SUFFOLK, Va. — The Nansemond Tribe in Suffolk is getting back what it has been working for for decades: land.
“We’re totally exuberant," said Nansemond Tribe Chief Keith Anderson.
Anderson said having 71 acres of ancestral land transferred back to the tribe from the city of Suffolk is, in his words, like a second Christmas.
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“Just think about our ancestors who have been there for thousands of years and just having that reconnecting, knowing that they’re smiling down on us," said Anderson.
Suffolk City Council voted 7-0 May 15 with one abstention to transfer the land back to the tribe.
“I’m elated," Suffolk Mayor Michael Duman said.
Duman explained the city agreed to transfer the land back in 2010 provided the plan for the land the tribe submitted at the time was completed within five years.
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It wasn’t.
The city let the tribe continue to use the land while working with the tribe to come up with a new plan for transferring the land back.
“We entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Nansemond Indian Nation that enumerates how the city would work collectively with the nation; what we would provide, what the nation has agreed to provide," said Duman.
With the transfer, the tribe can apply for federal grants to continue conservation on the land.
“We have an award-winning environmental program," Anderson pointed out. "We’re just super excited about the opportunities to be able to do that and to build the region as well as the commonwealth.”
“It’s a monumental decision," Chesapeake Bay Foundation Hampton Roads Director Christy Everett said.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is helping the tribe with conservation.
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"To get an opportunity like this is very rare," Everett said. "To get such a special piece of property that has so much water frontage that needs work, that can get federal grants and other funding sources to restore it but just has not been able to because of this technicality of not owning the land officially has been really frustrating for a lot of people."
The tribe will officially re-own the land once the transfer paperwork is complete, which Suffolk’s mayor said as of May 17, was expected to happen soon.
