HAMPTON Va.
Powhatan Red Cloud-Owen occasionally runs into people including other American Indians who are surprised to learn there are still Indian tribes in Virginia.

The free American Indian Intertribal Cultural Festival this weekend will be an opportunity to remind people that Indians have lived in what is now Virginia since thousands of years before English colonists founded Jamestown in 1607.

Indians from 15 tribes around the country will gather Saturday and Sunday at the Hampton Coliseum to dance, demonstrate crafts, connect with each other and share their history and culture with the public.

Virginia's eight state-recognized tribes are hosting the festival the first time in modern history they will come together for an event like this, Red Cloud-Owen said while setting up at the coliseum. The festival is one of 10 signature events that are part of the 18-month-long commemoration of 400th anniversary of Jamestown, America's first permanent English settlement.

"We want people to know that our history began before 1607 and didn't end in the late 1700s with the dissemination or just the annihilation of almost all our people," said Red Cloud-Owen, a Chickahominy tribal council member and liaison between the Virginia tribes and Jamestown 2007, which is coordinating the commemoration.

"We want people to know we're here," he said. "We've been here all along, we're still here, and we're staying here. ... We're still a thriving people that bring much to everyday, mainstream America."

The eight tribes have about 6,000 members in Virginia, which is home to a total of about 22,000 people of American Indian descent, Red Cloud-Owen said.

About 300 members of Virginia's Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Monacan Indian Nation, Nansemond, Pamunkey, Rappahannock and Upper Mattaponi are expected to take part in the festival, he said.

Seven tribes are visiting from other states, each sending about 20 members. They are the Jemez Pueblo of New Mexico, Lumbee of North Carolina, the Three Affiliated Tribes Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara of North Dakota, Nez Perce of Idaho, Osage of Oklahoma, Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa of Michigan and Seminole of Florida.