Mollie Wade Holmes Adams (October 8, 1881 – December 14, 1973) was an Upper Mattaponi tribal elder and advocate of tribal culture in Virginia. She advocated for recognition of the tribe and worked to preserve traditional skills and knowledge. She was selected for the

Virginia Women in History Virginia Women in History was an annual program sponsored by the Library of Virginia that honored Virginia women, living and dead, for their contributions to their community, region, state, and nation. The program began in 2000 under the aegis of th ...

program by the

Library of Virginia The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It serves as the archival agency and the reference library for Virginia's seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and ...

Biography

Mollie Wade Holmes was born in 1881, into the Upper Mattaponi Tribe, or Adamstown Band of Mattaponi, and grew up in great poverty in Adamstown. In 1900 she married Jasper Lewis Adams, who served as chief of the tribe for five decades, from 1923 to 1973. She joined him as a tribal leader; he was involved in the purchase and construction of the Sharon Indian School in 1919 and the Indian View Baptist Church in 1942. The couple had twelve children. Adams was of mixed-race, partial European ancestry, and she and her husband shared some common lineage. Beginning in the 1920s, the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics, led by Walter Plecker, attempted to classify Indians such as Adams and her children as "colored", under the new

Racial Integrity Act of 1924 In 1924, the Virginia General Assembly enacted the Racial Integrity Act. The act reinforced racial segregation by prohibiting interracial marriage and classifying as "white" a person "who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasia ...

. It required classification of all residents as white or colored (black), and Plecker was convinced that some families identified as Native American just to hide African ancestry. He insisted on a

one-drop rule The one-drop rule is a legal principle of racial classification that was prominent in the 20th-century United States. It asserted that any person with even one ancestor of black ancestry ("one drop" of "black blood")Davis, F. James. Frontlin" ...

: if a person had any African ancestry, they should be classified as black (colored). He ignored how people identified culturally. To counter the efforts to classify her as colored, Adams was required to provide a statement signed by eight white men certifying her Indian ancestry; the document still exists. During this period, many people did lose their classification as Indian, resulting in later problems when tribes tried to gain recognition, as state records did not affirm their historical continuity as Indians. In her role as tribal elder, Adams played a pivotal role in preservation of feather weaving, an art which had almost been lost and which she passed on to others. She assisted anthropologists with a variety of studies, including discussing

herbal remedies Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedies ...

with them. Her activism provided a strong base of support for tribal life. In addition, she was the mother of Andrew Washington Adams, who served as chief from 1974 to 1985; her grandson, Kenneth Adams, has served as chief of the tribe as well. Her husband died in 1971. Adams was honored in 2010 as one of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Mollie Holmes 1881 births 1973 deaths Mattaponi People from King William County, Virginia Women in Virginia People of the Powhatan Confederacy 19th-century Native Americans 20th-century Native Americans Female Native American leaders 20th-century Native American women