The trail "will get people outside. They'll begin to care and want to know more, and then they'll become more active in the process of trying to get improvements in the environment," Portlock said during a recent excursion on the Chickahominy and the James.

Members of the Chickahominy Tribe's board said Virginia Indians have other reasons for supporting the trail: getting their story told, raising awareness that the rivers once were dotted with Indian settlements and perhaps helping them in their push for federal recognition, which could entitle them to financial aid.

"Our ancestors traveled these rivers long before the colonists got here," Reggie Stewart said at Chickahominy Riverfront Park.

While the powerful chief Powhatan had the allegiance of most Algonquians in Virginia's coastal plain, the Chickahominy Indians were independent. They befriended the English settlers, trading with Smith in the fall of 1607. That December, Smith set off to explore the Chickahominy River when he was captured by Indians and eventually taken to Powhatan. Legend has it that Powhatan spared Smith's life at the behest of the chief's daughter, Pocahontas.

"Everyone has seen the western Indians in the movies," said Danny Jefferson of Providence Forge. "The folks that aren't aware of the history ... don't realize that the Virginia Indian tribes were the first ones to make contact with the colonists. Here is where it all started."

Last year, President Bush signed legislation authorizing the National Park Service to study the feasibility of establishing the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Water Trail in Virginia, Delaware and Maryland. The proposed trail would be a circuit of the Chesapeake Bay, with river extensions, combining the routes of Smith's two major voyages around the bay in 1608, and other river explorations.

Virginia's trail is divided into three loops, each of which can be toured in a day. Some sites are more accessible by boat; others are best reached by car.

The upper Oxbow Loop includes Virginia's capital, Richmond, and takes travelers to that city's historic canals and riverfront. Other highlights include Shirley Plantation, the oldest plantation in Virginia, and Presquile National Wildlife Refuge, an island with protected habitat for wintering waterfowl and other migratory birds.

Moving eastward, bald eagles, herons and various songbirds nest along the stretch of the James River in the middle Cypress Loop, where cypress trees grow along the water's edge. The loop includes the mouth of the Chickahominy River, where Paspahegh Indians once lived. Settlers attacked the Paspahegh in 1610, razing the chief's town and destroying the corn fields.

On the Oyster Loop, where the lower James widens to more than five miles, travelers can observe the ongoing archaeological dig at Historic Jamestowne, the original site of the 1607 Jamestown colony, and see recreations of the settlers' ships at the Jamestown Settlement living history museum. The loop also includes several other museums, including the Watermens Museum, Virginia Living Museum and Mariners' Museum.