Powhatan
Powhatan people are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who belong to member tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy, or Tsenacommacah. They are Algonquian peoples whose historic territories were in eastern Virginia.
Their Powhatan language is an Eastern Algonquian language, also known as Virginia Algonquian. In 1607, an estimated 14,000 to 21,000 Powhatan people lived in eastern Virginia when English colonists established Jamestown.
In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a mamanatowick named Wahunsenacawh forged a paramount chiefdom consisting of 30 tributary tribes through inheritance, marriage, and war. The chiefdom's territory included much of eastern Virginia, which they called Tsenacommacah. English colonists called Wahunsenacawh The Powhatan. Each tribe within the confederacy was led by a weroance, all of whom paid tribute to the Powhatan.
After Wahunsenacawh died in 1618, hostilities with colonists escalated under the chiefdom of his brother, Opchanacanough, who unsuccessfully tried to repel encroaching English colonists. His 1622 and 1644 attacks against the invaders failed, and the English almost eliminated the confederacy. By 1646, the Powhatan paramount chiefdom had been decimated, not just by warfare but from infectious diseases, such as measles and smallpox, newly introduced to North America by Europeans. The Native Americans did not have any immunity to these, which had been endemic to Europe and Asia for centuries. At least 75 percent of the Powhatan people died from these diseases in the 17th century alone.
By the mid-17th century, English colonists were desperate for labor to develop the land. Almost half of the European immigrants to Virginia arrived as indentured servants. As settlement continued, the colonists imported growing numbers of enslaved Africans for labor. By 1700, the colonies had about 6,000 enslaved Africans, one-twelfth of the population. Enslaved people would at times escape and join the surrounding Powhatan. Some white indentured servants were also known to have fled and joined the Indigenous peoples. African slaves and indentured European servants often worked and lived together, and while marriage was not always legal, some Native people lived, worked, and had children with them. After Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, the colony enslaved Indians for control. In 1691, the House of Burgesses abolished the enslavement of Native peoples; however, many Powhatans were held in servitude well into the 18th century.
English and Powhatan people often married, with the best-known being Pocahontas and John Rolfe. Their son was Thomas Rolfe, who has more than an estimated 100,000 descendants today. Many of the First Families of Virginia have both English and Virginia Algonquian ancestry.
Virginia state-recognized eight Native tribes with ancestral ties to the Powhatan Confederation. The Pamunkey and Mattaponi are the only two peoples who have retained reservation lands from the 17th century.
Today many descendants of the Powhatan Confederacy are enrolled in six federally recognized tribes in Virginia. They are:
- Chickahominy Indian Tribe
- Chickahominy Indian Tribe–Eastern Division
- Nansemond Indian Nation
- Pamunkey Indian Tribe
- Rappahannock Tribe, Inc.
- Upper Mattaponi Tribe.
Naming and terminology
The term Powhatan is also a title among the Powhatan people. English colonial historians often used it as a title.
Powhata was also the name used by the Native people to refer to the river where the town sat at the head of navigation. The English colonists chose to rename it the James River after King James I. The only water body in Virginia to retain a name related to the Powhatan people is Powhatan Creek, located in James City County near Williamsburg.
Powhatan County and its county seat at Powhatan, Virginia, were honorific names established years later, in locations west of the area populated by the Powhatan peoples.
Early history
Complex paramount chiefdom
Various tribes each held some individual powers locally, and each had a chief known as a weroance or, more rarely, a weroansqua, meaning "commander".As early as the era of John Smith, the individual tribes of this grouping were recognized by English colonists as falling under the greater authority of the centralized power led by the chiefdom of Powhatan, whose name was Wahunsenacawh.
In 1607, when the first permanent English colonial settlement in North America was founded at Jamestown, he ruled primarily from Werowocomoco, which was located on the northern shore of the York River. This site of Werowocomoco was rediscovered in the early 21st century; it was central to the tribes of the Confederacy. The improvements discovered at the site during archaeological research have confirmed that Powhatan had a paramount chiefdom over the other tribes in the power hierarchy. Anthropologist Robert L. Carneiro in his The Chiefdom: Precursor of the State. The Transition to Statehood in the New World, deeply explores the political structure of the chiefdom and confederacy.
Powhatan ruled what is called a complex chiefdom, referred to by scholars as the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom. Research work continues at Werowocomoco and elsewhere that deepens understanding of the Powhatan world.
Powhatan builds his chiefdom
Wahunsenacawh had inherited control over six tribes but dominated more than 30 by 1607 when the English settlers established their Virginia Colony at Jamestown. The original six tribes under Wahunsenacawh were: the Powhatan, the Arrohateck, the Appamattuck, the Pamunkey, the Mattaponi, and the Chiskiack.He added the Kecoughtan to his fold by 1598. Some other affiliated groups included the Rappahannock, Moraughtacund, Weyanoak, Paspahegh, Quiyoughcohannock, Warraskoyack, and Nansemond. Another closely related tribe of the same language group was the Chickahominy, but they managed to preserve their autonomy from the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom. The Accawmacke, located on the Eastern Shore across the Chesapeake Bay, were nominally tributary to the Powhatan Chiefdom but enjoyed autonomy under their own Paramount Chief or "Emperor", Debedeavon. Half a million Native Americans were living in the Allegheny Mountains around the year 1600. 30,000 of those 500,000 lived in the Chesapeake region under Powhatan’s rule, by 1677 only five percent of his population remained. The huge jump in deaths was caused by exposure and contact with Europeans.
In his Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson estimated that the Powhatan Confederacy occupied about of territory, with a population of about 8,000 people, of whom 2400 were warriors. Later scholars estimated the total population of the paramountcy as 15,000.
English settlers in the land of the Powhatan
The Powhatan Confederacy was where English colonists established their first permanent settlement in North America. Conflicts began immediately between the Powhatan people and English colonists; the colonists fired shots as soon as they arrived. Within two weeks of the arrival of English colonists at Jamestown, deaths had occurred.The settlers had hoped for friendly relations and had planned to trade with the Virginia Indians for food. Captain Christopher Newport led the first colonial exploration party up the James River in 1607 when he met Parahunt, weroance of the Powhatan proper. English colonists initially mistook him for the paramount Powhatan, his father Wahunsenacawh, who ruled the confederacy. Settlers coming into the region needed to befriend as many Native Americans as possible due to the unfamiliarity with the land. Not too long after settling down, they realized the huge potential for tobacco. To grow more and more tobacco, they had to impede on Native territory. There were immediate issues that resulted in 14 years of warfare.
On a hunting and trade mission on the Chickahominy River in December 1607, Captain John Smith wrote that he fought a small battle with the Opechancanough, and during this battle he tied his Indigenous guide to his body as a human shield. Although Smith was wounded in the leg and also had many arrows in his clothing, he was not deathly injured, but soon after he was captured by the Opechancanough. After Smith was captured the Natives prepared him for execution until he gave them a compass, which they saw as a sign of friendliness so they did not kill him, instead took him to a more popular chief, followed by a ceremony. Smith first was introduced to Powhatan's brother, who was a chief under Powhatan. Later, Smith was introduced to Powhatan himself. Smith was captured by Opechancanough, the younger brother of Wahunsenacawh. Smith became the first English colonist to meet the paramount chief Powhatan. According to Smith's account, Pocahontas, Chief Powhatan's daughter, prevented her father from executing Smith.
Some researchers have asserted that a mock execution of Smith was a ritual intended to adopt Smith into the tribe, but other modern writers dispute this interpretation, noting that many of Smith's stories do not line up with the known facts. They point out that nothing is known of 17th-century Powhatan adoption ceremonies and that an execution ritual is different from known rites of passage. Other historians, such as Helen Rountree, have questioned whether there was any risk of execution. Smith failed to mention this in his 1608 and 1612 accounts and only added it to his 1624 memoir after Pocahontas had become famous.
In 1608, Captain Newport realized that Powhatan's friendship was crucial to the survival of the small Jamestown colony. In the summer of that year, he tried to "crown" the paramount Chief, with a ceremonial crown, to transform him into a "vassal". They also gave Powhatan many European gifts, such as a pitcher, feather mattress, bed frame, and clothes. The coronation went badly because they asked Powhatan to kneel to receive the crown, which he refused to do. As a powerful leader, Powhatan followed two rules: "he who keeps his head higher than others ranks higher," and "he who puts other people in a vulnerable position, without altering his own stance, ranks higher." To finish the "coronation", several English colonists had to lean on Powhatan's shoulders to get him low enough to place the crown on his head, as he was a tall man. Afterward, the English colonists might have thought that Powhatan had submitted to King James, whereas Powhatan likely thought nothing of the sort.
After John Smith became president of the colony, he sent a force under Captain Martin to occupy an island in Nansemond territory and drive the inhabitants away. At the same time, he sent another force with Francis West to build a fort at the James River Falls. He purchased the nearby fortified Powhatan village from Parahunt for some copper and an English colonist named Henry Spelman, who wrote a rare firsthand account of the Powhatan ways of life. Smith then renamed the village Nonsuch, and tried to get West's men to live in it. Both these attempts at settling beyond Jamestown soon failed, due to Powhatan resistance. Smith left Virginia for England in October 1609, never to return, because of an injury sustained in a gunpowder accident. Soon afterward, English colonists established a second fort, Fort Algernon, in Kecoughtan territory.