The Shadow
Chief Mountain Wolf, Samuel H. Penn, Sr., of the United Cherokee Indian Tribe of Virginia, Inc., and his wife, Quiet Fire, Shelby, dropped by the Clifton Forge Armory over the weekend to attend the first McCoy Family Reunion held in Clifton Forge.
“We are happy to have Indian Chief Samuel Penn with us today,” said Minister Trina Carter Edwards. “He is the Chief of the tribe that my great-great grandmother was born into,” she added. After a prayer given by Edwards, Penn was introduced to family members by Virginia
McCoy Alexander.
“What I do for the tribe is not a full-time job,” began Penn. He explained that the United Cherokee Indian Tribe of Virginia, Inc. has over 770 members in Virginia, with members in every state of the commonwealth and 36 of the 50 states. “We (he and his wife of 48 years, Shelby)
are both related to the McCoy Family. Our ancestors are one big melding pot,” added Penn.
“We don’t look alike, we don’t dress alike, we don’t act alike, but we are all related,” Penn said of the family members assembled. “We did our ancestral background back to 1700 and discovered there were no slaves in my family tree,” said Penn. “I’m embarrassed to say this,
“we did own slaves, but we were never slaves,” added Penn.
To get tribe status, Penn explained, research was done to encompass the whole state of Virginia, but finding that work too overwhelming, they broke it down to the Buffalo Ridge (Amherst County) Stonewall Mill (Appomattox County) areas.
“Once we started our tribe and filed a petition with the state, we met with the Virginia Council of Indians,” said Penn. The tribe was then able to acquire some federal grants for research, but these grants stipulated that we would have to have lived in or reside within a 50-mile radius of
the Buffalo Ridge and Stonewall Mill areas.
Penn explained that membership is open to descendants of the original Native Americans who lived in the tribal setting of the Buffalo Ridge and/or “Stonewall Mill” areas in the 1700s and early 1800s; including families of Banks, Beverley, Chambers, Ferguson, Jenkins, McCoy,
Megginson, Pinn, Redcross, Scott, and West.
He closed by encouraging everyone to “research and pass on your history to your friends, neighbors, and especially your family members, before he took a couple of questions from the group.”
The theme for this year’s family reunion was, “Bridging Families Together.” “We had a turnout of 300 people,” said Edwards. The reunion began Friday evening with a meet and greet in the brewery room of Jack Mason’s Tavern & Brewery, Clifton Forge.
Saturday’s program consisted of a luncheon at the Clifton Forge Armory and bouncy houses and water games on Memorial Field.
The oldest living male and females were honored as well: Matriarchs Eula Mae Roland and Daisy Watkins and Patriarch Leon McCoy, who had their biographies read by their children and a pinning of corsages.
“The reunion was a tremendous success,” said Edwards. “I’d like to thank everyone who travelled near and far and I am looking forward to the next reunion.”
The McCoy Reunion Committee would like to thank and recognize the hard work of the following committee members: Ingrid Barber, Beverly and Tanya Walker, Edwards, Cynthia Carter, Claude and Virginia McCoy Alexander, Dawn McCoy, Julia Wharton, Geena Ray, Kirsha Ray, Eric Washington, and Shanda Washington. Also, the following volunteers: Brenda Tallman and Spencer Tallman, Richard Lewis, Raymond Lewis, Zina Brown, Tykea Lewis, Carnette Johnson, Mark Jefferson, Chaquita Mills, and Traci Belcher.
For more information on the United Cherokee Indian Tribe of Virginia, Inc., they can be reached at: PO Box 1104, Madison Heights, VA 24572; Phone (434) 845-5606, and Ucitova.org
