Stafford Supervisors to Hold Public Hearing on Lease with Patawomeck Indians for Aquia Property
The lease renewal became tied up last year with questions about the tribe's legitimacy. On Tuesday, Chair Deuntay Diggs said he finds that issue "inappropriate" and outside the board's purview.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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The Stafford Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to authorize a public hearing on a new lease with the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia for 6.5 acres of county-owned land in the Aquia district.
The tribe has rented the parcel from the county since March of 2015 for $10, with the goal of establishing “a monument or memorial to Stafford’s first citizens,” according to a May 2025 report by county staff.
In the past 10 years, the tribe constructed a driveway and partial parking area on the site; laid out trails leading from the parking area to the monument; installed tables, benches, and waste receptacles; and maintained a Civil War battery that exists on the site, according to the May staff report.
The original lease expired in March of 2025. Supervisors in May held a public hearing on a new 10-year lease with the tribe, but in a 4-to-3 vote, decided not to extend the lease unless the tribe provided further documentation of its legitimacy.
The Patawomeck Tribe received state recognition in 2010 through a resolution adopted by Virginia General Assembly. The tribe does not have federal recognition, but Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA-07) has introduced a bill that would extend that recognition.
But in recent years, two Stafford residents, Rick and Jerrilyn MacGregor, have questioned the existence of documentation proving that today’s tribe members can trace their history back to those who lived in the White Oak area of the county in the 1600s.
During public comments at Tuesday’s meeting, Jerrilyn MacGregor told supervisors that “the Patawomecks are not real.”
They are “an undocumented group of white people pretending to be Indians,” she said. “Last year, you voted to make a lease contingent upon their presenting to you the records they told the General Assembly they have. You have every right to see those records. But you’ll be waiting a very long time because they don’t exist.”
MacGregor said she would begin submitting to the public record the “thousands of documents” that prove the “White Oak families now pretending to be Indians are white and always have been. We’ll begin with the lineage of ‘Bootsie’ Bullock, the current chief. [We have] birth, marriage, death, draft, and census records proving his ancestors to be white right back to 1807.”
“Some of his ancestors held elevated positions as early as the 1600s,” she continued. “How can he be an Indian if he’s been white since this colony was founded?”
Supervisors discussed the lease again in November. At that time, staff said they had received “no further documentation from the tribe,” but that the vote in May left the Aquia property in “a limbo state.”
Staff proposed two options—renewal of the 10-year lease with the tribe to maintain and insure the land but with “a reduced scope which would not include an internment site [as originally proposed]” or returning the property back to the county at an annual maintenance cost of $4,500 per year.
Supervisors chose the second option with the understanding that if additional information or documentation was received, staff would bring the matter back to the board for direction.
The matter came back this week. Chris Edwards, the county’s chief operations officer, said the tribe “would [still] like to enter into an agreement so can they can continue ongoing maintenance.”
During public comments on Tuesday, Charlie Payne, attorney for the Patawomeck Tribe, appeared to reference MacGregor’s comments when he asked “Can we just calm the rhetoric down a bit?”
“Let’s talk about the reality of who the Patawomeck Indians are,” he said. “They are positive, wonderful citizens… They love Stafford County. Their mission is to celebrate and preserve the history of the tribe and the county.”
He said the tribe has been “studied and analyzed and reviewed by the foremost experts and anthropologists in the country and the Commonwealth for close to 100 years” but that the board’s consideration of the lease should not include questions of recognition, which were decided by the General Assembly in 2010.
“This is about an ongoing partnership with this great county, not about personal attacks,” Payne said. “It’s not about who’s right or wrong. It’s about coming together as a community, and that’s the way it should be evaluated.”
The board’s attorney, Ryesheda McClendon, said the lease could be negotiated with a termination clause should the board want to take back the site for county use.
Supervisors Maya Guy, Aquia representative and vice chair; Darrell English, Hartwood; and Kecia Evans, Falmouth, joined Chair Deuntay Diggs, George Washington representative, in supporting the motion to authorize a public hearing on a new lease.
Supervisors Tinesha Allen, Griffis-Widewater; Crystal Vanuch, Rock Hill; and Pamela Yeung, Garrisonville voted against the motion, saying they want to see the county maintain control of the site.
“The legitimacy of the tribe—that’s never been my thing,” Allen said. “It’s been about keeping our public lands in Stafford.”
Yeung also said, “This is about land,” but addressed the documentation issue when she noted that “land claims require proof.”
English said tribe members are “good people doing good things for the county.”
“I support the lease with them and I’m sure they will want to work with us [to negotiate a lease that suits all parties],” he said.
Diggs stated frankly that he finds the documentation issue to be “inappropriate.”
“Parts of it are uneducated, parts come across as just racist and disgusting tropes,” he said. “I, along with at least three of my colleagues have sat with experts who are renowned … who have looked at the tribe and have explained to us why some of the things we’re asking for and the way we’re asking for them as a board isn’t correct.”
“We’re not in the business of stating whether the tribe [are] Indians or not Indians, but I’ve talked with experts who have acknowledged that they are, based on their research,” Diggs continued. “So I’m going to go with that. But at the end of the day, they are a nonprofit. And the next question I have is, have they been good partners of the county?”
Edwards said the tribe have made improvements to the property and abided by the terms of the lease.
“So then, I don’t understand the problem,” Diggs said. “I’m just going to say that I support leasing the property to them and I appreciate the partnership.”
Charlie Payne is an advisor to the Advance.
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It’s ridiculous how people who aren’t native like to tell others what they are. Native tribes have adopted white and black peoples alike into their tribes and once someone is adopted into the tribe they are treated as a full member of that tribe. Stating that just because the color of someone’s skin doesn’t align with their perception of what a Native American looks like is racist.