Genocidal Recognition:
Most people today have been manipulated and conned by white supremacists into believing that there is only one legitimate form of Native recognition, which is state or USA federal government recognition. But state and federal recognition systems were put in place to artificially decrease the Native population and to maintain a false and artificially low Native population and thus keep Native people weak and powerless. Why? It is all about the land. Our Native land was stolen by first reducing our population by 95%—killing 100 million Native Americans—hence we know that a low Native population was critical to Native land theft and dispossession.
An example of how we have been conned can be shown with the 65 million Native Americans in the USA of Spanish-speaking origin. They are still on their ancestral homelands of current-day California, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, and other western states. And yet the USA government recognition system intentionally discounts these Native Americans as non-Native and has intentionally created the pseudo racial categories of Hispanic and Latino. They say these are not racial classifications, but then they use them as racial categories. In specific, they intentionally use them to prevent Southern Natives from checking the Native American classification.
Danny is a typical Mexican. He is a hardworking construction worker. The difference is that he embraces his Native identity. Unlike most Mexicans, he has not fallen for the white supremacy Hispanic/Latino lie and trap intended to genocide us and keep our Native numbers artificially low.
Native American is a distinct race just like Caucasian, Black, and Asian, as scientifically explained here. It is a measurable thing. A person’s race does not change because of politics or what the individual or others think their race is. A person may even believe the white supremacy brainwashing that they are Hispanic, but if they have a cactus on their forehead, they are in fact Native.
Regardless of government recognition, political views and white supremacy propaganda, social narratives, or personal identity frameworks, human population genetics demonstrates that Indigenous peoples of the Americas share a measurable and biologically distinct ancestry shaped over thousands of years of isolation, adaptation, and cultural continuity. This means that Native American genetic heritage is scientifically identifiable, distinguishable, and measurable as a real population group, independent of external social conditioning or colonial reinterpretations of race and identity. Whether the federal government or even other tribes recognize these people as Native is absolutely irrelevant to who they actually are, and the vast majority of people from below the southern USA border are Native American. This also applies to millions of other Natives in the USA, including thousands of Yesah Saponi Natives in Virginia.
Native Americans—Indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America—constitute a genetically, historically, and anthropologically distinct population group, comparable to other ancestral continental populations such as Africans, Europeans, and Asians—a distinct and separate race. Their distinctiveness is supported by extensive research across population genetics, archaeology, physical anthropology, and linguistics, as explained in more detail here. Native American is a race measurable by DNA, phenotype, family history, and location.
White people mass murdered 95% of our Native population so that they could steal our land. If there are no more Natives, then the land is free for the taking and possessing in perpetuity. White people can feign empathy—“oh, I am sorry for what my ancestors did, but that was a long time ago—and it is legally mine now.” As long as the Native population remains low, white people’s possession of the land can never be reasonably challenged. Thus, keeping the Native population low is the primary purpose of the federal and state recognition systems. Why else would you burn, destroy, and erase all of the evidence—torturing children for remembering their Native culture—and then turn around and say, “you can only be recognized as Native if you have your culture and history intact”? They literally think we are fools. If all of a sudden there are hundreds of millions of Natives, white people’s possession of Native land would be threatened. No matter how hard a truth is to swallow, the truth is the truth, and we must learn to deal in truths and not the propaganda given to us to benefit white supremacists and dispossess Native people.
Native Americans make up 67% of the population on the single land mass (single continent) of America. But as long as we are tricked into thinking that we are only 1% of the population, then white people are able to easily maintain Natives in a powerless position and maintain possession of our stolen Native land.
Real Recognition:
Recognition is hundreds of thousands of years old on planet Earth. Recognition is merely acceptance by others that one is who they say they are. The notion that some government or any single entity has a monopoly on recognition is invalid on its face. If one is walking down the street and someone comes up and says, “hey, you’re Native American,” that is recognition.
The most valid forms of recognition are determined by how one is accepted for who they say they are by their peers, acquaintances, other tribes, local communities, one’s town, one’s county, the news media, newspapers, state and government agencies, friends, activist groups, and more.
Natives from the Greentown community (Occoneechee, Saponi, Totaro Indian Tribe of the Saponi Reservation), whose families have been living on the Saponi Reservation land in Brunswick County, Virginia since 1712, have been accepted by people from all of the groups mentioned above.
Media Recognition
Greentown Natives have been participating in the Native world for decades. Many times, we are mistaken for other state- and federally recognized Natives. Because many of our people from the Saponi Reservation have strong Native American phenotype and frequently participate in public Native events, we often become the subject of articles that make assumptions about our tribal identity—sometimes directly or indirectly supporting other tribes in their recognition efforts such as the Lumbee below. Lumbee are a mixture of Eastern Siouan (Yesah) and Tuscarora.
Celest Swann—pictured above, front and center—is a Yesah Saponi Native from the Saponi Reservation in Brunswick County, Virginia—her family has been living in the Greentown Community, located on the Saponi Reservation in Brunswick County, Virginia, since 1712—going back to her mother, Celest, and her grandfather, Hezekiah Green, to her ancestors Fred Green, Willie Green, Lucy Wyche, Blanch Green, Harry Green, and Polly Jackson (pictured here) (Saponi Natives), along with hundreds of others of their descendants born and raised in the Greentown Community on the Saponi Reservation land
Jeremy Carter, a proud member of the Occoneechee, Saponi, Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation family, is from the Greentown Native Community on the Saponi Reservation, and Jeremy’s family, through his grandmother Eleanor Travis Carter, great-great grandmothers Beulah Travis, Ann Walker, and Polly Jackson Green, were all born and raised in Greentown on the Saponi Reservation, going all the way back to 1712.
Jeremy became famous on the powwow circuit for making the front page of newspapers. Below, Jeremy is featured on the front page of the News Progress in 2002 at the annual Occoneechee State Park powwow, MCed by John Blackfeather (OBSN). Most of the thousands of people attending the powwow assumed that this was an OBSN (Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation of NC) powwow and assumed that Jeremy, as well as other dancers and drummers, were members of that tribe.
Jeremy's family danced and drummed at pow wow's and events all over Virginia and North Carolina MCed by John Blackfeather, for many years, where the same assumption was made.
Jeremy Carter again
Jeremy Carter Again
Jeremy Carter again. But the fact is we didn’t return—we never left. Barry Carter of the OSTV grew up a few miles from Occoneechee State Park. His grandfather, Roy Carter, was born a couple of miles away in Finchley. David Coles, Barry’s great-great-grandfather, was an Occoneechee Native whose family came off of the Occoneechee plantation within Occoneechee State Park. Jeremy’s family, through his grandfather Charles Carter, has been living in the area of Occoneechee (currently called Clarksville) for hundreds of years, with dozens of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and ancestors from the western end of Mecklenburg County. Pictured left is cousin Emma Kelsey.
In addition, there are many families in Mecklenburg County all around Occoneechee Island with Occoneechee ancestry. We did not return--we never left. Below are Occoneechee Parkers from the Occoneechee area (Clarksville).
Jeremy Carter above at the 2012 the 300th commemoration of the Saponi Reservation and Fort Christanna
Jeremey Carter became so well known in the Virginia and NC Native communities that he was honored with the portrait above.
Above is Travis Carter at the Waccamaw Indian People of Conway South Carolina annual Pow Wow, November 2003. This picture of Travis is displayed in the Waccamaw Tribal Office in Conway, S.C. Travis is the grandson of Eleanor Travis, who was born and raised in Greentown on the Saponi Reservation. Travis is a proud member of the Occoneechee, Saponi, Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation family and is from the Greentown Native Community on the Saponi Reservation, and Jeremy’s family, through his grandmother Eleanor Travis Carter and great-great-grandmothers Beulah Travis, Ann Walker, and Polly Jackson Green, were all born and raised in Greentown on the Saponi Reservation, going all the way back to 1712.
Barry Carter, Travis Carter and Jeremy Carter drumming with Eastern Bull singing, made up of members of state and federally recognized tribes from Virginia and North Carolina
The State of Virginia Recognizes OSTV as Virginia Native People
The State of Virginia, through the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and Occoneechee State Park Recognizes the Occoneechee, Saponi, Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation as Occoneechee-Saponi Natives.
In the 2007 Occonechee State Park Pow Wow the park manager Scott Shankin thanked all of the Yesah tribes for their participation in the event. Barry Carter, of the OSTV formally Fort Christanna Saponi-Occoneechee, was instrumental in working with park manager, Scott Schanklin, in getting the Pow Wow inclusive of all of the northern Yesah tribes from Virginia and North Carolina. Prior to this the pow wow was largely seen an OBSN event.
Native Community Participation
The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation and Yesah Descendants Association have been actively involved in Indian Country and accepted as Native people at the state, regional, national, and international levels. Members have been involved in:
- Native American education via public demonstrations.
- Protection of our Native homeland against continued pollution, land theft, and exploitation.
- Native American liberation and civil rights efforts.
- International Indigenous rights efforts.
For decades, our tribal members have been doing Native demonstrations where we tell our history and debunk myths that have been spread for centuries. We have worked to unify Natives nationally and internationally. We have routinely participated in powwows throughout Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Maryland for decades. We have been on the forefront of many environmental movements. We have led efforts to buy back our homelands and return to living the Indigenous ways of our ancestors.
Public Education and Powwows
Over the past decades, tribal members have participated in many library demonstrations, festivals, parades, and museum demonstrations where we educate the public about who we are. For decades, members have danced at powwows and drummed at powwows. Tribal members have been involved in educating the public that we are still here.
Above and below is tribal member Celest Swann with a mural that was painted of her and Natives from other tribes. This mural is in Baltimore MD.
Celest has spent decades giving demonstrations, lectures and educating crowds of people on Native American history and culture, at event through out the South and North East. She has been head lady dancer at many pow wows and participated in hundreds of pow wows over many decades.
Celest featured on Pow Wow Flyer
Emma and daughter's Chris and Blaine
* Barry Carter, Travis Carter and Jeremy Carter (OSTV members) and members of the Federally Recognized Chickahominy Tribe were the Occoneechee Host Drum for Virginia Museum of Natural History Pow Wow in Lynchburg Virginia.
The State of Virginia Recognizes OSTV as Virginia Native People
In 2005 the Commonwealth of Virginia, through the Virginia Museum of Natural History, contracted with The Occoneechee, Saponi, Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation (formally known as the Fort Christanna Saponi Occoneechee) to represent Virginia Natives at the annual museum pow wow as shown with the contract and check stub below.
Historian & Chief Richard Haithcock Recognizes OSTV as Yesah People
Richard Haithcock, (1956-2020) Chief of the Saponi-Catawba Tribe, was a Yesah Saponi historian and publisher of 56 books on Yesah history and genealogy. He made incalculable contribution to the history of the Yesah people. In 2007 Richard recognized he Occoneechee, Saponi, Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation as Yesah Native people.
Brunswick County Virginia Recognizes OSTV as the Saponi Indians from the Saponi Reservation
In 2002 Barry Carter Chief of The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation was selected as the Saponi Native to be on the Fort Christanna site planning committee funded by Brunswick County. He served for over a year as Vice President of the committee. He eventually resigned from the committee when it became apparent that the committee was not going to tell the full and true history of the Saponi Reservation. Before resigning he was able to get two members of the Haliwa-Saponi included on the committee -- council members Jeff Anstead and Danny Richardson
Jeremy and Chastidy Carter at Saponi Reservation commemoration event in 2012
Barry Carter drumming at the Saponi Reservation commemoration event in 2012
Jeremey and Travis Carter drumming with Eastern Bull
Barry, Travis and Jeremy Carter as members of Eastern Bull Singers and traveled over 100,000 miles, in five years, drumming at pow wows all over the east coast. Members of the The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation have been on the pow wow trail, dancing and drumming, for decades throughout Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland.
As members of Eastern Bull Drum Barry, Travis and Jeremy Carter were invited to drum at federal and state recognized tribes through out Virginia and North Carolina including the Chickahominy, Nansemond, Monacan, Coharie, Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. In 2001 the United Indians of Virginia invited Eastern Bull to provide the drumming for their annual banquet.
Ihza Carter of the Saponi Reservation dancing at the Chickahominy Pow Wow 2023
Mahpiya Carter. Ihza Carter, Metztli Carter, Danny Osorio, Saponi Carter dancing at the Meherrin Pow Wow 2023
Dennis Banks and the 2008 Longest Walk Recognizes the OSTV
In 2008 the Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation where the official host for the Longest Walk II through Southern Virginia from the NC border to Richmond. OSTV hosted the walkers at Occoneechee State Park and Southside VA community college.
In 1978 Natives nationwide did not have freedom of religion. We could not legally conduct or participate in our ceremonies that we had been doing for thousands of years. We did not have basic civil rights. And the USA congress was working towards terminating all treaties between Natives and the USA government. A group of hundreds of Natives, from tribes from all over the USA, came together and walked from San Francisco to Washington DC to demand action by the United States government. Because of this laws were changed and passed to grant freedom of religion to Natives, the effort to terminate treaties was defeated, and Native civil rights expanded.
The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation was the Southern Virginia coordinator for the Longest Walk II in 2008. The OSTV tribe invited the Mexica Movement to come stay with and participate in the Longest Walk. Olin Tezcatlipoca, leader of the Mexica Movement, brought a contingent of Native activists and stayed at Occoneechee Village in Buffalo Junction, VA, near Occoneechee Island. Together, we played a major role in the Longest Walk II in bringing to light the continued genocide of Southern Natives, who white supremacists have tried to falsely label as Hispanic and Latino.
We met the Walk at the NC/VA line and formally welcomed them to Virginia and our Occoneechee homeland. We hosted the walk at Occoneechee State Park in Occoneechee VA (Clarksville) where the 1676 massacre had occurred where white people sought to exterminate us in order to steal our land. We prayed, sang and danced and put together strategies. We met Natives from all over the USA.
The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation was the only Virginia or North Carolina tribe to be involved with the Longest Walk II.
A faction of walkers broke off from the Longest Walk and went up through the Blueridge Mountains. They were the People's Walk. We met these Natives and gave them support.
OSTV Activism to Stop Commercialization of Occoneechee State Park
In 2000 Barry Carter, Chief of The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation went to war to stop the Town of Clarksville, some local real estate developers and local politicians from commercializing Occoneechee State Park. It must be noted that ALL of the people looking to steal and further exploit Native land were White people. They had plans to profit from building a private golf course in Occoneehee State Park with a hotel, restaurant and other amenities within the park with a housing development adjacent to the park around the golf course. This was just the first step in a plan by the Sam Snead organization to create privately owned golf courses on state parks throughout Virginia.
The plan was all but approved by the DCR board when two weeks before the vote The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation became active in the effort to stop more exploitation of Native land. All local, county, regional and federal politicians, who represented Southside VA had come out in favor of the golf course project.
We gathered one thousand signatures within two weeks which caused the DCR Board to delay their vote. We were able to prove that 80 to 90% of local citizens and citizens state wide were opposed to this endeavor. There were dozens of letters to the editor. We met with Governor Mark Warner's staff, the secretary of Natural Resources and Secretary of Commerce and made our case. It took two full years of hard activist work to kill this corrupt plan. In 2004 the final nail was put into the coffin and the project was officially dead only because of the efforts of The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation. Not only did we save Occoneechee State Park from development we saved the state park system from being privatized. .
Mother Earth is NOT here for our exploitation. We are only one animal on the planet. And we are not intended to have dominion over but to be a part of the whole system which is Mother Earth. One objective of The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation is to continually remind everyone of this.
9500 Liberty Street Wall -- OSTV Works to Help end the 500+ Year Old Ethnic Cleansing of Native Americans
As Native Americans begin to repopulate the United States of America there is a growing corrupt, violent and inhumane effort to keep the number of Native Americans in the USA low. White people came to our land and built their countries on Native land where Natives were the majority and today again are the majority
The people now being demonized as illegal aliens as they cross the USA southern border are actually Native Americans. These are culturally and genetically some of the most Native people on the continent.
In 2008 the The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation joined with Mexicans without Borders, Gaudencio Fernandes, Chief Billy Tayac of the Piscataway Tribe of Maryland to erect a sign in down town Manassas VA that condemned the oppression of Southern Natives. The sign which stood 40 feet tall long and 16 feet tall garnered national attention over a two year period of time. Our tribe was instrumental in the wording of the 9500 Liberty Wall sign. This wording was a collaboration between Gardenico Fernandes and Chief Barry.
Just as has been happening since 1492 we continue to see horrible abuses of Natives right here in the USA. As late as 2016 through 2020 Donald Trump literally reignited the somewhat dormmate genocide against Natives -- calling Mexicans rapists and criminals to start his run for president. He created concentration camps for Native children where children and babies were housed in cages. Where 4,500 minor little girls were raped in these concentration camps and impregnated. Where thousands of small children were taken away from their native parents' and abused just as has happened for centuries and many were never reunited. And the shame of it is he and this continued genocide against Natives was and is supported by more than half of the White people in the USA as of this writing in 2023 based upon the White support for Donald Trump. We must keep in mine that genocide is not just another political issue to be weighed along side other political issues. Genocide supporters belong in the category of humans along with Adolf Hitler.
OSTV Involved in Native liberation
Southern Natives are the sleeping giant on the American continent. 660 million of the one billion people, on the single land mass which is the whole American continent are Native American. The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation has been working with many people and organizations to end the persecution of Natives at the Southern border.
The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation is the only tribe in Virginia or North Carolina who is publicly and continually advocating for the USA to end the genocide against our Southern Native cousins.
OSTV Working to Stopping the World's Largest Uranium Mine on Yesah Homeland
In 2004 The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation joined the effort to stop a group of white people in Pittsylvia County Virginia from creating the largest uranium mine in the world. This world have been an unprecedented mine. There has never been a uranium mine built in a populated state or region such as Southern Virginia. This link is to our Facebook group opposing uranium mining in Virginia.
We worked to get a ban placed on uranium mining in Virginia that still stands today. Why is this so important. Uranium is the most toxic substance in the world and explain by the Chairman of The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation in his letter to the Virginia General Assembly. Once removed from the ground anything contaminated will stay toxic for 500,000 years. This is the one thing that could force we Saponi people to leave our homelands of thousands of years. The Roanoke River would definitely been contaminated and we would be seeing thousands of deaths from this exploitation for thousands of years. Below is one of our memes from our tribes Facebook page.
The mine would have definitely polluted our Roanoke River since the waters near the mine flow directly into the Roanoke River as shown below and there would be millions of deaths over the next one half million years. This would have been a disaster for our people. Water is life and our Mother Earth is sacred and alive. This is more than just words. It is something that all true Natives must feel in their hearts. The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation was the only tribe involved in this effort to stop this rape of Mother Earth. Other Virginia and North Carolina tribes were invited to help in this effort but none joined the effort.
Activity with the United Nations
In 2010 The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation went to the United Nations. Barry Carter participated in the United Nation forum on Indigenous People. We worked on expanding Indigenous people's rights world wide. We met and made allies with many Indigenous people from around the world including India, Ecuador, Canada, Mexico, the Amazon Rainforest and from all across the USA.
Mountain Top Removal
The aliens have an extraction and taking worldview. In general they believe Mother Earth is dead and here to have dominion over, for their personal profit and self gain, even if it destroys Mother Earth forever. Mountains cannot be replaced and yet the aliens are demolishing our sacred mountains in a process called mountain top removal in order to attain the coal inside of the mountains.
The The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation worked with other groups to stop, slow down and reduce the demolition of our sacred mountains. The following is our mountain top removal tribal page. Unfortunately we have not done as much as we should have regarding this permanent rape, extermination and destruction of our sacred Yesah mountains. We do have plans to step up our efforts in order to stop the rape of our mother homeland.
The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation is the only Virginia, North Carolina or West Virginia tribe to come out in opposition to mountain top removal.
Occoneechee Village
Since 1995 The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation has been on a mission to return to living the Indigenous Ways of our ancestors. In 2009 the tribe purchased nearly 300 acres of land in Lunenburg County Virginia. It took years to find a piece of land suitable where the old growth Indigenous trees had not been clear cut, and it was away from any toxic private landfill and not near any toxic coal power plant.
The vision was to create a sustainable community and network of community where the tribe could grow its own food, home school its own children, generate its own electricity, build its own houses and detach from getting their human needs met from a toxic and evil system brought to our land in 1492, that is exterminating the Indigenous World. When one steps back and look at the world that the aliens have created on our land it is clear that they are working against and seeking to exterminate everything that Wakan Tanka created. And this makes the entire system evil. And thus is why we The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation must show the world, and especially the aliens on our land, that the Indigenous ways are ways of abundance, balance, love and sustainability are the only way that humans can exist on the planet long term.
Many Native people have worked with and lived at Occoneechee Village and helped to build the vision. It is a very difficult road since the white people have intentionally taken many actions to destroy that Indigenous way system of community, sustainability and love and have put many obstacles in place to prevent it from establishing a foot hold. They have designed a system that only effectively works for single house hold nuclear families where are human needs are met through non-caring bureaucracies.
Supporting the OBSN in Getting State Recognition
In the late 1990 The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation began drumming with Eastern Bull Drum. Eastern Bull was the primary drum group that supported John Blackfeather Jefferies in his pow wow circuit and in public demonstrations. In some events it would be John, Beverly Payne, Joey Crutchfield, Barry Carter and his family of six people. The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation helped to provide a public face, in may cases, for the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. A few years after this activity the OBSN received its state recognition via a court case.
For years John Blackfeather and others with the OBSN encouraged us in Virginia to organize our tribe in Virginia.
Protecting Our Indigenous Forests in our Homeland
For ten years The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation has been administrator for a page entitled Southside Virginia Deforested. The goal of the page is to educate and bring attention to the ethnic cleansing attack on our Indigenous forests and to help shift the public's attitude regarding our Indigenous forests. For decades in Southside Virginia the aliens have been clear cutting our Indigenous forests and replacing them with artificially engineered alien loblolly's pine plantations. This is the exact same thing that they did with to Indigenous ancestors. We were a land populated by millions of brown Indigenous people and within a couple of centuries we were replaced by White people. This is the real cancel culture that took place in the land we now call Virginia. And now as our Native population swells things are just returning to their Natural state.
Today Brunswick County is the number one producer of timber in the state. Our mix Indigenous forest have been replaced with alien pine plantations. Much of our indigenous forests have been converted into worthless mulch.
Since 2005 The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation has actively worked to slow down and stop deforestation in Southern Virginia. We were able to stop the clear cutting of the 91,000 acres of USA Corp of Engineers property around our Roanoke River homeland in Mecklenburg County Virginia. We met with the Crop's forestry people and let them know this was unacceptable and there was NO reason to be clear cutting around the lake. We suspected corruption with at least one low level White Corp employee with kickbacks from timber companies. He was the forestry official in charge of the forestry program. We reported our concerns to the Coronel in charge of this region. The forestry official was eventually removed from the possession for theft-for using Corp equipment and fuel for his own private projects.
In 2002 we filed charges against a white timber thief who stole 80 acres of old growth forest on our Native land. Working with Brunswick County Virginia Commonwealths attorney Bill Blaine, we won a criminal conviction in court for timber theft against William Roland Massey. This was the first conviction in the history of the state of Virginia for timber theft. Massey was convicted of timber theft and went to prison. He had a decades long history of stealing indigenous forest lands from naïve elderly Black and Native people. And The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation put an end to more exploration of Native land and people by this alien. White timber thives stealing timber from elderly Black and Native people is a well known fact in the criminal justice community. We must understand that these encroachments by white people, both legal and illegal, are part of a system of exploitation that has been occurring since 1492
We have oral history of Greentown land being stolen. In the late1800s a white business owner from Lawrenceville provided a coat to a Greentown family member on credit. When the coat was not paid for in full the white person went to court and ended up with ownership of 30 acres of Greentown Native land. This type of thing was very common in Virginia. And the credit scheme was a common con used against Native and African people. Our Native people came out of a peaceful loving civilization of thousands of years where people did not steal from one another from ego and selfishness. We were by nature innocent and naive. We didn't suspect evil intentions from other people. While on the other had we are dealing with people who are scheming to get what we have been happening since 1492. The roots of this behavior is reflected in the 1000 year European Dark Ages. Though through abused, mass murdered and torture of our people there was intentionally created a level of emotional and spiritual illness, most of our people still have the innocent core. Whereas the one thousand years of hellish Dark Ages in Europe left an ego selfish core as explained here.
In 2008 The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation caught another White timber thief, Finch, stealing a forest of 20 acres of our Native land. This was in Mecklenburg county. We were not able to get the sheriffs department to spend more than five minutes considering criminal changes, even though according to one real estate agent said the cutting pattern fit Finches history of timber activity. Again one of our tribal elders, due to the goodness of our people, was going to allow him to get off with just paying her 40% of what he had stolen. However, Chief Barry told him to "get off our land and we will see you in court." The family sued Finch in court and won triple damaged.
Today many of our Native people have lost connection with the sacredness of our forests. This has occurred due to the holocaust, mass murder and poverty the aliens forced our ancestors though. But we must return to connecting to our sacred homeland and forests.
Yesah Canoe Society
In 2011, Pure Fe, the Native American singer was living at Occoneechee Village. She asked members of the The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation to help facilitate the a VA/NC Native canoe society. We purchased five additional canoes and came together with some Haliwa-Saponi tribal members and took several canoe trips down the Roanoke River. Tribal members are still canoeing the rivers of Southside VA as they have been doing since the 1980's.
Annual Yesah Campout on the Roanoke River
In the early 2000's The Occoneechee-Saponi-Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation hosted an annual Siouan camp out on the Roanoke River in Boydton Mecklenburg County. Members of various Yesah tribes would attend each year. OBSN, Monacan, Haliwa-Saponi..
Occoneechee Indian Tribe of the Saponi Reservation reach agreement with the USA federal government Corp of Engineers to perform a public exhibition at North Bend Park, during the annual Yesah campout on the Roanoke River, Boydton VA 2002 along with members of the OBSN and other Yesah people.
Conclusion
In conclusion the Occoneechee, Saponi, Totaro Tribe of the Saponi Reservation has been accepted as Yesah Saponi people in their local community, state wide, nationally and internationally by other tribes and native people state and federally recognized.
