Guide to the Virginia Department of Education Indian School records, 1936-1968

Access and use

Location of collection:
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Archives Reference Services
Phone: (804) 692-3888

Summary

Extent:
4 cu. ft. (5 boxes)
Creator:
Virginia Department of Education
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection documents the educational activities of the Virginian Indian children and the administration of the Mattaponi-Pamunkey School by the Virginia Department of Education. It includes correspondence, memos, pamphlets, photographs, applications, architectural drawings, reports, grade books, transcripts, and other related documents.

Biographical / historical:

After years of violent conquest at the hands of the English colonizers throughout the Anglo-Powhatan Wars, the Treaty of 1646 established Anglo designated reservation lands for the Pamunkey, Weyanock, and Chiskiack with additional provisions for the Mattaponi, as well as at least nine other tribal groups. While the Treaty of 1677 at Middle Plantation re-established these holdings, due to subsequent colonial pressure, illegal seizures of land, and Native population depletion from disease, violence, and forced resettlement, by the 19th century the only reservation lands, still diminished but intact, belonged to the Pamunkey and Mattaponi.

Prior to the Civil War, education was largely an individual endeavor reserved primarily for white elites who were able to afford the expense. This changed when the 1869 Virginia Constitution established the state's first public education system, and in less than a year an 1870 Act passed by the General Assembly dictated that the schools be racially segregated. As a result, localities prohibited Native children from attending white public schools and instead required them to attend schools established for Virginia's Black children. Instead of complying, many Virginia tribal groups created their own schools solely for Native children.

The Pamunkey and Mattaponi reservations worked together to establish, staff, and fund an educational network for their children through the 1870-1890s. While both operated schools on their respective reservations prior to the 1910s, the schools were difficult to suport due to inadequate resources and staff. Chief George F. Custalow of the Mattaponi advocated for better resources for the school and with the help of a 1916 ruling by the Assistant Attorney General of Virginia, Leslie C. Garnett, it was determined that citizens of a reservation were "wards of the State" and not citizens of the locality. This resulted in the Virginia Department of Education agreeing to allocate an annual sum for the education of Native children on the Pamunkey and Mattaponi reservations, starting with the 1917-1918 school year for $1012.43.

In June 1950, the two tribes voted to consolidate into one school forming the Mattaponi-Pamunkey Reservation School in order to offer a broader and better program for grades 1 through 8. During the summer of 1950, the school building on the Mattaponi reservation, which was to house the consolidated school, was completely renovated with many new facilities added through additional State funds and donations from the Society of Friends and the Richmond Dietetics Association.

The majority of Virginia Indian children did not have access to high school courses locally as the Mattaponi-Pamunkey Reservation School only supporting a high school for a handful of years in the late 1950s-1960s. Beginning in 1946, the State provided tuition and transportation funding for high school students to complete their courses at Bacone Junior College (Oklahoma), Cherokee Reservation School (North Carolina), Oak Hill Academy (Grayson County, Virginia), as well as various places in Michigan. This program, while marketed as an opportunity, acted as a continuation of the Indian Boarding School era by removing these children from their homes and communities to simply receive an education. After the fight for integration in Brown v. Board of Education and solidified in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Virginia provided integrated public education for grades one through twelve resulting in the closing of the Mattaponi-Pamunkey Reservation School at the completion of the 1966 school year.

In addition to the Mattaponi and the Pamunkey, the tribes most prominently represented in these records, other tribes of Virginia Indians and their schools also appear in the records including: the Rappahannock; the Chickahominy and Eastern Chickahominy of Samaria School, located in Charles City County (served Indian pupils from Charles City and New Kent Counties); the Upper Mattaponi of the Sharon Indian School located in King William County (served Indians residing in that county); the Sappony of the High Plain Indian School located in Person County, NC (served Indians residing in that county and Halifax County, VA.).

Acquisition information:
This collection was transferred by the Virginia Dept. of Education in 1976.
Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into two (2) series:

  • Series I: Administrative Records, 1944-1968;
  • Series II: Educational Records, 1936-1966