POINT OF FORK, Va. — No one doubts that layers of history lie at this spot southeast of Charlottesville where the Rivanna River flows into the James. Abandoned canal locks loom like castle walls; Revolution-era buildings stand in ruins nearby.
But one group of Virginians claims the land has even deeper significance. The Monacan Indians, chased out some 300 years ago, believe the V where the two rivers meet was the site of their ancient capital, Rassawek.
Now two local counties want to build a water pumping station on top of it to supply a fast-growing commercial center several miles away. Until recently, the Monacans had felt powerless to protect their heritage, just as they watched electrical lines, a gas line and a railroad girdle the site in years past.
In 2018, the tribe won a long battle for federal recognition. It’s using that status to fight the water station, in the first major test of Native American clout in Virginia since six state tribes earned federal protection that year.
“The eyes of everybody were on the project once we were federally recognized,” said Kenneth Branham, 66, chief of the Monacan Nation.
The challenge has mired the project in permit delays. The James River Water Authority, chartered by the counties of Fluvanna and Louisa, says the holdup is harming taxpayers. Across the river, a brand new treatment plant sits idle, with no water coming in. Commercial development at Zion Crossroads — a cluster of retailers, fast-food restaurants and gas stations along Interstate 64 — grows thirstier as local well water struggles to meet demand.
“Completing this project and completing it expeditiously is vitally important to both counties,” water authority lawyer Justin Curtis said. “It’s both a long-term, 50-year supply and it’ll also meet some short-term needs.”
It all hinges on the question of what lies beneath centuries of river silt.
In 1607, Capt. John Smith ventured up the James River past the falls of modern-day Richmond and encountered the Monacans. While the Powhatan Indians ruled Virginia’s Tidewater region, the Monacans held sway from the fall line west to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Smith published a map in 1612 that located five Monacan villages along the James and Rivanna rivers, with their capital — Rassawek — at the point where the waters converged. It was a major trading center that could have housed hundreds of people.
The Monacans were more reclusive than the Powhatan tribe, who alternately married (Pocahontas) and massacred settlers at Jamestown. Monacans spoke a different language and were distracted by conflict with tribes to the north. Over time, the English pushed them off their land and caused a diaspora that saw Monacans dispersed to North Carolina, Tennessee and possibly as far as Canada.
Today the tribe numbers more than 2,100, with about 500 clustered in Amherst County, about 70 miles from their old capital on the James River.
Over time, the confluence of the Rivanna and the James accumulated American history. A teenage Thomas Jefferson conducted one of his first public acts here, rallying surrounding landowners to clear channels in the Rivanna.
The British Army captured an American arsenal on the Point of Fork during the Revolution. Later, the adjacent hamlet of Columbia became a hub for bateau traffic — the long, flat-bottomed boats that once carried cargo up and down canals to Richmond.
Artifacts of those eras have largely washed away in periodic floods. Historic Columbia is mainly a country store and several ramshackle ruins along Route 6.
In 1980, a college student driving to Richmond noticed construction over on the point — a gas line was being dug. Rich deposits of Native artifacts speckled the mounds of dirt. The state briefly called a halt to the work and archaeologists surveyed what had been exposed.
Then the work continued and the artifacts were bulldozed.
Since then, historians have speculated that the artifacts confirm Smith’s map and pinpoint the long-lost capital, Rassawek. That would be a significant find. The capital of the Powhatan people, Werowocomoco, was discovered on the York River in Gloucester County in 1977. After extensive study, the National Park Service acquired that site in 2016.
In a state that prides itself on preserving history, Native American heritage has long been overlooked. Many tribes were nearly erased in the early part of the 20th century when officials following the eugenics movement insisted on classifying every Virginian as either “white” or “colored.”
That legacy of neglect makes it even more crucial to preserve what’s left, said Julie Langan, director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
“Documenting and preserving Native American sites is a priority for our department because it was an important part of Virginia history and it is not as well understood or documented,” she said.
Rassawek, Langan said, “is a highly significant site.”
The tribe had known about the water project for several years but had no official role as the counties bought the land, built a treatment plant and began securing permits for the pumping station.
Water authority officials said they kept the tribe informed, but the Monacans said they had no official seat at the table until President Trump signed their federal recognition in January 2018.
After that, “the federal government had to consult the tribe” in reviewing permits, said Marion Werkheiser, a lawyer with Cultural Heritage Partners who has taken up the tribe’s case. “Their concerns can’t simply be dismissed anymore.”
Read the article at the Washington Post.