View on Zencastr

On this month’s podcast we have Dr. Ashley Spivey, Executive Director of Kenah Consulting and enrolled member of the Pamukey Indian Tribe. We start out talking about Ashley continuing her family legacy of maintaining her community’s heritage through material culture. Dr. Spivey also talks about the recent recognition of 7 Virginia tribes despite Virginia’s *paper genocide* and their historic erasure. While normally only recognized related to the first English settlements in America as the Powhatan Chiefdom, she discusses Virginia tidewater Indigenous communities’ long and vibrant role throughout American history. Finally we discuss her current work through Kenah Consulting to build tribal capacity in Virginia and across the US to support sovereignty and self-determination. They assist in building lasting capacity through federal acknowledgement, land claims, natural resource rights, cultural resource management planning, program development, and grant writing.

Photos include a photo of Dr. Spivey, a photo of the front façade of the Pamunkey Indian Museum and Cultural Center, and two photos from archaeological excavations at the Raymond Bush Site on the Reservation. This research was funded through the Society for American Archaeology Native America Graduate Student Scholarship and formed the foundation of her dissertation research. The two photos from this excavation include one of Dr. Spivey and her grandfather, Warren Cook, and one of the excavation team comprised of Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribal members and a William and Mary colleague.