WILLIAMSBURG, VA February 1, 1997
A proposed 2,220 acre reservoir in King William County, Virginia, threatens
to destroy the ancestral lands, drain water from the Mattaponi river, and
disrupt the way of life of the Mattaponi Indians, who are the direct
descendents of Pocahontas and Chief Powhatan, and whose reservation here is
the oldest Indian reservation in the U.S.
A contract has been signed for the reservoir by the City of Newport News and
the King William County Board of Supervisors, without consultation or
participation of the Mattaponi peoples whose ancestral lands will be
inundated, and who have always depended on the freshwater marshes of the
Mattaponi River for the shad, herring, and striped bass that have sustained
their people for generations.
Besides inundating valuable Mattaponi archeological sites, the reservoir will
destroy 524 acres of wetlands and 1,457 acres of upland wildlife habitat, and
will pump 75,000,000 gallons of water daily from the Mattaponi river,
upstream from the reservation, thus destroying the freshwater marshes by
reducing freshwater flow into the estuary, and causing salination to migrate
upstream from the York River and Chesapeake Bay. The reservoir and pumping
station will also disrupt a bald eagle nest, osprey nests, and 17 great blue
heron nests, as well as 112 Native American campsites that could provide
archeological information on life in Tidewater Virginia up to 8,000 years
ago.
For further information, contact Assistant Chief Carl T. Custalow of the
Mattaponi tribe at 1-804-769-4508