Tribal Highlight: Rappahannock Tribe Awarded Funds to support planning for their Return to the River Initiative
Utilizing funding awarded by the America the Beautiful Challenge competitive grant program for ecological restoration and cultural preservation, the Rappahannock Tribe is completing a Master Plan supporting and broadening the goal of their Return to the River Initiative – reengaging youth and other Tribal members with their historical homelands and developing broader community awareness and support for the role the Tribe has played in management of the region for centuries.

The seal of the Rappahannock Tribe
Virginia – The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced the America the Beautiful Challenge (ATBC) in 2022, establishing five years of grant funding to support state, territory, and Tribally-led ecosystem restoration. One of twenty-one Tribes awarded funds in the FY23 funding cycle, the Rappahannock Tribe is utilizing ATBC funding to develop a Master Plan that will support and broaden the goals of their Return to the River Initiative.
In September 2024, Native American Fish and Wildlife Society (NAFWS) ATBC Field Liaison, Andy Edwards, met with Patricia Morris – Planning and Marketing Specialist and Jack Ryan – Director of Environmental and Natural Resources from the Rappahannock Tribe to see firsthand how the ATBC program is supporting Tribal conservation efforts. Joining the three for the visit were Mary Samsell – Director of Development for the Tribe, subcontractor Joe Slay of Slay Communications, and Sydney Godbey – ATBC Program Manager, National Programs, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF).

Patricia provided a detailed overview of the Rappahannock Tribe’s ATBC proposal before the group headed out to the field to look at some of the areas where directives from the Master Plan and its components will be applied.
Rappahannock Tribe Return to the River Initiative
Born from a recognition by Tribal Chief Anne Richardson and Assistant Chief Mark Fortune that two generations of Tribal members have had little or no connection to their history as a people once intricately tied to the Rappahannock River, the Return to the River Initiative is at heart a program to reconnect Tribal youth to river culture. Since its inception, the initiative has taken on a life of its own. With the support of ATBC funding, the Rappahannock Tribe is undertaking a multi-pronged master planning effort to expand upon the initiative – reengaging youth and other Tribal members with their historical homelands, furthering conservation goals, and promoting sustainable economic growth while developing broader community awareness and support for the role the Tribe has played in management of the region for centuries.
Chief Anne Richardson is a big proponent of partnerships and has a long history of developing them. Accordingly, partnerships, communication, and engagement are a major focus of all the Tribe’s initiatives. In fact, the Master Plan is focusing on six areas prioritized by the Tribe’s membership via survey: Conservation and Land Management, Knowledge Exchange, Public Education and Curriculum, Business, Risk Management and Safety, and Marketing and Communications. Each of these priorities will have their own plans under the Master Plan. The intent is to benefit not just the Tribal community, but the entire local community. Access to the river and its resources is not only limited for members but for all in the area – the Rappahannock hope to improve appreciation for, and management of, resources and increase accessibility to, and benefits from, those resources for all.
The Rappahannock Tribe has resided in the region since at least the 1500s – pre-dating the United States by 2 centuries – persevering through decades of federal and state policies aimed at erasing their culture and presence in the area. The Tribe incorporated in 1921 to solidify their fight for State (recognized in 1983) and Federal (2018) recognition. Currently, enrollment stands at about 300, with ~175 members living in the immediate area. A reservation was never established, and while the Rappahannock were not forced entirely from the area, they did lose access to lands that once served as their capital along Cat Point Creek and villages along the Rappahannock River in the Fones Cliffs area (documented in Captain John Smith’s map published in 1612). Today the Tribe’s government offices are located in the nearby town of Indian Neck, Virginia, on lands purchased by the Tribe. Re-matriation of historical lands along the Rappahannock River has been, and remains a goal.

Looking downstream from a newly acquired Tribal parcel with a view of the Rappahannock River, adjacent marshlands, and some of the renowned white bluffs known as Fones Cliffs.
The ATBC-funded Master Plan will guide the management of 969 acres of re-matriated ancestral lands atop the Fones Cliffs area overlooking the river and at a 465-acre parcel now owned by the Tribe with direct access river access, plus another 703 acres adjacent to the 465. In total, Tribal land ownership in the river valley will soon reach over 2,100 acres, all of which will benefit from the new plan. Additionally, in 2023, the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Rappahannock River Valley Refuge, which managesand holds title to substantial wetland and upland habitat along the river and within the Tribe’s homeland, transferred ownership of Cat Point Creek Lodge to the Rappahannock Tribe. The lodge building, which will be placed into Federal trust through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, is located near Cat Point Creek. The master planning will provide direction for the Tribe’s operation of the lodge as an Indigenous Environmental and Conservation Education Center for use by Tribal citizens and the public, to preserve the river culture and share Indigenous knowledge and stewardship of the land. Other recently re-matriated parcels also lie within the refuge boundary and are adjoined and accessed by refuge lands. Refuge management has committed to managing these lands with the Tribe “as the Eagle flies” or with no boundaries.

Cat Point Creek Lodge will primarily be used as an Indigenous Conservation and Environmental Education Center but may also be utilized for special events and meetings, like the NE/SE regional NAFWS conference the Tribe hosted in September 2024.
The conservation and land management piece of the plan will shape reforestation efforts and eagle habitat restoration on one parcel where developers, as the previous owners, had illegally cleared about 13 acres. Invasive plant management is also a need throughout the holdings. Partnering with the refuge and others, floristic and breeding bird surveys will be conducted across Tribal and refuge lands. Building upon work funded by NOAA and others, ATBC will support migration mapping for blueback herring and alewives using acoustic technology, transmitters also include a temperature logger that helps shed light on preferred (or experienced) water temperatures as the fish move through the system and seasons. The funds will provide for an additional two years of tagging, with plans to tag an additional 50-100 blueback herring and alewives during the next two years from Cat Point and Occupacia creeks where spawning populations remain. Paired with strategically placed acoustic receivers, the Tribe will be able to observe movements and habitat use of these species, potentially identifying other population clusters and bottleneck points of vulnerability or barriers to restoration that can be addressed in future years.

Jack explains some of the monitoring and observed migration patterns of alewife and blueback herring in the Rappahannock River and its tributaries.
Previous tagging has documented alewife migrations as far up the East Coast as the Gulf of Maine where they can be vulnerable to mortality as bycatch in other fisheries. ATBC funds will also be utilized to purchase 2 sets of loggers and antenna arrays for PIT tags, which can be used to further explore movements into and out of several local tributaries that could be important to population dynamics and may be potential sites of other future restoration projects to remove barriers or improve stream conditions. The PIT tagging will be paired with eDNA and larval and egg sampling to take a broad-brush approach to seeing if alewives and blueback herring may be present in or near other tributaries on Tribal and other lands, some of which have passage issues.
Jack went into more depth about the fisheries data and assessment needs ATBC will support. Blueback herring and oysters have been, and continue to be, a traditional aquatic food source for Tribal members, relied upon seasonally when terrestrial game and plants are less available. The herring were historically important as a winter food source as Tribal members harvested and salted them to preserve them for subsistence consumption throughout the lean months. However, herring populations have crashed and are now estimated to be less than 1% of their former abundance, resulting in a state moratorium on harvest in 2012. Jack stated, “This represents not just simply a loss of a fish stock or a subsistence food source, but a loss of cultural identity.”

Jack went into more depth about the fisheries data and assessment needs ATBC will support. Blueback herring and oysters have been, and continue to be, a traditional aquatic food source for Tribal members, relied upon seasonally when terrestrial game and plants are less available. The herring were historically important as a winter food source as Tribal members harvested and salted them to preserve them for subsistence consumption throughout the lean months. However, herring populations have crashed and are now estimated to be less than 1% of their former abundance, resulting in a state moratorium on harvest in 2012. Jack stated, “This represents not just simply a loss of a fish stock or a subsistence food source, but a loss of cultural identity.”
The business plan and risk management and safety training plan will concentrate on the Tribe’s goal to develop a guiding and river tour venture providing kayak, canoe, and pontoon tours of the Rappahannock River and Cat Point Creek with a focus on Tribal and area history as well as environmental discussions and ecotourism.

At a public access point on the river, talk turned to some of the planned ventures like the guiding and river tour business they hope to develop, bringing jobs and economic benefits while maintaining the goal of education.
The Knowledge Exchange Program Plan, Public Education Curriculum and Plan, and Marketing and Communications Plan components of the Master Plan all target slightly different focal points but have one thing in common – education. These pieces will be key drivers of the Tribe’s goal to engage and educate all ages of both the Tribal and non-Tribal communities. Part of that will include design, interpretation, and construction plans for a new welcome center and powwow grounds at a newly acquired parcel on historical lands near Fones Cliffs. They are approaching this opportunity with the mindset of it being a model too and plan to pull together a mini documentary about the planning process and how they developed all the engagement and educational programming that may be helpful to other groups undertaking similar endeavors.
Supporting Tribal Conservation
In 2022 and 2023, Tribal Nations requested about $500 million through the America the Beautiful Challenge. NFWF, along with the federal agencies and other partners like Native Americans in Philanthropy have committed to providing at least 10% of annual funds to Tribes. Thus far the quality of Tribal proposals has been rewarded with over a third of funds going to Tribal Nations! In the first two years NFWF has awarded 35 projects to Tribal Nations, totaling about $77 million. While this amount is significant and without a doubt will make an impact across Indian country, the disparity between requested and awarded funding demonstrates the continued need for long-term, sustainable funding for Tribal conservation and restoration.
When talking about the impact of ATBC on the Rappahannock Tribe’s ability to further their conservation and cultural goals, Patricia Morris, Planning and Marketing Specialist stated: “I was gob-smacked when I found out the Tribe was successful in its application and I am extremely grateful for both the amount of funds and the help that has been available through both NFWF and NAFWS. This was our “everything but the kitchen sink grant,” and then we threw the kitchen sink in too. The opportunity these funds provide to undertake so many planning aspects at once, while supporting some existing and new staff time, and augment data collection efforts, all while building and reinforcing partnerships is very welcome.”
Disclaimer: This project is made possible through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.