Sacred land in Virginia will be returned to the Rappahannock Tribe. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland will be in attendance at the celebration.
Highlights
- More than 460 acres of land will be reacquisitioned by the Rappahannock Tribe.
- Fones Cliffs is the site where Capt.
- John Smith and his crew were ambushed by the tribe.
- It’s home to one of the largest nesting populations of bald eagles on the Atlantic coast.
- The land will remain publicly accessible and will be given to the tribe with a permanent conservation easement that legally limits the use of the land for conservation efforts.
- The news comes just as the Virginia state legislature passed a bill to create the Virginia Black, Indigenous and People of Color Historic Preservation Fund.