Preston Lloyd Helps Mattaponi Indian Tribe Negotiate Land Trust Agreement to Expand Reservation

Over the past six years, Williams Mullen attorney Preston Lloyd has served as pro bono counsel to the Mattaponi Indian Tribe of King William County, Virginia, in developing a strategy and negotiating with the Commonwealth to formally expand the boundary of the Mattaponi Indian Reservation. On Aug. 26, 2019, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced he had signed a land trust agreement to formally transfer more than 100 acres of land to the Commonwealth to hold in perpetual trust for the benefit of the tribe.

Williams Mullen worked with various local and state stakeholders, including the Office of the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Commonwealth, to facilitate this historic transaction. The transfer represents the return of land to the tribe that had previously been encroached upon in the centuries that followed the 1677 Treaty of Middle Plantation, by which the tribe was granted exclusive use of its ancient territory.

To read the press release from the Governor's office, click here.