Truckin' on the Western Branch

In 1850 Joseph and Elizabeth Bright, along with other members of the tribe, built a small church, now Indiana United Methodist, and a small schoolhouse for their children on land the Brights owned in Bowers Hill. A memorial plaque marks the site of the early school although it remained open only ten years. Methodist missionaries took on the task of teaching the young Nansemonds. Several suspicious fires took down the schools over the years though the church remains untouched. After the second school was destroyed, classes were conducted in the church. Elizabeth Bright later deeded the land over to the Methodist Church, who currently owns the land. Even today jonquils bloom each year around the original foundation of the school. In 2007 Randy Turner of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources conducted an archeological dig on the site. The only thing found was a grate from the old wood stove. When Turner commented on how little was found, one of the volunteer diggers noted that since the people had very little, it is unlikely they had anything to lose. Many of the Nansemonds are buried on the old farm where Running Deer’s daughter now lives. Another small group of graves, now overgrown and inaccessible, of Joseph Bright and Sylvester, his son, and other Bright kin, is on the property of the Norfolk County Rifle Range across the road from the old church. Many of the tribe lived just down the street from one another, members keeping an eye on one another. Most were farmers, though many worked in various jobs in the surrounding cities. Some were still required to ride in the back of the bus with other people of color, even though their skin was as white as other white people, but the knowledge of who they were followed them. Some even moved away and denied their racial heritage. Bright said she was always upset by the white people who referred to her people as “swamp niggers.” Such were the times. In 1891 James Mooney, an anthropologist from the Smithsonian, visited the Nansemonds, and his notes list many of the tribal members—Bass, Bright, Weaver, White, Price, and many others. Though they were not formed as a tribe as such, they resembled a large family organization, numbering in the hundreds with many of them members of the church. Today, some of these families are still active members of Indiana Methodist. Just off Galberry Road is a private road, Bass Lane, where many of the current Bass tribal members, including the chief, live. Since the early 1900s, however, younger members married into the outside community and sought jobs in During a 1960 interview, Sabry Bright White, granddaughter of Joseph Bright (and my great-great aunt), talked about Indian life in Joseph’s time.

Chief Barry Bass with a bronze of his grandfather Chief “Running Deer” Earl Bass. Image by Sheally

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