Featured Items

Unus Americanus ex Virginia

This engraving, taken from life, shows an American Indian man wearing a necklace, earrings, and head ornaments. The inscription in the upper left reads, "Unus Americanus ex Virginia" (an American from Virginia), a place name that early in the seventeenth century referred to much of both present-day…

A Festive Dance

This watercolor by English artist John White shows a festive dance scene in Secotan, an Indian town in the Outer Banks region of present-day North Carolina. White visited the town in July 1585, when a great religious ceremony, perhaps connected to the corn harvest, was taking place. Indians from…

Mattaponi Blackware

This pot is a piece of classic blackware by Christine Custalow, a member of the Mattaponi tribe. The pottery is formed with coils of clay, then covered in pine needles and wood and fired in an outdoor kiln to create a black finish. For more information about the artist and her process, see this…

Powhatan's Mantle

Small, polished marine shells configured in the shape of discs, animals (probably a deer and a cougar), and a human figure are sewn onto this seventeenth-century Virginia Indian cloak. The artifact, in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, was described in a 1656 catalogue as…

Monacan Quilt

This quilt, depicting Bishop Heath Light of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwestern Virginia shaking hands with former Monacan chief Kenneth Branham, is the work of Pat McCauley, wife of Monacan tribal member Tommy McCauley. It was made to commemorate the return of seven-and-a-half acres of Monacan…

Recent Items

Model of Mantle, A Virginia indian Tribute

The symbolism embodied in the Mantle tribute to Virginia Indians at the State Capitol in Richmond is complex. In geological terms, the "mantle" represents the layer of the earth between the crust and the outer core. In relation to mollusks, such as the nautilus, it is the layer which secretes the shell. And in ceremonies, a "mantle" takes the form of a garment, symbolizing

Aerial Image, Mantle Tribute to Virginia Indians

As visitors wend their way through the path at the state capitol in Richmond, their movements evoke the circular dance formations found in the American Indian cultures. Alan Michelson, a Mohawk member of Six Nations of the Grand River and an award-winning artist, was commissioned to create Mantle. Michelson described the monument saying, "[Mantle] requires the visitor to neither look up nor

About the Project

The Virginia Indian Archive is a collection of images, documents, and audiovisual resources representing the history and cultural experiences of Virginia Indians since colonial times. Items in the collections were gathered from a wide range of sources, both historical and contemporary. A resource tool available to teachers, students, researchers, and the public, the archive is accessible to anyone interested in Native peoples in the region we now call Virginia. ... Read More