The Shadow
RICHMOND — Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Wednesday welcomed Mattaponi tribes to Richmond for the 337th tax tribute ceremony. The ceremony is the oldest continuing nation-to-nation ceremony in the United States.
The governor and first lady were presented with handmade earrings, a traditional Indian dancing stick with a turkey claw at the tip and an eight point buck deer.
The traditional Indian taxpaying ceremony traces its legal antecedents to a treaty signed on May 29, 1677 between Gov. Herbert Jeffreys and several Indian leaders.
The tribes visit the Richmond annually to pay their “accustomed rent” by bringing wild game and hand-crafted gifts for the governor and first lady.
