1963/65 session laws – Ch.254 Sec.1

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CHAPTER 254 AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 71 OF THE GENERAL STATUTES RELATIVE TO THE HALIWA INDIANS OF HALIFAX AND WAR- REN COUNTIES. WHEREAS, many of the Indians now living in Halifax, Warren and adjoining counties are descendants of a once large and prosperous tribe which occupied lands along the Roanoke River at the time of the earliest white settlements in the Roanoke River Valley; and WHEREAS, according to historical sources, when early colonists from coastal Virginia and North Carolina extended their colonization into that portion of the Roanoke River Valley country now designated as Halifax and Warren Counties, they found certain forbears of these Indians already well established there, a distinctive people living in settled towns and communities, in permanent family dwellings similar to European type residences, with some owning slaves, tending domesticated livestock, tilling the soil, and practicing many of the arts and crafts of European civiliza- tion; and WHEREAS, by tribal legend supported by distinctive appearance and features, manner of speech, and by the frequent recurrence among the tribal members of family names of English and European origin, similar to family names found in the rosters of earlier English settlements or at- tempted settlements, these Indians may and with considerable reason do trace their origin to certain coastal Indian tribes; and WHEREAS, evidences that these Indians populated this section have been found through exploratory and scientific operations and research in the Roanoke River Valley, and in the discovery of ceremonial Indian burial mounds; and WHEREAS, these people are naturally and understandably proud of their heritage and are desirous of confirming their social and ethnic identity and preserving their racial history: Now, therefore, The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact: