The Monacan Indian Nation considers Bear Mountain in Amherst County to be sacred ground, but for years the tribe has owned only a portion of it. That will soon change.
Sweet Briar College recently announced that it will sell the remaining tract of Bear Mountain back to the Monacan Nation.
For Amherst County’s first people, it is more than a simple land transaction of 400 acres.
“Acquiring the last part of Bear Mountain for us is like securing our history,” said Chief Diane Shields. “All of that property at one time was owned by the Monacan Indian people. And it’s important that we bring it back.”
Shields credited a close working relationship with Sweet Briar College President Mary Pope Hutson for finalizing the move.
“We talked many hours about how to make this happen, and she’s made it work,” Shields said.
In a news release, Hutson said she was proud to partner with the Monacan Indian Nation and the nonprofit Conservation Fund, which is helping to facilitate the sale.
“I have long held the belief that the Monacan Indian Nation should have ownership of this tract of land on Bear Mountain,” she said. “The Monacans’ historic homeland is integral to their identity. They are our neighbors and friends of Sweet Briar, and the first peoples to inhabit this land.”
Most of the terrain is near St. Paul’s Mission, 3 miles from Sweet Briar College’s main campus, where the Monacan Indian Museum and its parish hall are also located.
The Monacans already own what they consider the front half of Bear Mountain, Shields said. That land was acquired in the 1990s. This sale will allow the tribe to acquire the back half of the mountain. There is no roadway into the rugged land, and the Monacans have no plans to build or develop it.
“We would plan to secure it and maintain it,” Shields said.
Financial terms were not disclosed. The Monacans will apply for a grant to enable the purchase with assistance from The Conservation Fund.
Heather Richards, the nonprofit’s Mid-Atlantic vice president, said the move shows “real leadership” that could pay dividends elsewhere in the state.
“It honors the Monacans’ long history on Bear Mountain while recognizing them as its ancestral stewards,” Richards said. “We hope it inspires other landowners across Virginia to think the same way.”
Taylor Evans, Mid-Atlantic field representative for The Conservation Fund, said any number of factors can affect when the sale will be finalized.
“But it is our hope that in spring of 2027 we should be able to complete this,” he said.
The Sweet Briar campus sits on the traditional and ancestral homeland of the Monacan people. The transfer of ownership continues the college’s efforts to honor the Monacan Indian Nation and recognize the land on which the college sits.
In 2024, the college adopted a land acknowledgement statement. The next year, Sweet Briar placed a rock showing a plaque with that statement on the campus quad. Sweet Briar also established a scholarship fund for Monacan women to attend the college.
The original territory of the tribe and its allies comprised more than half of present-day Virginia, including almost all of the Piedmont region and parts of the Blue Ridge Mountains, according to information from the secretary of the commonwealth. About 1,600 Monacans belonged to the tribe early in the 21st century. It is one of the oldest groups of indigenous people still existing in its ancestral homeland.
