In a poignant mountainside ceremony that seemed to reverse the country's very beginnings, an Episcopal bishop recently restored sacred lands to one of Virginia's most historically oppressed Indian tribes.

Telling scores of Monacan Indians that "we must be God's people together," Bishop Heath Light of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Virginia, said that the Church and tribe share a bond that "means more than a piece of paper."

In presenting a deed of gift to Monacan chief Kenneth Branham, the bishop ended nearly a century of church control over a small tract of mountain land that Monacans hold sacred. The gift, he said, "comes out of a sense of respect for the land and for you who honour this land."

The Monacans are one of eight tribes recognised in Virginia, with more than 700 members, many of them in Maryland and other states, on tribal rolls. The tribe, citing the land's spiritual importance to them, petitioned the Church two years ago for its return, a transfer believed to be unprecedented in Virginia, Bishop Light said.

While the gift involves a mere seven-acre tract bordering a mission church founded in 1908, the property has always been considered the spiritual nexus of Monacan efforts to re-establish their identity. Included within the tract is a tiny, 150-year-old, log-sided school house where Indian children were relegated to no more than an elementary school education.

Article from: Episcopal News Service