock weroance, and 
kidnapped Rappahannock people. He determined 
that Smith was too short to be that ‘‘great man’’. 
On a second meeting, during John Smith’s captivity 
(December 16, 1607 until January 8, 1608), Smith 
was taken to the Rappahannock principal village to 
show the people that Smith was not the great man. 
A third meeting took place during Smith’s explo-
ration of the Chesapeake Bay (July 1608 until Sep-
tember 1608), when Smith was prevailed upon to 
make peace between the Rappahannock and the 
Moraughtacund Indians. The Moraughtacunds had 
stolen 3 women from the Rappahannock King. In 
the settlement, Smith had the 2 tribes meet on the 
spot of their first fight. When it was established that 
both sides wanted peace, Smith told the Rappahan-
nock King to select which of the 3 women he want-
ed; the Moraughtacund King got second choice; 
Mosco, a Wighcocomoco (on the Potomac River) 
guide, was given the third woman. 
(2) In 1645, Captain William Claiborne tried 
unsuccessfully to establish treaty relations with the 
Rappahannocks. The Rappahannocks had not par-
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ticipated in the Pamunkey-led uprising in 1644, and 
the 
English 
wanted 
to 
‘‘treat 
with 
the 
Rappahannocks or any other Indians not in amity 
with Opechancanough, concerning serving the county 
against the Pamunkeys’’. 
(3) In April 1651, the Rappahannocks conveyed 
their first tract of land to an English settler, Colonel 
Morre Fauntleroy. The deed was signed by 
Accopatough, weroance of the Rappahannock Indi-
ans. 
(4) In September 1653, Lancaster County 
signed a treaty with Rappahannock Indians. The 
terms of the treaty gave Rappahannocks the rights 
of the Englishmen in the county court, and it tried 
to make the Rappahannock more accountable to 
English law. 
(5) In September 1653, Lancaster County de-
fined and marked the bounds of its Indian settle-
ments. According to the Lancaster clerk of court, 
‘‘the tribe called the great Rappahannocks lived on 
the Rappahannock Creek just across the river above 
Tappahannock’’. 
(6) In September 1656, (Old) Rappahannock 
County (modern-day Richmond and Essex Counties) 
signed a treaty with Rappahannock Indians. The 
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treaty mirrored the Lancaster County treaty from 
1653, and added 2 points: Rappahannocks were to 
be rewarded, in Roanoke, for returning English fugi-
tives 
and 
the 
English 
encouraged 
the 
Rappahannocks to send their children to live among 
the English as servants, who the English promised 
would be treated well. 
(7) In 1658, the Virginia assembly revised a 
1652 Act stating that ‘‘there be no grants of land 
to any Englishman whatsoever de futuro until the 
Indians be first served with the proportion of 50 
acres of land for each bowman’’. 
(8) In 1669, the colony conducted a census of 
Virginia Indians. At that time, the majority of the 
Rappahannocks were residing at their hunting vil-
lage on the north side of the Mattaponi River. At 
the time of the visit, census takers were counting 
only the tribes along the rivers. This explains the 
low number of 30 Rappahannock bowmen counted 
on the river. The Rappahannocks used this hunting 
village on the north side of the Mattaponi River as 
their primary residence until they were removed in 
1684. 
(9) In May 1677, the Treaty of Middle Planta-
tion was signed with England. The Pamunkey 
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Queen Cockacoeske signed on behalf of the 
Rappahannocks ‘‘who were supposed to be her tribu-
taries’’. However, before the treaty could be ratified, 
the Queen of Pamunkey complained to the Virginia 
Colonial Council ‘‘that she was having trouble with 
Rappahannocks and Chickahominies, supposedly 
tributaries of hers’’. 
(10) In November 1682, the Virginia Colonial 
Council established a reservation for the Rappahan-
nock Indians of 3,474 acres ‘‘about the town where 
they dwelt’’. The Rappahannocks ‘‘town’’ was their 
hunting village on the north side of the Mattaponi 
River, where they had lived throughout the 1670’s. 
The acreage allotment was based on the 1658 Indian 
land act (seen above), which translated into a bow-
man population of 70, or an approximate total Rap-
pahannock population of 350. 
(11) In 1683, following raids by Iroquoian war-
riors on both Indian and English Settlements, the 
Virginia 
Colonial 
Council 
ordered 
the 
Rappahannocks to leave their reservation and unite 
with the Nanzatico Indians at Nanzatico Indian 
Town, which was located across and 30 miles up the 
Rappahannock River. 
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