
Virginia’s governor admires the deer that are given as a tribute from Virginia’s native tribes. (Credit: Mallory Noe-Payne / WVTF / RADIO IQ)
In 1677, the King of England signed a treaty with some of Virginia’s native tribes. It exempted the tribes from taxes on their reservation land, but required an annual symbolic payment of three arrows, and 20 beaver skins.
Now almost 350 years later, that treaty still plays out every year just before Thanksgiving, with a slightly different ceremonial gift to Virginia’s Governor. Mallory Noe-Payne reports.