Native American Tribes in Virginia and Powhatan the Powhatan

The Powhatan ( as well as spelled Powatan and Powhaten), is the conjure of a Virginia Indian1 tribe. It is excessively the form of a coercive stem of tribes which they rule. It is estimated that there were active 14,000-21,000 of these autochthonal Powhatan passel in east Virginia when the face settled piletown in 1607. 2 They were excessively known as Virginia Algonquians, as they spoke an eastern-Algonquian language known as Powhatan.In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a mamanatowick (paramount fountainhead)3 named Wahunsunacawh created a powerful organization by affiliating 30 tri thoary tribes, whose territory was much of eastern Virginia, c all(prenominal)ed Tsenacommacah (densely-inhabited Land),4 Wahunsunacawh came to be known by the face as heading Powhatan. Each of the tribes within this organization had its own weroance (chief), but all gainful tribute to hirer Powhatan. 5 after(prenominal) Chief Powhatans death in 1618, hostilities with colonist s escalated at a humiliateder place the chiefdom of his br other(a), Opechancanough, who sought in vain to drive off the encroaching English.His big attacks in 1622 and 1644 met grueling reprisals by the English, resulting in the near elimination of the tribe. By 1646 what is called the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom by advance(a) historians had been largely destroyed. In addition to the new run afouls with the ever-expanding English settle ments and their inhabitants, the Powhatan suffered a high death rate due to septic diseases, maladies introducted to North America by the Europeans to which the Native Americans of the United States had developed no natural immunities.By this time, the leaders of the colony were desperate for labor to develop the land. close to half of the English and European immigrants arrived as indentured servants. As colonial expansion continued, the colonists imported growing military issues of enslaved Africans for labor. By 1700 the colonies had about 6,000 blackened slaves, unrivalled-twelfth of the population. It was common for black slaves to escape and join the surrounding Powhatan white servants were similarly noned to accommodate joined the Indians.Africans and whites relieve oneselfed and lived together nearly inwroughts as well as intermarried with them. afterwards Bacons Rebellion in 1676, the colony enslaved Indians for control. In 1691 the put up of Burgesses abolished Indian bondage however, many Powhatan were held in servitude well into the 18th century. 6 In the twenty-first century, eighter Indian tribes are recognise by the give in as having ties with the archetype Powhatan complex chiefdom. 7 The Pamunkey and Mattaponi are the only two good deals who urinate retained military reserve lands from the 17th century. 5 The competing cultures of the Powhatan and English settlers were united temporarily by the marriage of Pocahontas and sewer Rolfe. Their son Thomas Rolfe was the ancestor of many Virginians hence, many of the First Families of Virginia sop up both English and Virginia Indian1 ancestry. History edit Naming and terminology The name Powhatan is believed to fill originated as the name of the settlement or town that Wahunsunacawh came from. The official backup Chief Powhatan used by the English is believed to remove been derived from the name of this location.Although the specific situs of his home village is unknown, in modern times, the Powhatan Hill neighborhood in the East End portion of the modern city of Richmond, Virginia is thought by many to be in the general vicinity of the original village. channelize Hill Farm, which is situated in nearby Henrico County a short outperform to the east, is in any case considered as the possible come out. Powhatan was also the name used by the natives to refer to the river where the town sat at the head of navigation. The English colonists chose to name it instead for their own leader, major power cro wd I.Many features in the early geezerhood of the Virginia village were named in honor of the king, as well as his threesome children, Elizabeth, Henry, and Charles. Although portions of Virginias longest river upstream from Columbia were much later named for Queen Anne of outstanding Britain, in modern times, it is called the James River. It extends from Hampton Roads westerly to the confluence of the capital of Mississippi River and Cowpasture River near the town of Clifton Forge. (The Rivanna River, a tributary of the James River, and Fluvanna County, each dwell as named in legacy to Queen Anne).However, the only water automobile trunk in Virginia to retain a name which honors the Powhatan peoples is Powhatan Creek, laid in James City County near Williamsburg. Powhatan County and its county seat at Powhatan, Virginia were honorific names schematic days later, in locations west of the area populated by the Powhatan peoples. The county was create in may, 1777. edit Complex chiefdom Likewise, perhaps more significant misnomers are the wrong Powhatan Confederacy and Powhatan Confederation. This grouping of tribes is clearly not best-defined in modern footing as a confederacy. That watchword is generally thought of as a grouping of entities each with greater psyche power than the group when united. In many uses, a confederacy is distinctly different in social organization from a centralized greater power than the parts, such as the current national structure of the United States. Many historians attribute to a peasant level the failure of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil war remotee in part to the weakness of the central government in resemblance to the Union. It is important for a reader to bring down that approximately historians do not consider this difference as one of the major weaknesses leading to the grey loss. However, the term Confederacy has get down associated with the principal of assures rights versu s the central U. S. government). Using the word confederacy to define the Powhatan tribes extant in 1607 can therefore, be mislead when seeking to on a lower floorstand these people, their governments and their culture. It is true that the various tribes each held some individual powers locally.Each had a chief known as a weroance (male) or, more rarely, a weroansqua (female), meaning commander, 8. As of 2010, we do not know to what degree most of the various tribes belonged to the group by choice or perhaps by coercion or even greater force. As early as the era of stern smith of Virginia, the individual tribes of this grouping were clearly know by the English as falling under the greater trust of the centralized power (whatever it is labeled) led by the chiefdom of Chief Powhatan (c. June 17, 1545 c. 1618), whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh or (in 17th century English spelling) Wahunsunacock. 9. At the time of the 1607 English Settlement at Jamestown, he ruled primarily fr om Werowocomoco, which was located on northwestern shore of the York River. This location of Werowocomoco, itself only rediscovered in the early 21st century, was very central to locations of the various tribes. The improvements discovered during archaeological question at Werowocomoco have reinforced the paramount chiefdom of Chief Powhatan over the other tribes in the power hierarchy. Such issues in other cultures and the definitions are covered at some length by author Robert L.Carneiro in his 1981 work on anthropology, The Chiefdom Precursor of the State. The Transition to Statehood in the New World. The plaza of power held by Chief Powhatan (and his several successors) is much more concisely defined as a complex chiefdom. 10 To refer to this complex chiefdom, the term Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom has become favored. all over time, this and other revisions to the knowledge and information available about the Powhatan peoples native to Virginia will undoubtedly be made as res earch work at Werowocomoco and elsewhere continues in the 21st century. See also Werowocomoco edit Chief Powhatan builds his chiefdom Wahunsunacawh had inherited control over just six tribes, but dominated more than thirty by the time the English settlers complete their Virginia Colony at Jamestown in 1607. The original six constituent tribes in Wahunsunacocks group were the Powhatan (proper), the Arrohateck, the Appamattuck, the Pamunkey, the Mattaponi, and the Chiskiack. He added the Kecoughtan to his fold by 1598. Some other affiliated groups include the Youghtanund, Rappahannocks, Moraughtacund, Weyanoak, Paspahegh, Quiyoughcohannock, Warraskoyack, and Nansemond.Yet another closely related tribe in the midst of these others, all speaking the same language, was the Chickahominy, who managed to preserve their autonomy from the Powhatan Paramount Chiefdom. In his historied work Notes on the State of Virginia (178182), Thomas Jefferson estimated that the Powhatan Confederacy occupi ed about 8,000 square miles (20,000 km2) of territory, with a population of about 8,000 people, of whom 2400 were warriors. 11 Later scholars estimated the population of the paramountcyclarification needed as 15,000. edit The English settlers in the land of the Powhatan John Smith taking the King of Pamunkey prisoner, a fanciful image of Opechancanough from Smiths General History of Virginia (1624). The image of Opechancanough is root on a 1585 painting of another native warrior by John White1 The Powhatan Confederacy were the Indians among whom the English made their first permanent settlement in North America. This contributed to their downfall. Conflicts began immediately the English colonists fired shots as soon as they arrived (due to a bad experience they had with the Spanish prior to their arrival). Within two weeks of the English arrival atJamestown, deaths had occurred. The settlers had hoped for friendly relations and had planned to trade with the Virginia Indians for fo od. schoolmaster Chris outdoher Newport led the first English exploration party up the James River in 1607, when he met Parahunt, weroance of the Powhatan proper. The English initially mistook him for the paramount Powhatan (mamanatowick), who was in item his father, Wahunsunacawh. On a hunting and trade mission on the Chickahominy River in December 1607, master key John Smith, later president of the colony, was captured by Opechancanough, the younger brother of Wahunsunacawh.Smith became the first Englishman to meet the paramount chief, Powhatan. According to Smiths account, Pocahontas, Wahunsunacawhs daughter, prevented her father from penalise Smith. Some researchers have asserted that a mock execution was a ritual intended to adopt Smith into the tribe, but other modern writers dispute this interpretation. They point out that nothing is known of 17th-century Powhatan adoption ceremonies. They note that an execution ritual is different from known rites of passage.Other hist orians, such as Helen Rountree, have questioned whether there was any risk of execution. They note that Smith failed to mention it 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 Powhatans friendship was crucial to the survival of the small Jamestown colony. In the summer of that year, he seek to crown the paramount Chief, with a ceremonial crown, to make him an English vassal. 12 They also gave Powhatan many European gifts, such as a pitcher, feather mattress, pull back 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 land up the coronation, several English had to lean on Powhatans shoulders to get him low enough to place the crown on his head, as he was a tall man.Afterwards, the English might have thought that Powhatan had submitted to King James, whereas Powhatan seeming thought nothing of the sort. 13 In fact, only by being warned onwards by a sympathizing servant, was an assassination plot led by braves averted (the British also refused to let the natives take their muskets for safekeeping). citation needed 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 assemble at the James River falls.He purchased the nearby fortified Powhatan village (present position of Richmond, Virginia) from Parahunt for some copper and an English servant named Henry Spelman, who wrote a rare primary account of the Powhatan ways of life. Smith thus renamed the village Nonsuch, and time-tested to get Wests men t o live in it. Both these attempts at subsidence 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, the English completed a second fort, Fort Algernon, in Kecoughtan territory. The Coronation of Powhatan, oil on canvas, John Gadsby Chapman, 1835 In November 1609, Captain John Ratcliffe was invited to Orapakes, Powhatans new capital. After he had sailed up the Pamunkey River to trade there, a fight broke out mingled with the colonists and the Powhatan. each(prenominal) of the English ashore were killed, including Ratcliffe, who was tortured by the women of the tribe. Those aboard the tender escaped and told the tale at Jamestown. During that next year, the tribe attacked and killed many Jamestown residents.The residents fought back, but only killed twenty. However, arrival at Jamestown of a new Governor, Thomas West, third Baron De La Warr , (Lord Delaware) in June of 1610 signalled the beginning of the First Anglo-Powhatan War. A skeleton period of peace came only after the capture of Pocahontas, her baptism, and her marriage to tobacco plant planter John Rolfe in 1614. Within a few years both Powhatan and Pocahontas were dead. The Chief died in Virginia, but Pocahontas died while in England. Meanwhile, the English settlers continued to encroach on Powhatan territory.After Wahunsunacawhs death, his younger brother, Opitchapam, briefly became chief, followed by their younger brother Opechancanough. In 1622 and 1644 he attacked the English to force them from Powhatan territories. Both these attempts were met with strong reprisals from the English, ultimately resulting in the near destruction of the tribe. The Second AngloPowhatan War that followed the 1644 fortuity ended in 1646, after Royal Governor of Virginia William Berkeleys forces captured Opechancanough, thought to be between 90 and 100 years old.While a pris oner, Opechancanough was killed, shot in the back by a soldier assigned to guard him. He was succeeded as Weroance by Necotowance, and later by Totopotomoi and by his daughter Cockacoeske. The conformity of 1646 marked the effective dissolution of the united confederacy, as white colonists were given(p) an exclusive enclave between the York and Blackwater Rivers. This physically separated the Nansemonds, Weyanokes and Appomattox, who retreated southward, from the other Powhatan tribes then occupying the Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck.While the southern frontier demarcated in 1646 was respected for the respite of the 17th century, the House of Burgesses lifted the northern one on family dividing line 1, 1649. Waves of new immigrants quickly flooded the peninsular region, then known as Chickacoan, and restricted the dwindling tribes to lesser tracts of land that became some of the earliest Indian reservations. In 1665, the House of Burgesses passed stringent laws requiring the Powhatan to accept chiefs appointed by the governor. After the Treaty of Albany in 1684, the Powhatan Confederacy all but vanished.Red line shows boundary between the Virginia Colony and Tributary Indian tribes, as established by the Treaty of 1646. Red dot on river shows Jamestown, capital of Virginia Colony. edit Capitals of the Powhatan people The capital village of Powhatan was believed to be in the present-day Powhatan Hill partitioning of the eastern part of Richmond, Virginia, or perhaps nearby in a location which became part of Tree Hill Farm. Another major center of the confederacy about 75 miles (121 km) to the east was called Werowocomoco. It was located near the north bank of the York River in present-day Gloucester County.Werowocomoco was depict by the English colonists as only 15 miles (24 km) as the crow flies from Jamestown, but also described as 25 miles (40 km) downstream from present-day West Point, measurements which conflict with each other. In 2003 archaeolo gists initiated excavations at a site in Gloucester County that have revealed an extensive indigenous settlement from about 1200 (the late Woodland period) finished the early Contact period. Work since then has added to their belief that this is the location of Werowocomoco. The site is on a farm bordering n Purtain Bay of the York River, about 12 nautical miles (22 km) from Jamestown. The more than 50 acres (200,000 m2) residential settlement extends up to 1,000 feet (300 m) back from the river. In 2004, researchers excavated two curving ditches of 200 feet (60 m) at the far edge, which were constructed about 1400 CE. In addition to extensive artifacts from hundreds of years of indigenous settlement, researchers have found a variety of trade goods related to the brief fundamental interaction of Native Americans and English in the early years of Jamestown.Around 1609, Wahunsunacock shifted his capital from Werowocomoco to Orapakes, located in a swamp at the head of the Chickahominy River, near the modern-day interchange of Interstate 64 and Interstate 295. Sometime between 1611 and 1614, he moved further north to Matchut, in present-day King William County on the north bank of the Pamunkey River, not far from where his brother Opechancanough ruled one of the member tribes at Youghtanund. edit Characteristics The Powhatan lived east of the fall line in Tidewater Virginia.They construct their houses, called yehakins, by bending saplings and placing woven mats or bark over top of the saplings. They supported themselves primarily by growing crops, especially maize, but they also tiped and hunted in the great forest in their area. Villages consisted of a number of related families organized in tribes led by a chief (weroance/werowance or weroansqua if female). They paid tribute to the paramount chief (mamanatowick), Powhatan. 3 According to research by the National Park Service, Powhatan men were warriors and hunters, while women were gardeners and gatherers.The English described the men, who ran and walked extensively through the woods in pursuit of enemies or game, as tall and lean and possessed of handsome physiques. The women were shorter, and were strong because of the hours they spent be crops, pounding corn into meal, gathering nuts, and performing other domestic chores. When the men undertook extended hunts, the women went ahead of them to construct hunting camps. The Powhatan domestic economy depended on the labor of both sexes. 14 All of Virginias natives practiced agriculture. They periodically moved their villages from site to site.Villagers vindicated the fields by felling, girdling, or firing trees at the base and then using fire to reduce the slash and stumps. A village became unusable as soil productivity gradually declined and local fish and game were depleted. The inhabitants then moved on. With every change in location, the people used fire to clear new land. They left more cleared land behind. The natives also used f ire to maintain extensive areas of pass around game habitat throughout the East, later called barrens by European colonists. The Powhatan also had rich fishing grounds.Bison had migrated to this area by the early 15th century. 15 edit The Powhatan people today edit State and federal recognition As of 2010, the state of Virginia has recognized eight Powhatan Indian-descended tribes in Virginia. Collectively, the tribes currently have 3,000-3,500 enrolled as tribal members. 16 It is estimated, however, that 3 to 4 times that number are eligible for tribal membership. 12 dickens of these tribes, the Mattaponi and Pamunkey, still retain their reservations from the 17th century and are located in King William County, Virginia.Since the 1990s, the Powhatan Indian tribes which have state recognition, along with the other Virginia Indian tribe which has state recognition, have been seeking federal recognition. It has been a problematic process. They have been hampered by the lack of offi cial records verifying heritage and by the historical misclassification of family members in the 1930s and 1940s, largely a result of Virginias state policy of race classification on official documents.After Virginia passed stringent separatism laws in the early 20th century and ultimately the Racial uprightness Act of 1924 which mandated every person who had any African heritage be deemed black, Walter Plecker, the head of Vital Statistics office, directed all state and local enrollment offices to use only the terms white or colored to denote race on official documents and thereby eliminated all traceable records of Virginia Indians. All state documents, including birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, tax forms and land deeds, thus bear no record of Virginia Indians.Plecker oversaw the Vital Statistics office in the state for several decades, beginning in the early 20th century, and took a ad hominem interest in eliminating traces of Virginia Indians. As a follower of the eugenics movement and, by modern day standards, a white supremacist, Plecker falsely surmised that there were no true Virginia Indians remaining as years of intermarriage has diluted the race. Over his years of service, he conducted a campaign to reclassify all bi-racial and multi-racial individuals as black, believing such persons were fraudulently attempting to claim their race to be Indian or white.The effect of his reclassification has been described by tribal members as reputation genocide. Initially, the Virginia tribes efforts to gain federal recognition encountered resistance due to federal legislators concerns over whether gambling would be established on their lands if recognition were granted, as it would raise federal tax concerns and also casinos are illegal in Virginia. In March 2009, five of the state-recognized Powhatan Indian tribes and the one other state-recognized Virginia Indian tribe introduced a bill to gain federal recognition through an act of Congress. The bill, The Thomasina E.Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act, included a section forbidding the tribes from opening casinos, even if casinos became legal in Virginia. The House Committee on Natural Resources recommended the bill be considered by the US House of Representatives at the end of April, the House approved the bill on June 3, 2009. The bill was then sent to the Senates Committee on Indian Affairs, who recommended it be heard by the Senate as a whole in October. On December 23, 2009, the bill was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar under general orders, which is where the bill is currently.