Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton County, Virginia, Federal Recognition Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 5144 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 5144 To extend Federal recognition to the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton County, Virginia, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 4, 2025 Mrs. Kiggans of Virginia introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To extend Federal recognition to the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton County, Virginia, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton County, Virginia, Federal Recognition Act''. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. Congress finds the following: (1) The Hand Site Excavation (44SN22) in Southampton County in 1965, 1966, and 1969, carbon dates the ancestors of the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe of Southampton County, Virginia, to 1580. The site existed as early as A.D. 900 as highlighted by a Department of Historical Resources-approved State site marker whose narrative reflects the site was ``long claimed'' by the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe. (2) The Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indians made first ethnohistorical contact with the Colonials in 1608 when Nathaniel Powell and Anas Todkill met them at a village called Tomihitton in Nottoway County while looking for information germane to the Roanoke Island's survivors and the Lost Colony of 1585. (3) In 1607, the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe was called Man-goaks or Men-gwe by the Powhatan Confederation's Algonquian speakers as listed in the upper left-hand quadrant on Captain John Smith's 1607 map of Virginia. (4) In 1650