CHARLES CITY, Va. - British dignitaries visited six of Virginia;s state-recognized tribes earlier this month to acknowledge that Great Britain considered the tribes to be sovereign nations hundreds of years ago.

Members of the British Jamestown 2007 Commemoration Committee invited the tribes to England in 2006, a year before the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Va. - the first permanent English settlement in the New World. The guests of the Virginia Indian Tribal Alliance for Life's (VITAL) annual Six Nations Pow Wow participated in the ceremonies held April 30 - May 1 on the Chickahominy Indian

Tribal Grounds.

The English visitors also noted Great Britain's recognition of Virginia's Indian tribes as sovereign nations in the 1677 Treaty of Middle Plantation that was made with the tribes. This same treaty, the state's tribes argue, protects them and designates them as individual nations with sovereignty - something the United States hasn't done.

All eight of Virginia's state-recognized tribes seek federal recognition, with the Pamunkey and the Mattaponi seeking recognition through the BIA. The other six tribes have sought federal recognition through legislation.

The bill, called the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act, gained support from the U.S. Senate in 2003. It was reintroduced to the Senate in March by Sen. George Allen, R-Va., a longtime supporter of the tribes and their federal recognition; it was sponsored in the U.S. House of Representatives by Reps. Jim Moran, D-Va. and Jo Ann Davis, R-Va.

''It is important that our forbearers made peace, and that we forevermore respect each other,'' said Rebecca Casson, executive director of the British Jamestown 2007 Commemoration Committee.

Casson and other committee representatives came from Kent County, England, and the town of Gravesend, where many of the early English involved with the Virginia Company had lived. One Englishman from that area, Sir Edwin Sandys, was treasurer of the Virginia Co. and came to Jamestown in 1607, she said.

''Today we are here to honor that historical relationship, and it is my privilege to present an official invitation from the civic leaders of the town of Gravesend and of Kent County to the chiefs of the great tribal nations,'' Casson said. ''We look forward very much to welcoming you to England, to Kent and to Gravesend, in 2006, in a way which we will plan together to strengthen the historical links that already exist and to create new and lasting friendship in the 21st century.''

Chief Ken Adams of the Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe said the grand entry with the chiefs of the six tribes and the English visitors represents a change in time.

''This is a new relationship with England that we are going to continue to foster,'' Adams said. ''All of the chiefs will visit England in 2006. I think it will be a profound event to renew the relationship we established with England hundreds of years ago.''

For Reggie Tupponce, VITAL president, the presentation from the English visitors represented the tribes' coming full circle.

''We started off as sovereign nations, and we are moving back as sovereign nations,'' Tupponce said. ''We're moving back to our starting point.''

Tupponce noted that the town of Gravesend is where Pocahontas, the daughter of the Great Chief Powhatan of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, is buried. Pocahontas, a Mattaponi Indian who was captured by the English, was forced to marry John Rolfe in an effort by the English to strengthen ties with Virginia Indians. She was taken to England and later poisoned about the time she was to return to Virginia, according to the Mattaponi's tribal historian, Dr. Linwood Custalow.

Also attending the pow wow, Chief Kenneth Branham of the Monacan Indian Nation said the visit to England should bring good to the tribes in their efforts to seek federal recognition.

''It would be an embarrassment to the state of Virginia and to the country if we're not federally recognized by 2007,'' Branham said.