and mediacom we believe with you if your are right here will weigh up the middle of anywhere you should have access to fast reliable internet. >> i'm don mceachin and i represent virginia's tough district. virginia is home to so many sites e of historical significae

to our state and nation. we must ensure their preservation for future generations so they can learn about our history and experience these wonderful areas first-hand. among the many important sites in our state is a great dismal swamp in the hampton roads region of my district. and chris is on the skull with us, chris lowie and doing a great job of keeping it going. i think about the great dismal swamp because while it's great it's not nearly 2 million acres that it used to be rates about one 10th and allegedly while it's a swamp it doesn't look like a swamp as you think about it nor is a dismal. they are doing a great job of tkeeping it up and keeping it vibrant and i couldn't be more proud of it. we may not know is the great

dismal swamp is refuge to generation of african-americans and indigenous populations toel create a self-sustaining community away from. the swamp served as an economic commerce between populations formerly indentured african-american communities and those who were escaping slavery. the activity between these communities the great dismal swamp contains heavy concentrations of important culturalgical and artifacts. you didn't know this either digit? the swamp is one of the only known stops on the underground burrow the underground burrow wrote those fleeing slavery would would use a swamp for cover as they traveled north to freedom. there's a historical cultural and environmental value in the region of the must do everything we can to protect it. despite the importance of the

swamp it continues to be threatened and as i said the swamp covered more than 1 million acres across virginia virginia and health care lan and today at the 10th of the size due in large part to overdevelopment c as well as climate change and sealevel rise. the great dismal swamp should be a concern for everyone not just those of us who call it home. the great dismal swampe has a unique and fragile ecosystem and a wide array of rare animals plants animal species and plays a vital role in the continued litigation of the crisis. it assists in the fight against climate crisis that absorbs gases in the atmosphere that tend to driver global stemperatures. the great dismal swamp is vileno nation's history to ensure alt

healthy future for the next generation. that's why i am proud to bring it preservation of since i've come to congress. i've spread to leave many delegations to the feasibility of designating the great dismal swamp as a national heritage area. this legislation is an important first step in the fight to conserve in burmafe to resources will and wildlife of this region. not only is it a designation to preserve integrity will help stimulate the commonwealth economy through local economic activity. i've also had the privilege and opportunity through a funding request to help the preparations committee before the house and

the inclusion of the upcoming appropriations process. please keep your fingers crossed we would like to get help for the region. this funding request would provide the city of chesapeake with the resources it needs to preserve the one of the oldest african-american schools in the region. i want to salute and commendd preservation virginia for shining a light on the importance of the importance of the school and including it on the list of one of the most endangered historical sites in our area. the great dismal swamp other nations great treasures in the fight for its preservation continues with it like this to my thanks to preservation virginia and the virginia department of historical resources for their continued efforts to protect endangered

sites throughout the commonwealth and please know that i'm your partner and your colleague whenever and wherever you need me. i will continue advocating at the federal level for conservation and look for tour continued collaboration to protect this incredible region to thank you for t allowing me o join you today to i'm sorry business workers to jump off the call and i hope you have a wonderful conversation and know we are only a phonecall away. god bless you. thank you so much representative mceachin for being with us todaa and for all you are doing. take care. >> take care. >> it's not an easy job but is imagined reservations conservationiststs are increasingly recognizing the important connection between resources and our natural resources. conservation easements national

heritage aired -- areas are some of the tools to advance these efforts and we have the suburb panel to talk more about national heritage aired she with a focus on their recent interest in creating an nha national heritage area for a big -- the great dismal swamp as you heard congressman don mceachin talk about. in addition or panel member said like to point out we have two h.r. staff with us and they will be on a webinar to answer any questions you might have in the talk. one quick housekeeping note, speakingt of questions we will take questions at the end if we haveo time soup please put them in a q&a. if we don't get you in today because we have a number of excellent speakers will be sure to get back to you. with that let's turn to or panel

members and not introduce them one at a time and i'm sure we will have questions at the end. first up at like to introduce janet hearst who joined and is now the director of media operations and education. janet receives the interpretation preservation and general operational details in the portfolio and these properties in six of the properties are open to the qpublic including scotch town that john marshall house smith's ford and the cape henry white house. come and visit. she will briefly share information about these historic sites. jen. >> thank you.

i know most all of this panel is going to t be talking about the great dismal swamp. before we get to that i'm just going to be talking about some of t the ways preservation of historic sites are utilizing our open space and the land around it. a brief overview of some of the projects we are involved in prudham going to go ahead. >> let's see. there we go. t okay. the first site that we will dive into is going to be scotch town. this is a great aerial shot of

the property and next to this i have a map of what was drawn up in the 60s i believe, 63 and it upside down in an orientation the site that i did want to point out that at this point it's in the process of developing a master plan for the reentire property and were not specifically focused on the stark structures that the way we integrate the landscape for all who visit from the public. so we owned about 23 acres around the town. historically we have only been in the archaeology area -- so we have so much archaeology and so much work to do and so much that

remains uncovered. we know from historical records there were orders on the property. that is the goal of ours and we also want to make sure that we are working with representatives to have a better understanding of how this land was used prior to when the original land was designated land. ati'm going to give you an overview of what it looks like. it still undergoing lots of research and we are utilizing in many different ways as we possiblys can and this is really through partnerships. everything that i will be talking about in the rest of my time this all about ownership. i think that's the only way we

can possibly move forward. so partnering with local groups who utilize livestock partnering with the great national -- naturalization to develop learning gardens and with local entrepreneurial businesses. those are very traditional ways of using the landscape that we have. then we will move on to this great aerial shot of the property corresponding with an older map. it's in the same situation. we have 40 acres of property and we are looking forward to developing a master plan that will help us develop a plan to

integrate all of that landscape with the historic fabric that is in this. and so archaeology is a major factor in how this is going to play out. we are fortunate that we have this farmland and forest through the four centuries that the structure of's castle has existed. the original was in 1965 and pretty much in an agricultural peace ever since. one of the products we are working on in collaboration with the state park is a historic road. the plan is to reopen the

3.5-mile road trail that would go from bacon's castle in addition to thisot aerial shot u can see the james river. this gives you an idea that bacon's castle is not built on the water. there's a creek and any navigable channels with to go to the deeper river. so we are working with landowners to see if we can reopen the property up to horse trails. so definitely a partnership. moving onto another historic way of smith's ford.

smith's ford has a house built in the 18 50's but it comes from overlooking a creek. he became part of the john smith water trail and in the right-hand corner you can see commemorating this event taking place. we have a walking trail that goes from smith's fort and other ways that we utilize the property to local landowner has

our property for several years which is a great way for people to see it. omoving on the cape henry is located on active military base and we have worked in partnership with the military and also the national parks for a memorial park site. our interpreters provide a walking tour that takes people through different areas as you can see on the bottom right hand corner. there's a world war ii era mining casement built into the lighthouse and working with the joint expeditionary we have been able to utilize that space with our interpreters to include that

area and really to get an idea of how this cape henry area was used over the past years. in the last project i want to talk about is coming up next week. the john marshall house in richmond virginia has the least amount of property out with all of the great sites. and so there's not much landscape and smack dab in the middle of downtown richmond however the freedom constellation project is taking place next week where knight and marshall street -- 910 marshall street presenters are presenting a project to work towards ending

juvenile incarceration. this project is in partnership with the mayor's office and the marshall house it is an augmented reality project. they w are working with landscas and you can download it and you'll be able to see it come to life. it will go up into the sky and the clouds. this is very much a partnership but it's really a great way to to -- the chief justice john marshall. that's just as quick sampling of some of the ways we are using it. >> thank you jen. panel we will hear from

elizabeth vehmeyer with the national park service in d.c. along with administering the technical assistance to 55 of these areas and 34 sites. eshe is also working, sorry although technical issue here. along with 55 of these areas and 34 states the program provides technical assistance from the capability study process. she has also worked as an archaeologist specialist with the national park service and the american protection program. elizabeth. thanks chuck and i want to say thank you to preservation

virginia and i'me happy to be here but i'm going to give an overview of the national heritage area program and where the national heritage areas are and a little bit about what they do that benefits the heritage areas and a little bit about how their designated in the process. first what our national heritage areas? the quick answer is they areby large landscapes of national importance and designated by congress. heritage areas are both a place and an organizational model for conservation and preservation efforts. the organizing model which is done through a local management is at the grassroots level. it's a community-based decision-making model on

interdisciplinary approaches programs and projects. a management entity or what we call local coronation as busy by the legislation that creates the heritage area and those entities can be nonprofit state or local government academic institutions are federal commissions. in the legislation that creates the heritage areas the management entity along with partnership with the federal government is recreation cultural and historicst research preservation education and the last one which isn't sometimes always noted in the legislation by the direct byproduct of the other processes of the national heritage areas as economic development of that region. many activities address multiple conservation strategies more than one single project while

these are looked at separately ladder programs designed them and i can give more examples later on. in general this is a broad approach for a larger landscape and it sometimes can cultivate new ways of seeing and learning from landscapes on resources and is at the forefront of people. where are they? the nha's are not only in organizing model but also a place. as tripp mentioned there different sized heritage areas across 34 states in the country. you can tell from this map if they vary in size but in general care and strategic a semblance of resources that allows an important interplay to tell a story through the landscape and its features. they aree usually nationally distinctive land sites meaning

this is a place, the best place to tell the story in america. and they can represent different areas and different elements of our story in america and that could be industry, events or a people or persons. some examples in terms of telling a story of industry and how industry played out across the landscape including motor city national heritage area in michiganan rivers is still national heritage area in the pittsburgh area of pennsylvania or silos and smokestacks national heritage arean in iowa for agricultural industries and then youou have events or trends in our history and that can

relate to transportation so we have a bunch of canal systems that are part of the heritage area program. we also have the first designate heritage area was in illinois and michigan canal being the great lakes to the mississippi. then we also have a people or persons abraham lincoln national heritage area in illinois and how his life was changed by that area and then we also have the cultural heritage corridor along the coast from north carolinaa o florida and hope that landscape interacted and influenced them. i encourage anyone to go to a web site and check out the maps and you can see how your life

may the director with heritage areas across the country. maybe you benefited from some of the programs. what did they actually do and how did they make their legislation mandating congress. it really is a model of cost-effective way to preserve thesecr important natural histoc resources and it's their accretion of workinghi partnerships. the expand upon traditional conservation approaches within a large scale approach community driven the grassroots level. projects are developed and carried out at the same time that grassroots local effort the connection is clear with the missions of the park service in furthering that mission in landscapes and the park service

boundaries and part of that is making t those connections to other sites so they don't own and manage themselves and it tells a larger story of heritage and some of that is their expanding upon underrepresented at committees and telling stories that haven't been told previously. making connections and partnerships a with groups that haven't had an opportunity to tell their story and giving them a platform and a space. heritage areas are usually providing sub grants as a way to help them network at that local level to connect to carry out certain projects likee water quality preservation etc. today wanted to point out the heritage areas that are locatedlo in virginia and you may be familiar with them. oh they are heritage area and

now i understand what they do so you get a sense of how heritage areas operate across the country. one journey in the hollowed grounds i and the national histy me which is happening right now through summer program for middle school and high school students and switching to a virtual last year we are were able to make that switch in this year they are doing commercial programming.nd there's the shenandoah national historic district which despite its name is part of the program in general. and they carry out battlefield interpretations like the winchester battlefield signage walking towards an event such as research sharing events. there's some confusion because they are part of the park

service. i just want to be clear they do not become units of the park service and nha but i did want to point on on the right photo to give an example of how federal land is connected to the heritage area. this is muscle muscle shoals in the national heritage area in northern alabama and there is a wildlife refuge on the founders of the heritage area the wildlife refuge. the heritage area works with the wildlife refuge. when they were doing or planning and how they can provide interpretation about the thames river. they were active in the planning andnn understanding how it can e expanded. heritage area designation does

not impact private property rights meaning there aren't regulations meaning people can or can't do certain things with their properties. that's not part of what nha's earned that does notli require public access. it's all volunteering if you want to work with the heritage entity to provide public access to your private property bar work on other projects that may come down the pike it it's not required is voluntary. i will mention they don't operate from a top-down and by that i mean then park service isn't dictating and we are there every day managing what happens. really it's how we work with them and what assistance they may need from us. how does the park service play into what we actually do?

where part of the public side of the public-private partnership created through designation of the heritage area and they think partly because their other public entities and other federalag agencies that come ino play with partnership such as a wildlife refuge. they are required to do a management plan when they first designated and we can offer technical assistance across the park service and not just any program. other park service staff members who are experts in education as well as resource preservation and connected conservation approach for this funding assistance is provided to the heritage areas and to program staff manages those two agreements and that funding. the funding is to develop and

implement the management plan to help them carry out their activities and actions noted in a planned. lastly we conduct evaluation of heritage areas to assess accomplishments in fulfilling their legislation implementing their management plan in federal funding. i'm not going to resolve this but i want to point out some benefit just heritage areas.he these are staff and the program gathers to understand how they are using their funds in supporting the communities and what networks they are partnering with at the local level and as i noted in conservation and recreation preservation education, how are they carrying out the projects. i'll point out one example here in the national heritage area in colorado.

they have been working on the here at the harris mill site which is where they were processing gold or. the mill site dates back to 1874 enlisted in the registrar and the area partnered with the preservation office there and applied apply for a grant to them to do a rehabilitation multiyearn project on the site and here at the picture of missionary work on one of the walls. it's hands-on preservation that the heritage areas not emboldened by the heritage area invested $40,000 was able to leverage up to $200,000 in price match so delivered some of that federal funding.

next another example. can see recreation and conservation and moree of an educational scope and telling stories that may not have been told before. south carolina national heritage quarter parted with the barbados foundation and they wanted to raise awareness of connections in south south carolina and barbados so they put on special eventsts and programs to encoure coronation of sites across the south carolina landscape. existing heritage heritage areas than what they are tasked to do and how they are carrying out those tasks but how do you become a heritage area is a legislative process. that means you go through hearing any due. mark-ups and

have a boat and signed by the president. it's a really congressional act however the park service recommends that we -- before becoming a heritage area but one is a feasibility study and that involves promoting public involvement in the planning for that and demonstrating involvement just not articulating it but more of a widespread community involvement in this effort and commitment from stakeholders that play a part in helping create this network of the public-private partnership itself in order to make it successful. the feasibility study may be some of you are familiar with the research study when the park service unit is -- but to assess the feasibility of an area

becoming a heritage area. the process to engage local people and organizations in discussing their future of their resources and quality of life and of most discussions maybe a heritage areas one option for meeting goals of that community and maybe helping them decide that the route they want to take to l best carry out what we want to do for community at the local level so feasibility study is done. documenting the national important resources in the area and those resources can be tangible or intangible but it's really trying to get the community to think about what's important and what's underutilized and how we can promote something that isn't there right now. also we look at who's going to be involved over the long-term in the heritage areas and what opportunities can be created if the heritage -- heritage areas

designated and the last point here it's away to identify management funding and sustainability. so we'll talk about the management and business aspect of that entity. i would be remiss if i didn't mention the pollinator heritage areas. this is an example of how heritage areas themselves come together across the country and work so even though their individual they come together to work on larger product jacks under the program. this is one example on the right from the blackstone national heritage corridor ahead among island massachusetts. this was an effort to create a plan for polity -- pollinator gardens. it was historically a kitchen garden.

due to flooding of the pollutedy river there they didn't feel comfortable cooking food so they said it would be great for pollinator gardens so they were able to carry this project out. lastly i will note her feasibility studies initiated. they can be done by a local sponsorr conducted by local organizations today pay for themselves and they maybe get a nsfirm or consultant to help thm carry this out and in fact if that's the case the park service can offer technical experience in interpreting our guidelines, feasibility studies and the criteria for the area to the other route is by congress c of congress can log into the park service to conduct the study and a group of interdisciplinary folks in the park service would to do the study their two of

those studies that the park service is carrying out right now one is the finger lakes in upstate new york and the other is the wild plants and i provide web sites for you to look that up if you want more information on how that process i is going. there are multiple people in the program better here if you have further questions, myself and the washington office and the regional coordinators as part of the heritage area program. and samuel who is in the philadelphia office and is part of that region in our atlanta officeou. here's our web site and her instagram. thank you. >> thank you elizabeth. now we will go to chris lowie theag refuge manager at the the great dismal swamp wildlife

preservation. he began working here in 19 to nestande in virginia since 2001. and since 2007 has beenan the refuge manager at the the great dismal swamp national wildlife refuge. >> thank you chris. we are good to go. thank you. thank you for the opportunity and good afternoonungo everybod. i'm pleased to be part of this webinar on the national heritage areas and the great dismal swamp landscaped the greater area of the the great dismal swamp who

may fall into designations one day. just to give you some of the highlights of the refuge the refuge for wildlife and for people and many people know about natural resource significance of the -- the great dismal swamp and more more people are starting to learn about the culturalfi significane of the great dismal swamp so webinar spiked this are becoming more regular to tell the story of that significance. take a quick journey in some of these items as i mentioned earlier are 1 million acres covering over 2000 square miles. the north carolina dismal state

park and other designations around 2000 acres. and there's a dismal swamp state park with information there. it was established in 1974 under the great dismal swamp act and the purpose established by congress was to protect and preserve the unique and outstanding ecosystem and protect and perpetuate the diversity l of life therein. this is a very unique ecosystem for the secondary purpose is to promote a public program to provide public access for stewardship in the area. the refuge itself is

113,000 acres and the dismal swamp state park is about 15,000 acres. there are no roads and you cannot drive from one side north to south or east to west. enough to drive around it. the lake is the largest lake in the state of virginia and dear to natural lakes 3100 acres and you can see on satellite imagery. for those who do the necessary when you watch the weather hopefully gives you an idea. when wee talk about the people and the areas the great dismal swamp picture million acres with

lots of people a lot of history came through the great dismal swamp. the conference a conservation plan and expired this july but there's a new management plan for public comment. t the plan is for natural resources. it's natural resource protection and allowing public usage and that's all in this plan. these three things all come together. the natural the cultural and the

public use and stewardship. many people know about the natural resources. we have over 200 species of birds that have been identifiedr on the refuge and half of them them -- 90 species of butterflies, the largest high-density bear population in the state of virginia. so various array of wildlife amphibians in the environment so multitude of natural resources and rare endangered species as well. quickly when we talk about habitat management this is our community map that shows different historic sites. historically the swamp involved cypress.

it is now dominated by force that but we have a habitat management plan and we are working to conserve, restore and enhance it and had to be doing that? u.s. force manipulation whether it's select blogging ecological restoration. i didn't put the slide in there but we have 150 miles of roads that we inherited. it altered the swamp. it's drier and i won't go into those details. we are working through the hydrological restoration of re-wedding the swamp with the weapons which has a multitude of

benefits. .. is this some highlights about that again? these are the ancestral lands of a man's union side and the heron tribe. that lived off the land moved on the land and moved off the land. george washington came and 1763 saw it as a glorious paradise, but also an economic team are also in economic. the property for farming and also. runaway slaves. and this picture was conducted at least 13 years of

archaeological resources. thee areas historical marker this one here is a statewide taken along the road. these monuments are within the swamp. some were found during the wildfires we had about 10 years ago fighting wildfires along the way in. we have cemeteries along the railroads we do not even know all where they are. hurricane and matthew in 2016 exposed the railroad tracks that and ended up.

but that would've been collected by and cataloged. some are in museums on display and some are hosted on sites. [inaudible]th with that, some of the history was designated by the national park services railroad network of freedom. with information taken from those at work. and other documents that we have it. we are really proud of that. that was in addition to the park and were all designated. i believe from what we know we were the first in the country.

we talked about public use, again we need the public to understand the stewardship, and promote. we have multiple exit points. we have routes, water routes and we get about 75000 visitors a year. ensure that often times we went to find these sites. so again it is management challenge for us. i always bring all of this together with historic

preservation with national resource conservation. the way i can sum it up us every day at my staff and researchers are out onfi the left conductin. but like you say. all of that with our national service department preservation office. those projects. they analyze the potential impact. we submit an archaeological review.

but we have evolved the rated railroad. and there were even. they decided. and they're prepared to go. they have mitigationdi where necessary. the national preservation act. before i and i do want to thank congressman and elizabeth for the information they provided. for the federal agency we are in efforts i appreciate that in

informing everyone left an area going from the bottom up. it's about land space and were excited to be part of it. and for the collaborative and stakeholders. it comes l together and grateful to be a part ofth that. thank you. >> thank you so much chris. and now it is my pleasure to welcome nikki bass who is a tribal councilwoman.

from african and indigenous and european origin to survive in and around the swamp. we are very pleased to have her with us today. more history and our efforts to give new voice to unrepresentative narratives to her own family story. welcome. >> thank you comic-con of lindsey my slide? okay great productive start by acknowledging and welcoming our chief assistant chief anderson and also lee mitchell who joins us up. she is the environmental program manager and the three of them are members of our regional tribal community who work to preserve the environment, history and culture. i have a slide here showing the

logo for my website. it captures a lot about my story. i am a descendent of indigenous african american and european settlers in the united states. as you see here and featuring a woman her body is blended into a cypress tree has a migratory bird to me this represents my family's connection to the environment, our experience as l indigenous people being a born of the land and water. as well as our experience of people of color living through e enslavement. and then living through generations of being local as well as migrating to other locations for opportunity. i only have a little bit of time to everyone to read my site for more information.

so, going into our discussion of indigenous communities around the great dismal swamp i want to start they slide answering to use this a lot now. if you look at the agenda it says virginia indian history around the great dismal swamp. i want to scratch that and scratch everything we traditionally see about communities around the swamp. je background were made by outsiders looking in from a differentt language, culture, perspective of land, water and property. indigenous communities generally consider waterways the center of the tribal territory rather than a boundary. land in between waterways is shared for foraging, fishing and hunting. so with t that context it helpso understand why the swamp would stay still is a shared space between several significant

waterways for foraging fishing and hunting. it does not belong to virginia indians are north carolina indians. it's ancestral space that crosses over seeking communities like ours in the nation chesapeake, and also iroquois speaker. this is mostly 1733 map. you can access it online and it helps to see the community many are familiar with our settlements around the river. but we also had settlement on the other rivers and our history crosses the boundary of the state line. this is true for other tribal communities. we want people to understand tod develop this narrative and vision for the swamp and the preservation of its history and

culture. so looking at a timeline will go back to the 1600s are many people start as a written record start. languages were not written. most of our history is preserved orally the document you have to learn start from the 1600s with the arrival of settlers. and at that time comes displays many tribal communities from riverfront settlements for the swamp the colonists were had a great lifestyle. they wonder good farmland. i was a lead not around the swamp. for business people we moved in that direction because we had a history of surviving the swamp. we are familiar with foraging and hunting there. we viewed it as a slave safe and place a refuse to preserve our life's own community as we are being displaced. throughout the 1700s tribes like

ours shared interpreters unaligned a politically against encroachment. an indigenous people also experience enslavement and werea subjected to a lot of the same oppressive laws that were developed to control all people of color. i encourage anyone saying the history of the swamp to study the laws. because the laws of forced people into the structures we ended up in. by the 1800s many indigenous families were mixed and history, living in communities there is strong intermarriage and preservation of our culture and tradition. i wanted to show this timeline. as it started out i am a descendent of all three groups w that form the story around the swamp. i want to emphasize the importance of remembering life

before enslavement as well as life after enslavement. there is so much focus on the rich history and underground railroad i will get into some examples of that within my own family. it is so critical to maintain a perspective of the whole story so we don't limit the value of the swamp to one. time. i also want to emphasize again the intertribal history. he indigenous history. this is not a place they were just indigenous people living alone, just african americans living in the swamp alone are just european settlers. as a space bar communities have formed relationships and formed resilience together within the environment.lk and as we talk about envisioning a heritage area i want to showhi the importance of having

indigenous leadership in that effort. early in a presentation we talked about how it national heritage area are historic culture natural resources combined for important enslavement. the indigenous communities in the area around the great dismal's bob are linkages between history, culture the environment i've identified soma things we preserve is part of af our culture. plants and wildlife that were used as traditional knowledge cooking and culinary tradition, our languages and storytelling this incredible folklore around the great dismal swamp i've tried to capture in my website. i brought them out here there are books and books you can get on the folklore of the swamp which is a lot of indigenous as well as stories shared by others in people who brave the

conditions within the swamp. so storytelling is extremely important. and again focusing on her songs, our dances, and the intertribal relationships and trade routes around the swamp. i'm so another important reason to include the indigenous community we have decades of experience engage in the public and cultural community activity. things we have done we have created these are the traditional homes for members of the public to see and walk-through. we have had a reenactment spaces on her tribal ground which is located on the northwestern border of the great dismal swamp. there is an image here of traditional church site at

indiana united methodist church. that was also the location of the indian public school. i've actually worked with virginia and mark wagnon who is on the call here to nominate this site to the national register of historic places. we are hopeful that in the future if we are able to form an national heritage area we can put some of the sites on a trail for people to experience. not just the wilderness and wonder within the swamp but the culture in experiences of communities that lived around the swamp really live in and out. i have an imageak there we haven the tribal grounds were building a floating dock for people to have more water experiences. i also love kayaking on the swamp canal. then there is the image of our powwow. we have had more than 30 years of our powwow i've had people come help learn about our

culture. these are some examples of existing activities that we have that could be built into a national heritage area and elaborated upon for more community connection. and then just going to examples within my family of stories that can be built up to help the public and community learn. this is a series of images about one of my ancestors. he was born enslaved on the southeastern order of the great dismal swamp. twenty-nine members of our family through the swamp and escape from their plantation to north folk where he actually joined the union army, fought in the civil war for his own freedom and the freedom of his family. ended up returning back to his community. living next door to his former slave owner and forming a legacy of leadership. that was such an inspiration within my family then he was

born in the early 1800s but the second photo is another one of my ancestors named after him. the third photo is my grandfather's brother who was also named after him. so we have these incredible stories of survival, of people who use the swamp to escape to freedom. but they did not just disappear i've heard a lot of discussion about maroon communities i feell concerned the story stopsan the. every everyone to understand the story did not stop there. the stories continue there are families that have developed into symbols of leadership not just resilience and accomplishment we have w people who have become farmers, teachers, doctors, astronauts. it is incredible to look out what type of people have grown

out of this community. i also have examples of stories in my family who escaped through the swamp built legacies and other states approved the seat some of our relatives charts ohio, indiana come into michigan, some as far as canada. i'm not sure if it's large enough to read here. you can see the obituary he says family was born into slavery and escape to the underground railroad. i want everyone to understand hesee narratives about people escaping their story is continued it would be wonderful to feature some these examples of what life was like for those who left. i also want to share some examples of the great dismal small this includes chief earl fbass' grandfather he was known as one of the greatest hunting guides in the region.

whenever anyone of influence of politicians, celebrities would come to the area they would seek out jesse bass as the daniel boone of virginia north carolina for support going to the swamp everyone wanted to go but they do not have the skills he had to navigate through the waters come through the trails. it is incredible legacy we have hundreds of photos, newspaper articles just incredibly rich history of that tradition. i have the same tradition for my grandparents the third person over there is my grandfather's brother kenny bass. this was a common tradition they hunted, they explored, they were very proud of their ability to survive it. so we look forward to a future we had an national heritage area it resources to preserve and elevate these stories or more people to learn them.

and lastly, i'd like to emphasize i touched on it when i shared from my website it is extremely important to developed under representative narratives like those of women who were around the great dismal swamp. because men are the legal agents at that time there was coverture you had to be a man to own land unless you were a widow or unmarried woman. a lot of the records talk about men's lives we can tell the stories of women talk about their experiences, their strength. how they felt with the conditions living around the swamp. orand in our family one of our matriarchs is our aunt and she lived too be over 100 years old. she was at that generation she wasdr born writing a buggy and d to learn how to drive a car.

she lived her whole life on south mills and she married her husband is in the second photo there who also lived his whole life on that road. they formed churches. they lived their credible experiences and actually the earlier picture i shared of a romulus price he fought in world war i and had incredible experiences about being a soldier and a veteran through that period of time. i know i do not have a lot of time but i could tell so many stories but i wanted to give a snapshot who were around the swamp. our family land has always been described as swamp land we were not living within the border of the refuge did a great job of's describe me but we were right there on the edge. and in earlier times in the swamp wasn't larger that is how as described in our family deed as swamp land.

we lived on bass lake road and there is not a lake there. it's described of the lake because of how swampy it was. nothing like to share i don't want us to always think of people as being downtrodden and hiding out from society. these are incredible people who had rich lives, personalities and beautiful stories. i think everybody for listeningw i look forward to be able to connect more as we go down this path. >> thank you for being with us and for sharing those points and stories. also providingrc some the resources you held up. i would also like to thank mark wagner for the resources listed in the chapter. and now i'd like to introduce anthony sheppard who will share some more about the african-american history of that

thedismal swamp. the president and founder and diversity restoration solutions inc. international project development firms that are located in williamsburg. he is an author and family genealogy researcher. >> you hear me okay have been having a little pickwick struggling with technology, i can hear just fine. we have some unique issues. i'd like to thank you and of course sonja for inviting me and for the preservation. i would like to, if i could please we have much time. i am a descendent of the family

out of camden north carolina. camden county there. and in doing my research, i was really from baltimore price pricestarted tracing my roots on genealogy research back in 1996. right after the minuteman market-rate did not know much of my father's side of the family the shepherd side which my grandmother married a shepherd her name was nora grandy. in about 2001 i was down for the first time at chesapeake, virginia and i was told by my father's first cousin that our people came out of camden, north carolina. when she down there and visited. low and behold as a result of that what i got back to baltimore i went to a place to

glenda, north carolina up pop the narrative life that got me really involved and engaged with his story. he was also a waterman that worked on the dismal swamp canal if you have an opportunity to read his slave narrative which was published in 1843, it was very vividly some of the conditions of not only people that were enslaved that were on plantations but also ancestors who handed doug you do not hear much about the contribution enslaved africans made with the dismal swamp in the canal itself. that's a 22-mile stretch from elizabeth city, north carolina

up through deep creek that was handed doug by ancestors in and moses described that very vividly in his narrative. the narrative is online. you can google and read it if you have not had the opportunity to do so. but it gives you more insight to the human side of what was going on there in the swamp. we talk about terrorism, they were under tremendous. [inaudible] as moses described it but they did not make quota. some days they were tied up to a tree and whipped and made sure the insects got into the wounds that they had.

some of the enslaved ancestors had to take care of those who are whipped somewhat whipped so bad they died right there. i always say you know, we never read about the funeral procession going out of the swamp for our ancestors that died there. to me that means their bones are still there. so that is a place that needs to be recognized prudently for the contributions you have million-dollar yachts going up and down the dismal swamp canal but do not know about the history of how that canal was even built. on the involvement with the wilderness society and that collaborative is one of the founders leaders and alexa alexander from the society at the time we got the start of my

goal was to make sure african-american community is more aware of the significance of the dismal swamp and we got this information came through the moses slave narrative a good man who is an archaeologist. the maroon community and their existence. those were our ancestors thatha escaped the dismal swamp. i'm not sorry not the dismal swamp. but the underground railroad. they set up communities in the swamp. and i know they worked and associated with the native american community and other whites as well. but i have been to zambia, in africa which is right next door. a lot of them have built canals there and positioned as the

swamp. they prefer to be in the swamp and be free than to be on a plantation. so they contributed and brought a lot of knowledge to the united states and the area as well. and what i did back in 2004, because everywhere moses went after he bought his freedom, i went to and found more of the relatives. i also went to london, england who publish slave narratives in the 17 and 1800s. plaque from randy family. thanking them for their participation support and so my ancestors that actually get out of bondage and what it were able to share their stories through the british and foreign antislavery society in time. it's now called antislavery international they still exist because lot of slavery

around the world that needs to be dealt with and so as we have dealt with it, there are other families that are dealing with the same thing even unto this day. and so the work continues to >> as it continues to free people and make peopleeo aware w this can happen. my source, interest of the swamp and this short presentation to around a dismal swamp was the state park down in north carolina, of course, that's where moses was bosh and it got the a lot of information not only about my ancestors and relatives that place i never heard of prior in north carolina in the dismal swamp. they also have exhibits down there in the north carolina side -- heard with joy greenwood, they

were very welcoming and allow people to get a full set of information not previously known to a lot of people about the cultures and human history. around swamp and chris from the national wild life refuge did a job with this as well and that's one of the -- exhibits of slavery that part of that story is well known as it should be but that's a lot of opportunity. it should be. a part of the neacial heritage designation that more education and more interaction with the african-american community and others -- should have beenee there and that's the dismal swamp canal as

i've said it wasn't to this degree -- [inaudible conversations] but it was hand dug -- 22-mile stretch and describes very specifically the condition that they were under and they had to work, and so we want to honor and recognize those an seis stores that made that contribution and i believe during my research that the dismal swamp canal is the oldest continuous swamp in the united. states so it's a lot of history right here is in not only north carolina side but also up through deep creek up towards portsmouth. it is beautiful --

not been acknowledged and recognized in some type of memorial or recognition and ancestor since one of those thingings that need to be considered as part of the movement forward to make this a -- national designation national heritage. also, you know, with congressman randy forbs at the time with a road name after him moses gran did i trail and we were there, that was in 2006, january 20th to be exact and it was one of the ways to recognize because moses had his story shared with the west was world moses granded a contribution in the area.

and i'll end with that because time of the essence is short and i don't't to keep people too log and thank you for allowing me to come in and share this information. thus far -- >> thank you so much eric, and your connection held out for the entire and only fuzzy once or twice so glad you're with us and thank you so much. appreciate you sharing that information and the story and thanks again to all of our excellent speakers today. and thanks to all of you for attending. unfortunately we have run outrtf time a little overtime but we have put more resources have been put in the chat and i think only one or two remaining questions answer to those -- and also want to let you know one of the questions was about a recording ofec this. webinar is on the presentation for the website for next two days so thanks again to all of our wonderful speakers and to

everyone for joining us this was fantastic panel. thank you all. ♪ ♪ if you're enjoying american history tv, sign up for our newsletter with the qr code on the screen to receive the weekly schedule of upcoming programs like lecture history and presidency and more sign up for american history tv newsletter today and watch american history tv every saturday or any time online at c-span.org/history. ♪ ♪ healthy democracy doesn't just look like this. it looks like this. ♪ ♪ where americans can see democracy at work with citizens truly informed, our republic thrives, get informed straight from the sources on c-span unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. from the nation's capitol to wherever you are to get the opinion that matters the most as your own, this is what democracy looks like, c-span