Wayne Newton visits Assembly for tribe recognition
Published: February 04, 2010
Long before he was "Mr. Las Vegas," Wayne Newton was an asthmatic child growing up in Virginia, listening to his grandfather speak proudly of their Indian heritage.
On Monday, Newton sat before a panel of state lawmakers speaking of that heritage and urging official state recognition of the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia.
The Las Vegas fixture was born in Norfolk in 1942 and spent time in the Fredericksburg and Stafford County areas. Dressed in a dark suit with his signature coif, the crooner passed around a picture of his grandfather in a headdress and stressed how important a moment it was for him when he told his young daughter that she was part Indian.
When she replied by asking if that meant she was half-Indian and half-human, he said, "I realized that I had let her down and I needed to do something to correct that."
The House Rules Committee passed House Joint Resolution 150 unanimously and sent the measure to the full House.
— Olympia Meola/Media General News Service
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