In the spring of 1976, as Bikecentennial riders began to cross the United States on two wheels, a very different procession began a similar journey from the Pacific Coast to the eastern United States. The Trail of Self-Determination was an attempt by American Indian activists to call attention to more than two hundred years of broken promises by the United States government. The 1976 Trail was inspired by several years of activism by the American Indian Movement, founded in the late 1960s to advocate for the rights of indigenous people. The juxtaposition of these two transcontinental trips in 1976, one a recreational tour celebrating two hundred years of American independence and the other a political campaign calling attention to two hundred years of violence, displacement, and oppression, provides an important perspective on this exploration of Virginia history along Route 76. While the Trail of Self-Determination did not cross Virginia, the issues highlighted by this political movement are particularly relevant to the history of Native Americans in the Appalachian region. Exploring this complicated history is particularly timely as the United States looks ahead to the commemoration of 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776.
Welcome to episode 30 of the Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast. This episode is connected to Breaks Interstate Park, the starting point for eastbound riders in Virginia, and about 550 miles from Yorktown, where westbound riders begin their journey. This podcast is a production of Virginia Tech, a public land grant university located in Blacksburg, just three miles from Route 76 in southwest Virginia. I am your host, Tom Ewing, and this podcast is produced by the digital humanities program in Virginia Tech University Libraries, under the direction of media manager Joe Forte.
A historical sign in Breaks Interstate Park with the title, “Early Settlement,” begins with a paragraph about Native Americans. For 10,000 years, the sign reads, Native Americans hunted and foraged in the area now encompassed by Breaks Interstate Park. Cherokee communities to the south and Shawnee to the north both followed trails along the creeks, over the ridges, and down into the canyons. European explorers and hunters reached the area by 1750, but it was another sixty years before the first white settlement was established in the Russell Fork Basin. Much like the Native Americans already in the region, the sign explains, white settlers hunted, grew crops such as corn, and engaged in small-scale trade. Within a few decades, more permanent cabins were established by these homesteading families. The historical sign ends with this statement: “The Cherokee and Shawnee tribes retreated to their homelands, leaving their historic hunting lands to the oncoming wave of families and settlers from the east, eager to make new lives in the Appalachian Mountains.”
A different narrative is captured in a historical marker, titled “Indian and Settler Conflict,” located about ten miles south of Breaks Interstate Park, along Route 76 in the town of Haysi. This marker tells the story of David and Annie Musick, English colonists who settled in this valley about the time of the American revolution. In August 1792, about a decade after the United States came into existence, David was killed when his home was attacked by Native Americans. Annie and five children were captured and taken twenty miles to the west towards Russell Fork. An armed group of white settlers was mobilized to attack the Native Americans, and the Musick family members escaped. The historical marker ends with the statement: “During the skirmish one Indian was killed and another was wounded. The reminder retreated westward.”
These two signs are illustrative of a particular narrative of Native American history before and during the early stages of white conquest and colonization. The first sign provides a sweeping history of Native Americans in Appalachia, and ends with “waves” of white settlers displacing the indigenous population. The second sign recounts a violent encounter between Native Americans and white settlers, leaving one dead on each side, and also ends with the removal of the indigenous population. In both cases, the history of Native Americans appears to end with white settlement, as indigenous populations seemingly disappear from this region of the country.
This narrative of erasure is accurate to the extent that the history of Native Americans in Appalachia involves the forced removal of indigenous populations. For thousands of years, the mountains in western Virginia and adjoining territories were home to indigenous people, who used the ample resources of the forests, valleys, ridges, and waterways to sustain their communities. The natural environment of steep hillsides, narrow valleys, and rocky soil was not conducive to large scale settlements, so the populations in this region lived in scattered communities, primarily along rivers and streams. Hunting and trading routes along valleys and through gaps in the mountains connected Appalachia to more populous regions, particularly towards the coast and into the flatter regions toward the Ohio River.
During the two centuries that followed the first English settlement in Jamestown, most of the Native American communities in Appalachia were forced away from their historical lands. Some tribes moved westward to avoid coming into conflict with explorers, hunters, and traders whose expeditions followed the same routes along rivers, through valleys, and over ridges already established by indigenous populations. More violent interactions, such as the one described earlier, usually resulted in the same outcomes, as the indigenous populations were coerced into leaving the territory. As European settlements became more widespread and more permanent, the displacement of Native Americans became the general rule. At times, conflicts between European powers, such as the Seven Years War between English and French empires in the Americas, or the American revolution, which pitted English colonists against English colonial authorities, created a space for Native American leaders to make alliances that provided some temporary relief. Once the United States government was established, however, that strategy was no longer an option, and the leaders of Native American tribes and most of their communities moved westward, where any temporary distance from European settlement was always curtailed by continuous western expansion.
This narrative of displacement and loss was echoed in aspects of American popular culture in the twentieth century which ignored structures of political disenfranchisement and social marginalization to silence or exclude the voices of indigenous people. The American Indian Movement of the late 1960s emerged in part to challenge this narrative of United States history. Following the model set by the civil rights and women’s movements, the American Indian Movement sought to mobilize supporters to challenge institutions that perpetuated, justified, and imposed the vulnerable and marginal position of the Native American population.
The American Indian Movement attracted the most public attention by confrontational tactics, such as the occupation of abandoned federal property, protests against holiday ceremonies, and the takeover of government offices. Federal law enforcement agencies targeted the leaders of the American Indian Movement, leading to a violent siege and the two deaths at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1973. Much like the confrontational measures adopted by the civil rights movement, these efforts provoked criticism by moderates urging patience, but leaders argued that direct action was necessary to bring these systemic inequalities to the attention of policy-makers as well as the public.
As the nation began to prepare for the Bicentennial in 1976, Native American representatives were only belatedly and partially invited to contribute to these efforts. The attitude of many Native Americans was expressed in a striking print by artist M. Diaz, with a profile of a man wearing a feather headdress over the caption: “The white man made us many promises. But only kept one and that promise was to take our land away and they took it.”
Early in the summer of 1976, the American Indian Movement organized the Trail of Self-Determination as a public demonstration of the need for urgent social changes. The Trail organizers adopted the twenty point program of the American Indian Movement, which included economic self-determination, land use rights, control of natural resources, and greater sovereignty over tribal lands. The march began near the Yakima Nation in the state of Washington and ended in the nation’s capital, Washington DC. More than three hundred protestors gathered in front of the White House on July 4, 1776, demanding a meeting with President Ford, which was not granted. Some protestors gathered in front of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the site of an attempted occupation four years earlier. The Secretary of the Interior closed the building and ordered federal agents to clear the surrounding area. More than fifty peaceful protestors were arrested by this action.
The American Indian Movement and other similar organizations inspired more sustained efforts which have brought more substantive outcomes. For centuries before European conquest, Monacan tribes in Virginia looked to Rassawek as the center for political and spiritual life. Located at the meeting point of Rivannah and James Rivers, northwest of Richmond, Rassawek is just about fifteen miles south of the closest point along Route 76. Archaeological records indicate that this settlement was continuously occupied for thousands of years. Although the village was still inhabited when the first English colonists began to explore along the James River, the site was soon abandoned as Native Americans moved away from encroaching white settlers. By the early seventeenth century, this site became part of a large plantation worked by enslaved Africans. The site remained private property for the subsequent two centuries, with limited public awareness of the historical significance of the location. In the 1980s, industrial construction revealed graves of ancestral people in Rassawek, leading to renewed efforts to recognize the historical and spiritual meaning of this location.
About a decade ago, regional governments announced plans to build a water pumping station directly on this historical site. As local communities mobilized against this project, the Monacan Indian Nation received federal recognition, which meant that the tribal government was legally obligated to be consulted about potential impacts on the site. After years of protests, litigation, and appeals to federal, state, and local governments, the decision was made to find an alternative location for the pumping station, thus ensuring that this historic site would be preserved for future generations.
Looking ahead to 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, efforts are underway to tell a more complicated history of Native Americans. The organizing committee America 250 offered a promise that illustrates the remarkable change in perceptions of Native America’s place in United States history: “We will celebrate the beautiful history of American Indians over thousands of years and confront the brutal echoes of their treatment throughout much of our nation’s history.” This commitment is different from the message conveyed a half century ago, as it addresses systemic oppression within America’s history while also highlighting the achievements and resilience of Native American communities during this same period.
This shift is even more visible in a recent statement from Stephen Adkins, Chief of the Chickahominy Indian Tribe and Chair of the Tribal Nations Leadership Advisory council for Virginia 250. In remarks in anticipation of 2026, Chief Adkins contrasted the broken promises to Native Americans over four centuries with the aspirational promise of the right to liberty expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Over the subsequent two centuries, the voices of Native Americans were silenced and their history was relegated to footnotes in narratives dominated by colonizers. America’s 250th anniversary, according to Chief Adkins, is a platform for Native Americans to reclaim the narrative and tell stories of resilience and resistance as part of a more inclusive history. The celebrations in 2026, Chief Adkins concludes, are an opportunity to tell more complicated and complete stories in ways that fulfill the potential of America’s founding documents — the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by all.
The Bike 76 VA podcast seeks to fulfill this promise by telling stories of Virginia that recognize the depth and complexity of the histories along the Transamerica Bicycle Route. Drawing inspiration from movements for equality and justice, such as those which inspired the Trail of Self-Determination in 1976, each episode connects a location along the route to broader themes that have emerged over five hundred years of history. This podcast will succeed to the extent that these episodes fulfill Chief Adkins’ call for histories which create a more empathetic public, establish meaningful partnerships, and contribute to a more just and equitable future.
You have been listening to episode 30 of the Virginia Bikecentennial Route 76 Podcast. This episode is connected to Breaks Interstate Park, the starting point for eastbound riders in Virginia, and about 550 miles from Yorktown, where westbound riders begin their journey. This podcast is a production of Virginia Tech, a public land grant university located in Blacksburg, just three miles from Route 76 in southwest Virginia. I am your host, Tom Ewing, and this podcast is produced by the digital humanities program in Virginia Tech University Libraries, under the direction of media manager Joe Forte. To learn more about the stories in this episode, visit our website or follow us on social media, all accessible for the homepage for this podcast.
