Northam Seeks Funding To Conserve Historic Landmarks Of Black, Indigenous People

VIRGINIA — As part of his “Thank you, Virginia” Tour before he leaves office next month, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam proposed a budget that includes funding to conserve cultural sites important to the state’s Black and indigenous residents.

The governor’s budget proposal dedicates $10 million over two years to establish the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Conservation Fund. Legislation is expected to be introduced in the 2022 session to make this funding permanent, ensuring conservation efforts will continue.

The fund will protect historic schools, churches, cemeteries, burial sites, sacred tribal sites, and other endangered historic sites in Virginia.

“Protecting the historic landmarks of all people helps us tell a more inclusive and accurate story of the past,” Northam said in a statement Wednesday. “All of Virginia’s history deserves to be told and this funding will make that happen.”

In Northam's budget proposal, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation also would receive $12 million to help tribal nations acquire and protect their ancestral and historic land. Northam’s budget for the current fiscal year provided a one-time appropriation for the Chickahominy Indian Tribe to acquire historic land called Peace Hill Mamanahunt.

The new budget proposal would provide the other tribal nations in Virginia with a similar opportunity to acquire and preserve ancestral lands of significance.

“Access and ownership of traditional tribal lands allows for cultural and historic preservation as well as economic empowerment for Tribal Nations,” Secretary of the Commonwealth Kelly Thomasson said in a statement Wednesday. “This is an important moment of historic justice as the Commonwealth takes another step towards restoring trust with this community."