Archeologist Julia King stands in front of an abandoned house that was home to chiefs from the Rappahannock Tribe. The home was built in the late 1800s and was once occupied by the grandparents of the current chief, Anne Richardson.
Recent archaeological work, driven by 2018 data analytics, has unearthed evidence of the Rappahannock Tribe’s vast range along the river that bears its name. The findings suggest the Rappahannocks were a powerful tribe with equal standing to others that got more attention from European settlers.
The emerging story undercuts what Western historians have asserted for 400 years about the shape of native culture when the Europeans arrived in America, and it restores the place of the Rappahannocks, who had nearly been erased from the record.
“There were voices that the Rappahannock needed to have that they weren’t getting,” said archaeologist Julia King of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, who has led the effort.