Honorary Degree | George Warren Cook D.P.S. '21
George Warren Cook, you are a celebrated artist, decades-long community leader and well-respected elder of the Pamunkey Tribe. We honor today the positive impact of your many contributions to the lives of those in your Tribe and beyond.
Raised on the Pamunkey Indian Reservation in King William County, Virginia, during the time of segregation, you were unable to attend Virginia public schools. A one-room Reservation school offered education until the age of 14. To earn a diploma, you left to attend the Bureau of Indian Affairs
boarding school on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Reservation in North Carolina. Attending school with members of other tribes was not always easy, but it gave you the opportunity to work with several renowned Cherokee artists. Among these artists was Amanda Crow, an Eastern Band Cherokee woodcarver and graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, who inspired you to pursue art.
As one of only a few Virginia Indians from your generation to attend college, you pursued your passion by studying art at West Carolina University and Virginia Commonwealth University. As an artist, you work in many media, including woodcarving, painting, jewelry and ceramics. Your work has been exhibited in institutions such as the Smithsonian and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. And you have advanced the careers of others, playing a key role in launching the Pamunkey Indian Museum and Cultural Center, where you served as director and curator for three decades. As manager of the
Powhatan Artisans Project, your leadership helped revitalize craft and artistic expression among the Virginia Indian tribes.
Following in the footsteps of your father and grandfather, you helped lead the Pamunkey Indian Tribe for four decades as a member of its tribal government, including 25 years as assistant chief. As a tribal leader, you secured funding for and directed the Mattaponi Pamunkey Monacan Jobs Training Act Consortium, which supported education, job training and job placement among Virginia Indians. You also secured and managed several federal grants to support home improvements for reservation residents, as well as a major renovation of the Pamunkey Indian Fish Hatchery, which you later managed.
Throughout your life, you have worked tirelessly to preserve the history of your tribe and shape its future. You played an instrumental role in helping the Pamunkey people achieve long-awaited federal recognition in 2016. You retired from tribal government in September 2020, making this year a fitting time to honor your unrivaled knowledge of Pamunkey history, culture and practices.
George Warren Cook, for your artistic achievements, commitment to your community and your decades-long leadership of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, William & Mary is proud to honor you. By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Board of Visitors and the Ancient Royal Charter of The
College of William & Mary in Virginia, I hereby confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Public Service, Honoris Causa.
