♪ ANGIE MILES: Virginia consistently ranks near the top when it comes to racial and ethnic diversity among American states.

But what does that really mean?

In this special edition of VPM News Focal Point, we'll take a look at specific ethnic and racial groups that call the Commonwealth home and see how their presence impacts the lives of all Virginians.

VPM News Focal Point is next.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by ♪ ♪ ANGIE MILES: Thank you for joining us for this special edition of VPM News Focal Point.

I'm Angie Miles.

Virginia is home to a number of racial, ethnic, and cultural groups, many with fascinating histories chronicling their group's arrival in the Commonwealth and compelling stories about their influence on the state.

Have you heard for example, of the term Melungeon?

The word likely derives from the French word mélange for mixture, and at one time it was considered an insult.

When describing this blended race of people living primarily in the Appalachian regions.

Now, for many, it is a source of pride.

Our Billy Shields had an interesting conversation with a man with Melungeon roots, and he describes what that ancestry means for him.

BILLY SHIELDS: One person's identity at one moment in history might be a different identity in a separate moment.

The way you were raised and the things that you were told about your own background, how did all of that play out in your own life?

You might hear the term Melungeon, and what would that mean to you?

ANDREW HARRIS JR.: I never heard that term other than my dad would talk about Ma Sally, as he would always say, is my great great-grandmother.

And hed kind of give me this story of she was an Indian or Native American, and he would always describe her as having this real, real long hair that came down almost to her waist in the back.

And he just always described that, but didn't go into detail.

He just, that was it.

It was like pulling teeth, hens teeth from him, try to pull this information out.

It was interesting.

But still, I didn't know a lot.

But I think my dad was interacting with the cousins that he grew up with and knew and visited with.

And it was just something that I don't think he even realized that that was a missing link for me.

And actually, some of 'em I worked with and didn't know I was related to 'em.

BILLY SHIELDS: Do you think it's a situation where there were things that maybe your dad didn't want to talk to you about?

Perhaps this was a more complicated narrative than he wanted to go into?

ANDREW HARRIS JR.: My dad really didn't...

I think he was more protecting me from a lot of the things and things that were going on during that time in North Carolina and also in Virginia.

Just coming from the north to the south.

We always traveled early in the morning.

I didn't know why.

'Course, car's got New York plates on it.

He'd want to gas up in Washington DC first and then make it all the way in.

I said, 'Why don't you... " "Oh no, I want to get gas here."

Not knowing that segregation and all those things were taking place at the time.

BILLY SHIELDS: Yeah.

ANDREW HARRIS JR.: So he and my mom both protected, you know, the two young kids.

BILLY SHIELDS: One of the things that you sometimes hear in among the Melungeon community, some people would say that they're Portuguese sailors that ended up in the mountains, or Turkish sailors, that kind of thing.

With the advent of genetic testing, has that changed the identity that's been passed down to you from your family at all?

ANDREW HARRIS JR.: Finding out about this, it was just like overwhelming for me, it was just a lot.

And just to hear about the Melungeons or the Maroon community, so to speak.

Sometimes I have actually run into somebody that is actually Native American 'cause I see a T-shirt that they may have, but they're not as dark complexion as I am.

And I ask them, you know, just strike up a conversation and then here we go with, yeah, you know, this is my heritage.

But you can see either the European or the African or the Native American mixture in these individuals.

And I pay attention to that now.

BILLY SHIELDS: Different ethnic groups will have a very... a sort of a cultural identity.

ANDREW HARRIS JR.: Mm-hmm.

BILLY SHIELDS: How would you characterize the Melungeon cultural identity?

ANDREW HARRIS JR.: People are starting to actually receive actually the truth about what really occurred.

That history was purposely strategically suppressed for certain reasons.

And the theory, if you had just an ounce or less of either Native American blood or African blood, then they pick and choose.

If you were brown skinned like me, you say, "Well, you know, he's Black."

They put me in that category.

But you know, we're all kind of mixed up in that.

But the community at large, it's starting to grow, it's starting to expand.

And the truth is coming out and I think it's really getting to the point where people are really curious.

They want to know.

But also, once they find out the truth about this particular community and how the tri-racial community is actually all over the United States and actually all parts of the world, it's like, "Hey, you know, let's accept it."

BILLY SHIELDS: As far as your own ancestry goes and where various groups came from in your own background, did you ever go back and say, "Oh, okay, they came in through this area, or they migrated here?"

In your situation, what did that look like?

ANDREW HARRIS JR.: I hunt a lot and I stay in the woods.

But, why do I stay in the woods?

And my dad even said to me, he said, "You know, you've got that.

You got it honest."

What do you mean, 'You got it honest?'

"Well, you know, your great great-grandfather did it and, you know, and your great great-grandmother, you know, she was Native American, Ma Sally."

He said, "So it's in you."

That's how I view it and that's how I'm looking at now.

Even today at 70 years old, you know, (laughs) I'm trying to play catch up on who I am.

ANGIE MILES: For some Virginians, their cultural inheritance is rooted in religious beliefs, and their arrival in Virginia followed severe persecution elsewhere.

That summarizes the way the Mennonites and the Brethren came to the Shenandoah Valley, as some descendants explain.

SAM FUNKHOUSER: One of the things that doesn't happen today is we don't typically kill each other over our doctrinal beliefs.

That was the norm in Europe at the time.

Or being killed by the government, or having your properties confiscated, or being imprisoned, et cetera.

So Brethren and Mennonites, like other religious minorities in Europe, were persecuted, and that was really the reason they came to America.

So starting in the late 1600s, Mennonites started coming to America from Europe, almost exclusively settled initially in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania was the only colony that offered religious freedom.

William Penn actually went to Europe and solicited for religious minorities to come to Pennsylvania during and after the Revolutionary War.

People like Brethren and Mennonites, who didn't want to fight in the revolution, were treated very harshly.

They had their properties confiscated, they had their homes taken, they were imprisoned, and a few were even killed.

And so that experience in Pennsylvania prompted some to move.

Some went west and when they hit the mountains, went over the mountains into Ohio, and then some when they hit the mountains, came down the valley into Virginia.

LEO HEATWOLE: Do you know where leather comes from?

SAM FUNKHOUSER: Leo Heatwole is a descendant of David Heatwole, who built our shoemaker shop, and he's one of our volunteers and helps with our field trips and does a presentation in the shoemaker shop on our field trip days.

LEO HEATWOLE: David Heatwole was my great, great, great, great, great-grandfather.

I'm the eighth generation.

His parents were immigrants from Germany who left to come to America for religious beliefs.

He was born in America.

David and Magdalene Heatwole had 11 children and he came down into the Shenandoah Valley and started looking for land.

He found 85 acres, so he built the spring house from the limestone that he picked.

He made a stone trough through it for water to run through.

This was their type of refrigeration.

Then he constructed the shoemaker shop, the same size as the reproduction here.

When I stand in this shoemaker shop, even though it's been reconstructed, I'm standing over a spring house of the original stone that David Heatwole picked in the late 1700s.

And it gives me a feeling of ancestry that I cannot really describe to you.

I never met the man.

He was much older than me, over 225 years.

But I still have this special feeling of working, demonstrating to future generations.

RUTH JOST: A war came and there were soldiers all over the valley here.

SAM FUNKHOUSER: Ruth Jost is a descendant of many of the Mennonite families here in the valley, and she does our storytelling station for field trips where she tells many of her family stories and particularly the stories of family members during the Civil War and how they lived out their faith during a trying time.

RUTH JOST: My ancestors came to Southeast Pennsylvania and that was an area where it was known that if you're trying to get north to get to freedom, if you could get as far as southeast corner of Pennsylvania, you could probably make it.

And that was because that area had Amish Mennonites and it had Quakers and some other German descended groups who were there, who tended to be sympathetic.

The point was, who was going to turn you in if they catch you there?

And these groups would not.

They didn't hold slaves.

Mennonites and Brethren believed that was wrong.

Mennonites and Brethren believed that Jesus taught us to do unto others as we would want them to do to us.

We wouldn't want somebody to make us a slave.

And they also believed that Jesus said, love even your enemies.

That means don't kill them.

Don't join an army and kill them.

SAM FUNKHOUSER: If you were a member of a Brethren and Mennonite church, and you purchased enslaved persons, they would kick you out.

If you wanted to join their church from another group and you were an enslaver, you owned enslaved persons, the people you'd enslaved had to be set free first.

Not sold, set free.

LEO HEATWOLE: They brought a faith, religion, basic peace position to the valley that it has been known for for many years.

RUTH JOST: The commitment to peace means a commitment to each other.

It means peace within the faith community.

It's something that is very much focused inward on the group, but it also relates to your relationship to other people.

(repetitive banging) As I've grown up in this community, I see a lot of people who spend a lot of time and energy and resources in projects and organizations that can help other people.

I think it's really important.

I certainly remember as I was growing up here, Vietnamese refugees who came here, Eastern Mennonite University had, back in the '40s I think, had accepted African students, which was very novel for this area here.

But the refugee communities who came here, the Laotians then and a number of other groups that continued to come, I think it was because of families who were here who were receptive and willing to pitch in and help.

I think it comes out of a realization that if we're not going to take part in the military solutions, we need to be trying to extend what we see as Jesus' example of what he extended in healing and reaching out and in healing relationships between people.

SAM FUNKHOUSER: Brethren and Mennonites, they tended to be agricultural or work in trades like the Shoemaker shop.

They certainly had an economic impact on the Shenandoah Valley and how it developed.

During the war, Brethren and Mennonites didn't fight, though they tended to stay out of politics.

I would say probably roughly 10% of the population here is Brethren and Mennonite.

You know, theyre certainly one part of the cultural tapestry that makes up the Shenandoah Valley.

ANGIE MILES: The valley has become a place of welcome for a diverse array of refugees seeking new beginnings.

On Virginia's Eastern Shore, it is largely work opportunities that bring Latino immigrants to the waterside communities.

Our Keyris Manzanares shows us how symbiotic these relationships have become.

(Alejandro speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Alejandro Cruz was once a migrant farmworker who picked and harvested tomatoes and later scallops on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

(Alejandro speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Cruz says he takes pride in knowing he helped fill shelves at grocery stores, but it came at a cost.

(Alejandro speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: When summertime hits and tomato season starts, Cruz says, migrant camps on the eastern shore come alive with people arriving from Mexico, Central America, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.

Lipman family farms hires the largest number of agricultural workers who come to Virginia on temporary work permits called H2A Visas.

Often one of the first people these workers meet is Cecilia Hernandez, with Legal Aid Justice Center.

(Cecilia speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Working conditions in the fields can be grueling for migrant workers due to a lack of many essential protections.

Workers also face isolation and hunger.

Hernandez says, when there's no work due to rain or harvest, there is no pay.

(Alejandro speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: In 2020, poultry plants in Accomack County were hotspots for COVID-19.

Most recently, Tyson and Purdue are facing a federal investigation after reports surfaced that migrant children were helping clean the company's plants.

In search of better pay, Cruz left the tomato industry and started fishing scallops.

He says he was able to prosper and provide a better life for his family.

(Alejandro speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Hernandez says a challenge faced by many Latinos on the Shore is misinformation surrounding tax filing and H-2A Visa requirements.

(Cecilia speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: Juan Gomez is a part of that second generation.

Born and raised on the shore by Mexican parents, Gomez stepped up to the plate when he saw how COVID-19 affected the tight-knit Latino community.

JUAN GOMEZ: I think it's just seeing a younger me just look in the eyes of our kids that come to our clinics and understand the importance of maybe not having adequate housing, maybe not having adequate food supplies, or currently, “Do my parents know what health insurance is?” KEYRIS MANZANARES: As an outreach specialist for Eastern Shore Rural Health, Gomez makes sure that migrant workers and longtime Latino residents have access to care.

In 2022, the center served 1,308 migrant and seasonal farm workers.

JUAN GOMEZ: Our migrant population is here on a seasonal basis, so when they're here, we provide all the health services that we can.

My team goes out and does blood pressure checks, does glucose checks.

We are making sure that our population that's here is being seen and that their voices are being heard.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: The importance of bilingual education is what drove Zorylu Bonilla to move to the Shore in 2002 to teach at Accomack County Public Schools.

ZORYLU BONILLA: My first job here as a teacher was as a bilingual kindergarten teacher.

It was a pilot program at Accomack Elementary School.

Well, it grew to the point where maybe more than half of the classroom be Latinos in some classrooms.

In the high schools, you walk down the hallways, a lot of faces that are of Latino heritage.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Bonilla says, these students, along with their families, have added rich and varied traditions to the depth of culture on the Shore.

ZORYLU BONILLA: We see a lot of variety of Latinos here.

We have entrepreneurs, we have workers in the field, we have workers in the chicken factories.

We have teachers.

We are definitely growing here and making this community a part of us, and we are becoming a part of the community as well.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Liliana Velasquez came to the Eastern Shore in 2002 as an agriculture worker.

Now she's a proud business owner on Chincoteague Island.

(Lilian speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: When it comes to the impact of Latinos on the Shore, Velasquez says... (Lilian speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: For Alejandro Cruz, it's been a long journey.

He was able to bring his wife to the Shore and raise his children all while extending a lending hand to those in need.

(Alejandro speaking Spanish) KEYRIS MANZANARES: For VPM News, I'm Keyris Manzanares.

ANGIE MILES: At one time, the entirety of Virginia was home to Indigenous people.

Of course, after generations of harsh, sometimes inhumane treatment, native people make up just a small percentage of those who call Virginia home.

In recent years, however, along with federal recognition, many of Virginia's native tribes are thriving in important ways and in some cases, reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.

Our Billy Shields has this story.

FRANK ADAMS: My name is Frank Adams.

I'm Chief of the Upper Mattaponi Tribe.

This is approximately 855 acres of reclaimed soil that used to be a sand and gravel mining operation.

And when this property came onto the market, came up for sale, we decided that we could buy this property if we could write a conservation grant.

So, we wrote a federal grant and was successful about six, nine months later.

So, we had a contract signed, and we used the grant funding to pay for the property, slightly more than $3 million.

Because it is a property that's in our cultural living area.

This is where we used to spend all of our time.

But we would like to, since we do have some river frontage and some lake frontage, we would like to establish a fish hatchery on this property to help generate and improve the habitat of the shad and blueback herring that migrate up the river every year, along with mussels and other things that clean the water and whatnot.

Took us 20 years to get federally recognized after we got a bill sponsored into Congress.

But being federally recognized opens up so many more doors, so many more opportunities for funding to purchase properties like this and/or just build our government, hire staff.

Being federally recognized has opened many doors for us.

It's a chore to manage 855 acres with the rains and the snowstorms and ice storms that occur occasionally around here.

So we have a crew, we have a maintenance crew, a grounds management crew that will come up and inspect the property to make sure the trees hadn't blown down or the roads haven't washed out or been compromised by heavy rains and whatnot.

And as global warming and climate change comes, storms are getting bigger and bigger.

So it is work for us.

We got our due diligence to do to keep this property open and available to our tribal citizens to be able to enjoy.

During the mining process, they dug pits, and the pits filled up with water eventually, after they got a certain depth, and when we purchased it, they were in the process of draining all these ponds.

There's three ponds still on this property, but we saw the value in the water and the wetlands for nature.

So we asked them, part of the contract was to leave these ponds unfilled and uncovered.

Eventually we'll start some ecotourism for our tribal citizens and/or the public, so they can enjoy this magnificent piece of property.

It's mostly a pine forest.

But we would love to plant some Indigenous trees on this property.

Trees that the Natives used hundreds and hundreds of years ago to survive with.

This property is right on the banks of the upper reaches of the Mattaponi River.

We have over a mile river frontage on this.

It's a hike to go down to the river, but the river is where life is for Native Americans.

ANGIE MILES: Indigenous families rebuilding on a storied past.

Latinos contributing to commerce in coastal communities.

Mennonites influencing a spirit of service and welcome in the Shenandoah Valley.

And Melungeons sharing a sense of kinship from their mixed race origins.

These are all Virginia stories.

We thank you for engaging with us here at VPM News Focal Point, and we look forward to seeing you next time.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by ♪ ♪ ♪