Powhatan-Toney

Powhatan-Toney Tribe
In the late 1700's, the Virginia Powhatan Confederacy was noted by President Thomas Jefferson to be almost extinct with only a few Black Indians remaining. The Haliwa-Saponi are among several tribal groups or bands, both recognized and unrecognized, who are descended from the Powhatan Confederacy, which concluded a number of historic treaties with the government of Virginia that are still honored with respect to the Mattaponi and Pamunkey reservations in Virginia. The Powhatan-Toney Tribe descended from Black Indians in Virginia and a segment of the Old Cherokee Nation. Cherokees settled in northern Alabama in the late 18th and early 19th century, ceding the land in 1835. Unlike many southeastern Indian tribes, the Powhatan-Toney Tribe evolved within the slave culture of America and were not removed from tribal lands but were asked to transfer land to the Federal Government in the interest of Conservation, Economic Development, Energy Production and National Security. Powhatan and Toney Indian descendants from Virginia have lived together for 200 years in Alabama and over 100 years in the Cherokee Nation. This historic Powhatan Tribal legacy is preserved by the Powhatan-Toney Tribe and the United States of America.
19th Century
In treaties of the early 1800's Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations claimed land squatted and controlled by Powhatan slave owner and polygamist Harris Toney from Virginia. Allied with the federal Government, Toney and other cultured slave owners from Virginia were allowed to establish businesses to accommodate settlers passing through the Alabama and Mississippi Territory. In 1816 Chickasaw Indians ceded their lands Alabama Territory to the Federal Government. The United States then transferred most of the land ceded by the Chickasaw to settlers who had squatted the southwest section of Madison County, Alabama. The Cherokee Nation had ceded the same land to the United States by treaty in 1806. In 1818, before Alabama became a state the Toney clan had acquired about of land from the federal government.
Harris Toney and his family of Powhatan Indian slaves incorporated the town of Triana, Alabama in 1819. Today Triana is recognized as the oldest incorporated town in America that was founded by multi-culture people, sometimes called tri-racial isolates. From Triana, for more than a century Chickasaw, Cherokee and Powhatan Indian descendants inter-mixed with African and European descendants to create one of the largest unincorporated multi-culture settlements in Alabama. The settlements were tightly clustered geographically and became more strongly based on a network of close kinship that spanned thousands of acres over 100 sq. miles before Federal displacement. This group, became monitored by the state of Alabama, beginning with the 1870 census which first documented the mulatto population and suspected polygamy in the settlements. After the Civil War slavery became illegal in America, slave descendants acquired land from white parents and grandparents who had traditionally shielded blood descendants from the slave laws of Alabama. Both the Cherokee and the United States violated all Treaties signed between 1806 and 1835, however most families living in the Cherokee Nation of Madison County, Alabama were allowed to become citizens of the State. The Cherokee Treaty of 1835 allowed Families of the Cherokee Nation living in Alabama to become citizens of the State of Alabama, but many descendants of Cherokee slaves did not enjoy true freedom until the end of the Civil War, however they are as recognized as Cherokee families and protected by Treaties enforced by the United States. The Powhatan-Toney segment of the old Cherokee Nation evolved under a section of Article 12 in the Cherokee Treaty of 1835.
In 1838 Despite the policy of removal of Southeastern Indians to Oklahoma, families that owned Black Indian slaves in the Mason Ridge, Toney and Triana Alabama community which had assisted the United States by providing essential services, including securing commerce on Indian Creek Canal and the Tennessee River from Huntsville to Decatur, were allowed to retain Indian slaves and the land acquired from the United States during the creation of the Alabama Territory from 1806 to 1818.
Harris Toney and his family also founded and settled Toney, Alabama. Cherokee and Chickasaw Indians who refused to migrate west found refuge in the Toney Community after the Indian Treaties of the early 1800's, the native families intermarried with each other so that a distinct group emerged. This group, which became monitored by the State of Alabama, was distinguished from blacks, whites and the other mixed-race descendents in the area, Toney Cherokee Indian descendants are called the Echota Cherokee by the State of Alabama. The Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama is a state recognized tribe. The Echota Cherokee segment of the old Cherokee Nation evolved under a section of Article 12 in the Cherokee Treaty of 1835.
20th Century
In the 20th century, there was an attempt by Huntsville and Alabama politicians to break up Alabama's largest multi-culture community, their target was a 57-square-mile (150 km2) area on rolling terrain (Redstone Arsenal), which contained some of the richest agricultural land in Madison County, comprised such small farming communities as Spring Hill, Pond Beat, Mullins Flat, and Union Hill. Cotton, corn, hay, livestock, and various fruits and vegetables were the primary agricultural products cultivated by our people. Although there was no electricity, indoor plumbing, or telephones; few roads; and fewer cars or tractors, the mixed-race community of whites, Native Americans and former slaves prospered enough to support stores, a post office, boarding houses, mills, shops, gins, churches, and schools.
A number of actions were taken by our community and the US Federal Government between 1930 and 1941 to improve community conditions, including the transfer of thousands of acres to the Federal Government for the creation of TVA reservoirs within our community. Families who lived in the Triana, Mason Ridge and Decatur area began negotiations with the federal Government to create a reservation that would overlay part of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) reservoir system in Limestone, Madison and Morgan Counties. In 1938, the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge was established by Executive Order of President Roosevelt and became the first National Wildlife Refuge to be overlain on a multi-purpose reservoir. This was a new concept and was looked at by many to see if the project would indeed be successful.
The Siebert Arsenal Project involved negotiations with 550 families that lived in Green Grove, McDonnell and Triana sub-divided sections of Madison County. The Huntsville section was not part of the Siebert Arsenal Project. Huntsville and Alabama Politicians lobbied Federal Officials to rename Siebert Arsenal to Huntsville Arsenal. The displaced families were outraged with the name change and lobbied Federal officials to change the name from Huntsville, to better reflect the legacy of the county sections historically associated with the location. The Huntsville Arsenal closed at the end of World War Two and was offered for sale, displaced landowners tried without success to purchase land they once owned back from the Federal Government. In 1943 the military Reservation was renamed Redstone Arsenal. Redstone Arsenal was established to develop and test rockets and missiles and has played a vital role in our nation's space program, rocket programs and National Security.
It was not legal for an American Indian to live in the state of Alabama until 1969. In 1941, of land where the Powhatan-Toney tribe lived in the Spring Hill and Pond Beat community was classified as property that was needed in the interest of National Security. Unknown to those who sought to erase the legacy of our people, our intellectually defined Indian sacred burial ground named Powhatan-Toney would by law become a historic location in trust to the United States to be preserved forever. Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge document the transfer of the and the National Security classification separate from the original Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge purchase. The Powhatan-Toney burial ground is located in Madison County, on Wheeler refuge within the Redstone Arsenal boundary, about of the is administered by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, the location is associated with five National Historic Places related to space exploration, according to NASA and the Department of Interior.
Powhatan-Toney Legacy
From Virginia, Powhatan and Toney clans migrated to Alabama and Arkansas. Levi Toney, born in Alabama founded the Toney Cemetery one of the oldest burial grounds in the Cherokee Nation.
Enas E. Ragland is the Principal Tribal leader of the Powhatan-Toney Tribe of Triana, Alabama. The Ragland's and mulatto descendants of John Ross which refused to migrate west during the Trail of Tears, lived in the same house in 1870, according to tribal legend, the census and post office. The Powhatan-Toney Tribe has a spiritual, governmental and economic development network, each network operate independent of each other according to federal, state or tribal law.

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