Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 7, 1995 TAG: 9510070021
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When the Monacan Indian tribe was incorporated in 1989, many tribe members began to dream of regaining a mountain in Amherst County where they prayed as children and participated in tribal ceremonies.
The dream has become reality, as the tribe owns more than 130 acres of Bear Mountain. And today, the Monacans will regain almost 8 more acres of their sacred mountain when the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia gives them the land.
Normally, the day is an annual homecoming for the St. Paul's Episcopal Mission, whose congregation is about 90 percent of Monacan descent.
The Monacan Indians controlled most of the land in central and Southwest Virginia before the 1600s, said Kenneth Branham, chief of the Monacan Indian Tribe Inc.
Bear Mountain was used by the Monacans for praying and spiritual ceremonies. It was where they initiated their young boys into manhood.
"It is what you would call today's 'vision quest,''' said George Branham Whitewolf, secretary and spiritual leader of the tribe.
After the Monacans were pushed from their land, Whitewolf said, they purchased Bear Mountain and established a community there.
The Monacans chose the mountain because it was the one place they held as sacred, Whitewolf said.
"The only place the Monacans felt safe was where they had been praying," he said.
After 1924, the Monacans again began losing their land because of state laws that discriminated against them because of their race, Whitewolf said.
He joined the Monacan tribe in 1993, after moving to the region.
Whitewolf began conducting powwows, or Native American ceremonies, to raise funds to buy the land.
In the past, Branham said, many Monacans thought only about purchasing the land, "but didn't have a means" to do so.
After Whitewolf put on the first powwow in 1993, the Monacan tribe took its first step in buying back the mountain, purchasing a 111-acre tract from a private owner.
Soon after that, a Monacan family gave 17 acres to the tribe.
After today, the Monacans will own more than 135 acres of the 2,400-acre mountain.
Branham said the Monacans' original schoolhouse and church rest on the land.
The half-acre of land where St. Paul's Mission is situated will not be given to the Monacans.
The Monacan tribe claims about 800 members in Virginia, Maryland and Tennessee, Branham said.
But, Whitewolf said, between 600 and 700 others refuse to join the tribe because they remember the past.
"A lot of people see Amherst as a sleeping bear," Whitewolf said.
Today, however, people in Amherst County and neighboring Lynchburg are more receptive to the Monacans, Whitewolf said.
"A tremendous amount of people come out in support of us," he said.
Branham said more than 1,000 people attended the St. Paul's Mission homecoming last year, including many not of Monacan descent. He hopes to see the number double this year when the church and tribe unite.
by CNB