​Brad Hatch is an enrolled citizen of the Patawomeck tribe, serves as chief judge on the tribal council, is a traditional knowledge keeper, and a trained archaeologist focused on material culture and historic preservation. He earned his BA in historic preservation from the University of Mary Washington, his MA in anthropology from the College of William and Mary, and his PhD in anthropology from the University of Tennessee. His research focuses on community, identity, and material culture in the Potomac River Valley and he is a Patawomeck eel pot maker. Brad is a lifelong resident of White Oak, in Stafford County, Virginia, and, like the majority of his tribal community, lives fewer than 10 miles from the ancestral villages along Potomac Creek.