Original sentence: In 1831-1833, William Johns, an ancestor of today's Monacans, purchased 452 acres of land on Bear Mountain, to be a settlement for the families related to him.Walter Ashby Plecker, who in 1912 became Virginia's first registrar of the Burea of Vital Statistics, altered the racial designations of Monacan ancestors without their knowledge.While this population had been claiming an Indian identity since the turn of the 20th century, this was the first instance of Monacan identification
Edited sentence: In 1831-1833, William Johns, a prominent Monacan ancestor, purchased 452 acres of land on Bear Mountain, to be a settlement for the families related to him.Walter Ashby Plecker, who in 1912 became Virginia's first registrar of the Burea of Vital Statistics, altered the racial designations of Monacan ancestors without their knowledge, in an attempt to eliminate the tribe, at least on paper.While this population had been claiming an Indian identity since the turn of the century, this was the first instance of Monacan identification