Karen Tootelian
21 Mar
The Chief and I
Original airdate: March 14, 2008
ABOUT THE BOOK: In the summer of 2002, writer and environmentalist Karen Tootelian began caring for the 89-year-old chief of the Mattaponi tribe, Webster Little Eagle Custalow. She did this almost as a personal favor for his son and her friend. Her relationship with the elderly chief
grew into a story of love between the two who bonded over the deep respect for the Mattaponi River, the natural life that it contains and the spiritual mysteries of the world.
The chief, Webster Little Eagle Custalow, a descendant of Pocahontas, served as chief of the Mattaponi Indian tribe between 1977 and 2003. The reservation originally consisted of most of the Chesapeake region but today has dwindled to 150 acres. These acres and the river they surround are being jeopardized by the pending King William Reservoir. For more than two decades, the city of Newport News and neighboring localities have sought to construct an environmentally destructive reservoir project in King William county.
The project would siphon up to 75 million gallons of water a day from the Mattaponi River into a 1500 acre reservoir in the Pamunkey River watershed. If built, the reservoir would destroy more than 430 acres of pristine non-tidal wetlands and inundate native American cultural sites and threaten the livelihood of the Mattaponi Indians.
