Julia A. King, George B. and Willma Reeves Endowed Chair in the Liberal Arts; Scott Strickland '08 and Rappahannock Tribe Chief G. Anne Richardson have received the 2024 Robert F. Heizer Article Award from the American Society for Ethnohistory for their article, "Rappahannock Oral Tradition, John Smith’s Map of Virginia, and Political Authority in the Algonquian Chesapeake," published in the William and Mary Quarterly in January 2023. The Heizer award was established in 1980 to recognize the best article in the field of ethnohistory.
The article draws on Rappahannock oral histories, archaeological evidence and environmental data managed in a geographic information system (GIS) to challenge accepted orthodoxy about political authority in 16th- and 17th-century Tidewater Virginia. The Rappahannock Tribe is one of seven federally recognized tribes in Virginia. King and her students have worked with the tribe since 2016.
