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Pilgrimage to Pocahontas

American Indians honor their ancestor by traveling to her burial place in England.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published July 15, 2006

GRAVESEND, England - Americans Indians from Virginia traveled to the burial place of Pocahontas on Friday as part of celebrations marking next year's 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, the oldest English settlement in the New World.

A 50-member delegation attended a private ceremony in the English town of Gravesend to honor their fabled ancestor, who acted as an ambassador between British settlers and her Algonquin kinsmen in the early 17th century.

"We're here to acknowledge the fact that the people of England have protected the remains of Pocahontas - they have honored her memory," said Chief Stephen Adkins of the Chickahominy tribe.

Adkins noted that there were 35 to 40 Virginia woodland tribes when the first English settlers landed in 1607. "There are now eight," he said.

Spectators lined the manicured hedges of an Elizabethan manor lawn to watch as nine men from the delegation - most swathed in fringed buckskin tunics, turkey feather bustles and deerhide pelts - circled around a drum, singing the names of the tribes.

Lord Watson of Richmond, the co-chairman of the Jamestown 2007 British Committee, stressed the longtime ties between the two groups when he spoke after the dance.

The tribesmen presented local representatives with gifts from their home state, including a traditional Pamonkey clay pot and a large bundle of dried tobacco leaves.

[Last modified July 15, 2006, 00:37:55]