Governor Stein RecognizesThe Annual Haliwa-Saponi Powwow

In Recognition Of

The Annual Haliwa-Saponi Powwow

2026

By The Governor Of The State Of North Carolina

A Proclamation

Whereas, the ancestors of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe and their descendants are aboriginal inhabitants of these lands now known as Virginia and North Carolina; and

Whereas, the ancestors of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, through their signing of the Treaty of Middle Plantation in 1677 and other agreements, through their maintenance of Indian churches and schools, and through other means have maintained a continuous history of established relationships with non-Indian governments such as the English crown and colonial governments of America, and such relationships are continued today by the present-day Haliwa-Saponi with the United States of America and the State of North Carolina; and

Whereas, the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe is a unit of government that has continuously exercised its inherently sovereign responsibility to enact and enforce its own laws to govern the Tribe’s citizens, jurisdictional areas, territories, lands, and resources and provide municipal services since time immemorial in a way that enhances the quality of life for citizens of the Tribe and other residents of its tribal territories; and

Whereas, the State of North Carolina enacted what is now N.C. Gen. Stat. § 71A-5 on April 15, 1965, to memorialize the State’s acknowledgement of the sovereign status of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe and its continuous unbroken government-to-government relationship since colonial times with the State of North Carolina and the United States of America; and

Whereas, to commemorate the State’s formal legislative affirmation of the inherent sovereign rights of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe as a self-governing American Indian tribal nation, the Haliwa-Saponi designated the third weekend in April as its annual powwow and festival beginning in 1965; and

Whereas, I call upon all the residents, institutions, and government agencies of this State to celebrate, commemorate and recognize the unique government-to-government relationship the State of North Carolina and the United States enjoy with the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe;

Now, Therefore, I, Josh Stein, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim April 17 – 19, 2026, as “In Recognition Of The Annual Haliwa-Saponi Powwow” in North Carolina and commend its observance to all residents.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina at the Capitol in Raleigh this twenty-sixth day of March in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-sixth and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fiftieth.