Connor Buchanan thought he was looking at a historical document. What he didn’t realize was that the yellowed pages in front of him doubled as a family photo album.
When Buchanan, a Hampden-Sydney College sophomore, was given the opportunity to curate his own exhibit as part of his summer internship at the Fredericksburg Area Museum, he quickly decided to highlight the Patawomeck Indian Tribe.
“I feel like more people should know about it,” said Buchanan, who has held tribal citizenship since he was 10. “Even though it’s a state-recognized tribe, there’s still a lot of people who are like, ‘Who are the Potomac Indians?’”
Buchanan sought to answer that question with his exhibit entitled, “Past and Present of the Patawomeck Tribe,” which opened Aug. 10 at FAM. As part of his research, Buchanan read anthropologist Frank Speck’s 1928 work: “Chapters on the Ethnology of the Powhatan Tribes of Virginia.”
An exhibit curated by Connor Buchanan, a Patawomeck tribal citizen, opened at the Fredericksburg Area Museum Aug. 10. (Photo by Joey LoMonaco)
On one of the pages devoted to a Potomac group, he noted a photo of Luther Newton, a Stafford County waterman claiming Indian ancestry who was interviewed by Speck.
“I sent it to my grandmother, and she said, ‘You know you’re related to him, right?’” Buchanan recalled. “’That is your great-great-great-grandfather.’”
Buchanan’s exhibit begins in a back stairwell and traces the tribe’s historical narrative from the 1600s to the present.
The Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia (PITV) received state recognition via Joint House Resolution No. 150 in 2010, while HR 5553, a bill sponsored by Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-7th) that would grant the group federal recognition, was introduced in September 2023 and is currently in committee.
“I was kind of brainstorming with him,” said Gaila Sims, FAM’s vice president of programs and interpretation. “I thought it would be a fun journey to take as you go down.”
Besides a timeline, the exhibit also features census records, government correspondence documenting the persecution of Native Americans and photographs of watermen working Potomac Creek, a tributary of cultural and practical significance to the Patawomeck.
“Honestly, he did this all with very little hand-holding from me or from Brad [Hatch],” Sims said. “I told him at his opening, ‘You’ve got that curatorial mind.’ The objects alone are a really interesting collection.”
Sims added that a larger Indigenous people’s exhibit is in the works at FAM within the next two years.
For Hatch, who serves as Tribal Judge for the Patowomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia (PITV) and advised Buchanan on the project, the exhibit offers a replicable example of embracing one’s tribal heritage.
“I think it’s exceedingly important that younger folks in the tribe not only connect with their identity but participate in the community,” Hatch said. “I think, genetically, you can be related to lots of people, but it’s really those connections that form your community.”
