NATURAL BRIDGE -- The Monacans have endured for centuries, surviving ancient tribal wars, Capt. John Smith's guns and a 20th century "paper genocide."

But today they face perhaps their toughest battleground -- the halls of Congress.

While the Monacans and Virginia's other American Indian tribes have been officially embraced by the state since the 1980s, they continue to be denied federal recognition.

The tribes, whose sovereignty bill has been stalled in Congress since 2001, are exasperated, pointing out the irony of America's denying their existence while celebrating their history at events such as the upcoming 400th anniversary commemoration of Jamestown.

Tribal members say federal recognition would bring federal grants for college scholarships, job training, housing, health care and other badly needed programs. They say they are not interested in opening casinos, which have been profitable but problematic in other states where tribes have received sovereignty.

"These are the indigenous people of the state," said Jeff Hantman, an archaeologist and associate professor of anthropology at the University of Virginia. "They've been here continuously against all odds, but some people can't accept that some Indians have survived and are fighting back."

Opponents say federal recognition would invite problems, including Indian-run casinos, exempting tribes from taxes, preventing police from coming onto tribal grounds and inviting lawsuits to reclaim Indian land and water rights.

"You're creating a nation," said U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Rocky Mount. "I don't want sovereignty that elevates them above the state."

If federal recognition remains stalled -- supporters and opponents see little prospect for movement in the current Congress -- Virginia's tribes are likely to protest when they share center stage at the Jamestown ceremonies. The event is being funded by millions of tax dollars and is expected to attract international attention, starting in Great Britain next year and the United States in 2007.

"We'll participate, but there will be a racket," said Monacan Chief Kenneth Branham, who accused sovereignty opponents of racism, greed and hypocrisy.

Tribal leaders plan to push the issue into the world spotlight starting in July when they are feted in Great Britain during the kickoff of the Jamestown commemoration.

Ken Adams, chief of the Upper Mattaponi tribe, said British Jamestown committee members have treated Virginia's tribal chiefs as heads of state, "which is much more warmly than some of our own congressmen have treated us."

Jamestown: The last stand

Virginia's tribes consider the Jamestown anniversary their last, best chance to attract public attention to their sovereignty request.

"If we don't get it now, the public will probably forget about it altogether," Branham said. "I'm not embittered -- you can't change the past -- but it's a disgrace."

Federal recognition has divided Virginia lawmakers. Supporters include the state's two U.S. senators, George Allen and John Warner, both Republicans, as well as Gov. Mark Warner and Gov.-elect Tim Kaine, both Democrats, and the U.S. and British Jamestown commemoration committees.

Allen supports federal recognition because it would correct "historical injustices," while leaving the final decision about Indian casinos to state authorities and the federal Department of the Interior, Allen spokesman David Snepp said.

But Goode said he would support recognition only if the tribes signed an agreement that disallowed casinos, waived tax exemption and allowed outside law enforcement agencies onto tribal grounds.

Another opponent, U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said most tribes nationwide that have received federal recognition have subsequently sought casinos.

Goodlatte said sovereignty opens the way for "outside investors [to] pour millions of dollars into a state to influence the tribes, the state legislature and the governor, dangling the promise of great riches to allow casinos."

Adams, the Upper Mattaponi chief, said claims that Indians would be influenced by outside investors evokes stereotypes that tribes could be bought off -- whether for trinkets in Colonial times or large cash bribes today.

Virginia's tribes dismiss gambling arguments, pointing out that Virginia already has a lottery, horse racing and charitable bingo, and that federal recognition would not exempt them from needing state legislative and gubernatorial permission to open casinos.

The tribes have vowed not to open casinos but refuse lawmakers' demand that they permanently give up that option. The tribes say future generations may want casinos.

Rolling the dice

The federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 requires tribes to negotiate gaming compacts with states before opening casinos on tribal land. The United States officially recognizes 562 tribes from 32 states. Indian casinos operate under a combination of state law, tribal ordinance and tribal-state compacts. According to the National Indian Gaming Commission, the federal regulatory agency that oversees tribal gaming, there are 367 tribal casinos nationwide, which brought in about $19.5 billion in gross revenues in 2004.

Political analyst Larry Sabato said the Jamestown commemoration could give the tribes more political leverage, but that opponents of federal recognition probably will not change their minds until the tribes agree to never have casinos. He said casinos are a much more lucrative -- and potentially troublesome -- form of gambling than other types of gambling allowed in Virginia.

The National Indian Gaming Association, which represents tribal gaming businesses, says casinos are economic development tools that promote self-sufficiency and fight poverty. But Chad Hills, an analyst for Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based Christian group that opposes all forms of legalized gambling, said Indian casinos contribute to America's growing gambling addiction, which causes alcoholism, domestic violence and other problems.

Barney Arthur, director of Concerned Christians of the Valley, a Roanoke Valley group, said he saw the damage done by Indian casinos when he worked as a missionary on reservations in other states.

"Native Americans have basically been ripped off by the American government and my heart goes out to them," he said. "They deserve help, but not if it comes with the possibility of casinos."

Why sovereignty?

Tribal leaders say sovereignty opponents include federal authorities who do not want to spend millions more on Indian benefits, state and local officials who fear federal intrusion, and large recognized tribes that do not want to share their federal benefits with what some consider "casino tribes" populated by a few people with little Indian blood who are only interested in gambling profits.

Two of Virginia's eight state-recognized tribes, the Pamunkey and the Mattaponi, are seeking sovereignty through the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, in part because they already have federally recognized reservations, which are the two oldest reservations in the United States. The bureau requires detailed records of tribes' ancestry, cultural solidarity and political authority.

Virginia's six other state-recognized tribes -- the Monacans, Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock and Nansemond -- have petitioned Congress for federal recognition. They say Virginia's old race laws make it all but impossible to satisfy the bureau's requirements.

From the 1920s to the 1960s, Virginia's Racial Integrity Act classified Indians as "mongrel," "colored" or "Negro" on their birth, marriage and death certificates. The tribes say this "paper genocide" -- led by Walter Plecker, the state's first registrar of the Bureau of Vital Statistics and an avowed white supremacist -- used statistics rather than guns to try to exterminate them.

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Virginia's race laws in 1967, Virginia tried to make amends in the 1980s and 1990s by creating a state Bureau of Indian Affairs, recognizing the eight largest tribes and correcting all Indian records. In 1989, the Monacans became the last tribe the state has recognized.

On a recent day at the Monacan village at Natural Bridge -- with three red-tailed hawks soaring overhead -- Branham, 52, said the time had come for Virginia's first inhabitants to make a stand.

"Millions of dollars are going into this [Jamestown] thing and what do we get -- nothing," he said. "We aren't going to take trinkets anymore like in Colonial times. We want the world to know how indigenous people are being treated today. This is the showdown."