Reversing the Damage

The Nansemond Indian Nation, with its cultural connection to oysters going back thousands of years, is bringing an expertise to the oyster restoration conversation in Hampton Roads. The Nansemond River, which runs from downtown Suffolk and merges with the James and its other tributaries, is the ancestral water of the tribe. In 2020, the Nansemonds joined other environmental groups, including the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance and Chesapeake Bay Foundation, to increase the oyster population in the river and Chesapeake Bay. The Nation is using historical, sustainable practices by growing “cauwaih,” Coastal Algonquian for “oyster,” to filter “suckquohana” — “water.”

On July 8, 2023, with the help of Karla Smith, a co-founder of the NRPA, the Nansemonds deposited 7,000 oysters into their ancestral waters for the first time in history. They placed them on Smith’s reef in Chuckatuck Creek, which runs parallel to the Nansemond River.

Along with depositing oysters into the water, The Nation, with assistance from the Department of Forestry, is working to maintain a heathy root system at their Tribal headquarters. In order to have healthy water for oysters to grow, the forest needs a healthy root system to filter the water. To them, the health of the forest, water, and community is interconnected, and worth preserving.

Photos and words by Tess Crowley for The Virginian-Pilot

Nansemond Indian Nation Chief Keith Anderson poses for a portrait in front of the Nansemond River at Mattanock Town, the tribal headquarters bordering Lone Star Lakes Park in Suffolk, Virginia on Thursday, August 10, 2023. The Nansemonds’ oyster reef was one of the largest in Virginia, according to Nansemond Indian Nation Chief Keith Anderson. The Nansemonds relied on oysters for food, tools and jewelry. The colonists’ displacement of Native Americans in the 1600s and overharvesting of oysters — along with modern climate change — led to the depletion of the reefs along the Nansemond River.

On this Monday afternoon, two corn necklaces drape over Nikki Bass’ shoulders, dangling just above the oysters that jut from the shoreline. It’s low tide on the Nansemond River and Bass is in her Suffolk backyard, analyzing the color and curve of each shell.

Even in the murky water, the copper bracelets on her wrists shimmer, signifying her role as a leader: She is a tribal historian and co-chair of the Nansemond Indian Nation’s tribal council. Centuries ago, the Coastal Algonquians would have harvested oysters near Bass’ home.

She wore the necklaces this day, she said, to honor the nation’s history “of feeding each other but also feeding settlers we encountered.”

The Nansemond Indian Nation, with its cultural connection to oysters going back thousands of years, is bringing an expertise to the oyster restoration conversation in Hampton Roads. The Nansemond River, which runs from downtown Suffolk and merges with the James and its other tributaries, is the ancestral water of the tribe. In 2020, the Nansemonds joined other environmental groups, including the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance and Chesapeake Bay Foundation, to increase the oyster population in the river and Chesapeake Bay. The Nation is using historical, sustainable practices by growing “cauwaih,” Coastal Algonquian for “oyster,” to filter “suckquohana” — “water.”

Nansemond Indian Nation’s tribal historian and co-chair of The Nation’s Tribal Council Nikki Bass poses for a portrait at her nearshore oyster reef on the Nansemond River, 15 miles northeast of downtown Suffolk, Virginia, at her home on Monday, August 14, 2023. Bass wears women’s traditional Eastern Woodland regalia she made out of leather and cowrie shells with a painted design representing the cyprus trees of the Great Dismal Swamp and the legend of the Firebird. She also dons a copper bracelet, signifying her role as a leader, and two corn necklaces in honor of “the [Nation’s] history of feeding each other but also feeding settlers we encountered.” Centuries ago, Coastal Algonquian people, the native language of the Nansemond Indian Nation, would have harvested from nearshore oyster reefs like the one at Bass’s home. “The intertidal zone is such a special place because so many of our sacred cultural items come from there.”

The Nansemonds’ oyster reef was one of the largest in Virginia, according to Nansemond Indian Nation Chief Keith Anderson. The Nansemonds relied on oysters for food, tools and jewelry. The colonists’ displacement of Native Americans in the 1600s and overharvesting of oysters — along with modern climate change — led to the depletion of the reefs along the Nansemond River.

“We all, regardless of culture and as living persons, need to have access to clean water,” Anderson said. “It’s incredible to see the partnerships and collaborations. It’s not just a Native thing or a non-Native thing, it’s coming together as kindred human beings.”

On July 8, with the help of Karla Smith, a co-founder of the NRPA, the Nansemonds deposited 7,000 oysters into their ancestral waters for the first time in history. They placed them on Smith’s reef in Chuckatuck Creek, which runs parallel to the Nansemond River.

Nansemond River Preservation Alliance (NRPA) Intern Violet Johnston, 17, right, and NRPA volunteer Averey Shaw, 17, bring an oyster float above water at NRPA K-12 Environmental Education Manager Cindy Pinell’s property on the northeast side of the Nansemond River, 20 miles from downtown Suffolk, Virginia, on Saturday, July 15, 2023. The volunteers and interns checked Pinell’s oyster floats for crabs, sea squirts, and worms that have attached to oysters or the float and removed them. Oysters also need to be free of slime, in order to allow baby oysters, known as spat, to attach onto the mature oysters. After cleaning the oysters, they are redispersed back onto the floats. The NRPA is a part of the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance, a group of nonprofits, community organizations, oyster growers, and others, including the Nansemond Indian Nation, committed to adding 10 billion oysters in the Chesapeake Bay by 2025. On July 8, 2023, a founder of the NRPA, Karla Smith, helped The Nation deposit 7,000 oysters into its ancestral waters for the first time in history on Smith’s oyster reef in Chuckatuck Creek, another tributary of the James River that runs parallel to the Nansemond River.

In 2021, after the nation started an oyster garden, Bass was inspired to publish a “story map”: “Indigenous Life on the Nansemond River: Our Story of Cultural Revitalization through River Stewardship.” In the map, she emphasizes the importance of oysters to the Indigenous people of Hampton Roads.

The map won a national award, but Anderson didn’t realize its impact until he attended conferences where he learned that groups from around the world were using it. The nation has received more environmental support because of it.

Even with the new support and collaborations, the nation’s culture has remained at the forefront of its conversations with environmental organizations.

“Culture is the way we understand our relationship to the environment,” Bass said. “When people view the environment as something to use rather than something to be in a relationship with, it leads to depletion and destruction.”

Recycled oysters donated by the River Stone Chophouse restaurant in Suffolk, Virginia as part of the Oyster Shell Recycling Program lay at the top of a pile in a bin at Mattanock Town, the Nansemond Indian Nation tribal headquarters bordering Lone Star Lakes Park in Suffolk, Virginia on Thursday, August 10, 2023. The Nation has received assistance from the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance (NRPA) and Chesapeake Bay Foundation in joining the Oyster Shell Recycling Program. The NRPA donated a bin to help store the oysters and other bivalves The Nation collects from the restaurant. A variety of restaurants participate in the program, donating used shells to environmental organizations. After six months to a year in the bin at Mattanock Town, The Chesapeake Bay Foundation will store The Nation’s shells at the Brock Environmental Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia until The Nation has an oyster reef of its own. Historically, The Nation has always deposited shells to act as substrate for more oyster growth. “Every time we put our shells out there we are in a space our ancestors were in. We are feeling the same things they felt. I really love reconnecting in a hands-on way,” tribal historian and co-chair of the Nansemond Indian Nation’s Tribal Council Nikki Bass said.

In 2020, the Nansemonds started the oyster garden with a dozen cages floating beneath a dock on Cedar Creek at Mattanock Town, where the tribal headquarters is located. It borders Lone Star Lakes Park in Suffolk, where historical records show a Nansemond village existed nearby in 1608.

Nansemond Indian Nation tribal member Peyton Wallcott, 17, right, and his mother Heather, of Fairfax County, Virginia, inspect 5-week-old oysters in cages from the Nation’s oyster garden on a floating dock on Cedar Creek at Mattanock Town, the tribal headquarters bordering Lone Star Lakes Park in Suffolk, Virginia on Thursday, August 10, 2023. The Wallcotts participated in The Nation’s recent light cage cleaning, which involves taking the cages from the water and rotating them so that the crabs detach from the cages. Crabs, while vital to the ecosystem, can eat oysters. By next July, The Nation hopes to deposit 10,000 mature oysters on an offshore oyster reef in the Nansemond River. Peyton created curriculum resources that cover Virginia’s Indigenous history for the 180,000 students in Fairfax County schools that he plans to have ready for this fall’s academic year. He was concerned that changes in the state’s proposed history standards would minimize Indigenous history.“When I was growing up they didn’t teach about natives at all. I pretty much learned everything I knew about the tribe from my mom and others in the tribe. I think it is important to teach people about what the tribes are doing in the last 10 to 20 years. No one really knows about that.”

With the oyster garden, Bass learned how to bead, a popular craft in her culture. It involves stringing together small, colorful beads to create patches that resemble oysters, crabs and what she considers her “river relatives.” When the oysters were placed on Smith’s reef in July, Bass wore a ribbon skirt she’d made that featured Coastal Algonquian women harvesting oysters in the intertidal zone right off the shore.

“The intertidal zone is such a special place because so many of our sacred cultural items come from there,” she said.

Nansemond Indian Nation’s tribal historian and co-chair of The Nation’s Tribal Council Nikki Bass displays ribbon dresses she made at her home in Suffolk, Virginia, on Monday, August 14, 2023. When The Nation deposited 7,000 oysters into its ancestral waters for the first time on a founder of the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance Karla Smith’s oyster reef in Chuckatuck Creek, another tributary of the James River that runs parallel to the Nansemond River, on July 8, 2023, Bass wore the blue ribbon skirt, left. The skirt features Coastal Algonquian, the native language of the Nansemond Indian Nation, women harvesting oysters in the intertidal zone. Ribbon skirts are made by Native American women across the continent, each with a unique story. “That’s a way for me to remember that relationship and to share that story when I wear that skirt.”

Anderson has noticed improvement from 2018 when the reef on Cedar Creek looked barren. Now, he sees the reef built up with new oysters. “Nansemond,” he added, means “fishing point.”

Anderson said there’s a generational obligation to take care of the water, and Bass feels it too.

“We recognize that they experienced the same loss that we experienced, and by including them in our cultural revitalization we are keeping that mindset of bringing all of our relatives forward with us into the future,” Bass said.

Nansemond Indian Nation’s tribal historian and co-chair of The Nation’s Tribal Council Nikki Bass stands in between portraits at her nearshore oyster reef on the Nansemond River, 15 miles northeast of downtown Suffolk, Virginia, at her home on Monday, August 14, 2023. Bass wears women’s traditional Eastern Woodland regalia she made out of leather and cowrie shells with a painted design representing the cyprus trees of the Great Dismal Swamp and the legend of the Firebird. Bass’s birch bag would have traditionally been used to collect plants and harvest oysters. Today, The Nation is using historically sustainable practices to improve the water quality of its now polluted and contaminated ancestral waters by growing cauwaih, Coastal Algonquian for “oyster,” to filter suckquohana, Coastal Algonquian for “water.”

For 51 years, from 1924 to 1975, the Nansemond people did not exist, according to the state of Virginia. The Racial Integrity Act of 1924 allowed only two designations on birth certificates: white or colored. The Virginia General Assembly repealed the act in 1975, but the half-century of altered records made it difficult for Native Americans around the state to meet the criteria for federal recognition. The Nansemonds didn’t receive federal recognition until 2018.

Nansemond Indian Nation’s tribal historian and co-chair of The Nation’s Tribal Council Nikki Bass inspects oysters in between portraits at her nearshore oyster reef on the Nansemond River, 15 miles northeast of downtown Suffolk, Virginia, at her home on Monday, August 14, 2023. Bass highlights the importance of oysters to the Indigenous people of the Hampton Roads in her award-winning story map “Indigenous Life on the Nansemond River: Our Story of Cultural Revitalization through River Stewardship.” The popularity of the story map has enabled The Nation to receive more environmental support from organizations. “When people view the environment as something to use rather than something to be in a relationship with, it leads to depletion and destruction. We hope to center our culture and all of our conversations with partners so that everyone remembers that if you have a relationship [with the environment] all of your plans need to be designed with preservation in mind and to not deplete or destroy anything in the environment.”

The nation has around 550 members. It has a parcel of over 500 acres of wetlands at the northwest corner of the Great Dismal Swamp, about 10 miles north of downtown Suffolk, under a conservation easement that prevents development on it. In 2013, the nation obtained a riverfront deed from Suffolk agreeing to set aside 70 acres of city-owned land at Mattanock Town to own in the future.

The oysters in the cages at Mattanock will be mature enough to be deposited on an offshore oyster reef by next July. Every month, members of the nation help clean and monitor the growth. Oysters need to be cleaned to ensure that other river relatives aren’t preventing their growth. Oysters also need to be free of slime to allow baby oysters, known as spat, to attach to the mature oysters.

Kendall Topping, of the Virginia Department of Forestry, digs up a southern sugar maple seedling at Mattanock Town, the Nansemond Indian Nation tribal headquarters bordering Lone Star Lakes Park in Suffolk, Virginia on Monday, July 17, 2023. Southern sugar maples are rare this far north. In order to preserve them to be replanted at Mattanock Town in the future, the Department of Forestry, members of the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance, and volunteers removed and repotted 150 seedlings from the forest floor before the property was sprayed with herbicides to remove invasive privet. The Department of Forestry worked with The Nation to create a Community Forestry Plan that helps The Nation work toward eliminating invasive species at Mattanock Town. In approximately five years, if the privet doesn’t grow back, the seedlings can be replanted in Mattanock Town. A living shoreline that promotes oyster growth relies on a healthy forest root system to filter water. “Forests and clean water go more hand in hand than people think,” Topping said.

Tribal member Peyton Walcott, 17, and his mother, Heather, drove from their home in Fairfax County earlier this month to help clean cages. He is working to connect with the nation’s culture in other ways.

He has created curriculum resources that cover Virginia’s Indigenous history for the 180,000 students in Fairfax County schools. He was concerned that changes in the state’s proposed history standards would minimize Indigenous history.

Chemistry and environmental science teacher at the Nansemond-Suffolk Academy Elyse Vaughan repots a southern sugar maple seedling at Mattanock Town, the Nansemond Indian Nation tribal headquarters bordering Lone Star Lakes Park in Suffolk, Virginia on Monday, July 17, 2023.

“When I was growing up they didn’t teach about Natives at all. I pretty much learned everything I knew about the tribe from my mom and others in the tribe,” Peyton said. “I think it is important to teach people about what the tribes are doing in the last 10 to 20 years. No one really knows about that.”

Peyton’s mother has reconnected with her heritage, too. Since traveling to Suffolk this summer, she was able to meet people who knew her grandfather, who took an active role in the nation’s push for state recognition in the 1980s.

Chemistry and environmental science teacher at the Nansemond-Suffolk Academy Elyse Vaughan, right, volunteers with daughter Samantha Vaughan, environmental science student at the University of Mary Washington, to repot southern sugar maple seedlings at Mattanock Town, the Nansemond Indian Nation tribal headquarters bordering Lone Star Lakes Park in Suffolk, Virginia on Monday, July 17, 2023. Nansemond Indian Nation environmental program coordinator Cameron Bruce, left, and regular volunteer for The Nation and former Boy Scout at Lone Star Lakes Park Bill Rogers, center, stand in the background.

Oysters connected not only members of the Nansemond but also members of the community at large. The Department of Forestry is helping the tribe reverse the damage that industries over the decades caused to the land. The nation has also received assistance from the NRPA and Chesapeake Bay Foundation in an oyster shell recycling program. Local restaurants donate used shells, which are used as a substrate for reefs — a practice the nation has done for thousands of years.

“Every time we put our shells out there, we are in a space our ancestors were in, we are feeling the same things they felt. I really love reconnecting in a hands-on way,” Bass said. Next year, the nation hopes to deposit 10,000 oysters into its ancestral waters. Anderson dreams of a harvesting lab that will be used as a hub for research and development, known nationally and globally.

“Anyone that comes here, non-Native and Native, they feel something special,” he said. “This area being surrounded by water, through the Nansemond River and Cedar Creek, it has a power of its own.”