Six Virginia Indian Tribes want to save the site of Powhatan’s Birthplace

The historic birthplace of Chief Powhatan, WaHōnSeNaKah, is under threat from a planned development, because we can’t have paradise, we need more parking lots.

“Powhatan’s Birthplace is a sacred landscape, shaped by more than 13,000 years of Indigenous history, memory, and survival – and it now stands on the brink of irreversible loss,” said Dr. Ashley Spivey, a Pamunkey Tribal Citizen who is coordinating the efforts of six Virginia Indian Tribes that have united to save the site, which they say should be accessible to the Tribes “as a place of power, remembrance, and ceremony.”

Preservation Virginia, a Richmond-based nonprofit, is helping bring attention to the issue, adding Powhatan’s Birthplace to its list of most endangered places in Virginia, citing the threat to the 530-acre site in Varina from development plans that call for the construction of 2,700 new homes and 1.1 million square feet of retail space at the site.

The parcel is one of the last undeveloped pieces of land in the Richmond metro area; it is located on Old Osborne Turnpike, Route 5, one of the oldest roads in the state, designated as a Virginia Byway for its high aesthetic and cultural value, which is also in danger of being lost to the development plans.

“This irreplaceable site, where generations lived, were buried, and endured, is now threatened by a multibillion-dollar international developer that has failed to equitably collaborate with Virginia’s Tribal Nations,” Spivey said.

“If we fail to act now, we will not only destroy one of the Chesapeake’s most significant cultural sites, we will sever a living connection to the ancestors, descendants, and histories that still call this place home,” Spivey said.