Powhatan Confederacy

Early history

Each member of the Powhatan Confederacy held individual powers over their own lands and each had their own leader known as a Weroance (man) or Weroansqua (woman). As early as the era of John Smith, the various nations were recognized by English colonists as being members of a massive confederacy led by a Mamanatowick.

In 1607, when the first permanent English colonial settlement in North America was founded at Jamestown, the Mamanatowick governed primarily from Werowocomoco, which was located on the northern shore of the York River. Wahunsenacawh had inherited control over six nations from his mother. By 1607, his confederacy had expanded to include more than thirty tribes. The original six tribes inherited by Wahunsenacawh were the Powhatan (proper), the Arrohattoc, the Appamattuck, the Pamunkey, the Mattaponi, and the Chiskiack.

The Kecoughtan joined the confederacy in 1598. Some other members included the Rappahannock, Moraughtacund, Weyanoak, Paspahegh, Quiyoughcohannock, Warraskoyack, and Nansemond. Another tribe from Tsenacommacah was the Chickahominy, who managed to preserve their independence from the confederacy. The Accawmacke, located on the Eastern Shore across the Chesapeake Bay, were nominally a member of the Powhatan Confederacy but enjoyed more autonomy under their own ruler, Debedeavon (aka "The Laughing King"). Around 30,000 people were citizens of the Powhatan Confederacy at the time of European contact; however, by 1677 only five percent of this population remained. The huge death toll was caused by diseases, mass enslavement, and warfare with Europeans.

In his Notes on the State of Virginia (1781–1782), Thomas Jefferson estimated that the Powhatan Confederacy occupied about 8,000 square miles (20,000 km²) of territory, with a population of about 8,000 people, of whom 2,400 were soldiers. Later scholars estimated the total population of the country as 15,000.

English settlers in the land of the Powhatan

The lands where the English colonists established Jamestown, their first permanent settlement in North America, were governed by the Powhatan Confederacy. Warfare began immediately because the colonists fired shots as soon as they arrived (due to a bad experience they had with the Spanish before their arrival). Within two weeks of the arrival of English colonists at Jamestown, deaths had occurred.

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 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. Soon after, he was captured by the Opechancanough.

After Smith was captured, the Opechancanough 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, they took him to a more popular Weroance, followed by a ceremony. Smith was first introduced to Powhatan's brother, who was a Weroance. Later, Smith was introduced to Wahunsenacawh himself. Smith was captured by Opechancanough, the younger brother of Wahunsenacawh. Smith became the first English colonist to meet the Mamanatowick. According to Smith's account, Pocahontas, 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 C. Rountree, have questioned whether there was any risk of execution. Smith failed to mention this incident in his 1608 and 1612 accounts, only adding it to his 1624 memoir after Pocahontas had become famous.

In 1608, Captain Newport realized that an alliance with the confederacy was crucial to the survival of the small and weak Jamestown colony. In the summer of that year, he tried to "crown" the Mamanatowick with a ceremonial crown to trick him into becoming a vassal of the English crown. They also gave out many gifts from Europe, such as a pitcher, a feather mattress, a bed frame, and clothes. The coronation went badly because they asked Powhatan to kneel to receive the crown, which he refused. 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 Virginia Colony, he sent a force under Captain Martin to occupy an island in Nansemond territory and drive its native inhabitants away. At the same time, he sent another force with Francis West to build a fort at the James River Falls. This attempt at settling beyond Jamestown soon failed due to the natives' resistance. Smith left Virginia for England in October 1609, never to return, due to an injury sustained in a gunpowder accident. Soon afterward in 1609, English colonists established a second fort, Fort Algernon, in Kecoughtan territory.

Anglo-Powhatan Wars and treaties

In November 1609, Captain John Ratcliffe was invited to Orapax, the Powhatan Confederacy's new capital. After Ratcliffe sailed up the Pamunkey River to trade, a fight broke out between the colonists and the natives. All of the English colonists ashore were killed, including Ratcliffe, who was ritually tortured by the women of the tribe. Those aboard the pinnace escaped and told the tale at Jamestown.

During the next year, the confederacy attacked and killed many Jamestown residents. Jamestown fought back, but only killed twenty from the confederacy. The arrival of a new governor, Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, (Lord Delaware), in June 1610 signaled the beginning of the First Anglo-Powhatan War. A brief period of peace came only after the capture of Pocahontas, her baptism, and her marriage to a tobacco planter, John Rolfe, in 1614. Within a few years, both Powhatan and Pocahontas were dead. Powhatan died in Virginia, while Pocahontas died in England. English settlement in confederacy territory continued unabated.

After Wahunsenacawh's death, his younger brother, Opitchapam, briefly became Mamanatowick, followed by their younger brother Opechancanough. The native's survival was threatened by the influx of English settlers who built towns on traditional farming lands, creating a need for the natives to purchase food from the settlers. The English also forcibly placed native youth in "colleges."

In March 1622, the confederacy attacked the Jamestown plantations, killing hundreds. The settlers quickly sought retaliation, killing hundreds of natives and burning fields. In 1644, the confederacy again attacked English colonial settlements to force them from the confederacy's territories; their attack was again met with strong reprisals from the colonists, ultimately resulting in the near destruction of the confederacy. The Second Anglo–Powhatan War that followed the 1644 incident ended in 1646 after Royal Governor of Virginia William Berkeley's forces captured Opechancanough, thought to be between 90 and 100 years old. While a prisoner, Opechancanough was killed, shot in the back by a soldier assigned to guard him. He was succeeded as Mamanatowick by Necotowance, and later by his daughter Cockacoeske.

The Treaty of 1646 marked the dissolution of the confederacy and granted English colonists an exclusive enclave between the York River and Blackwater River. This physically separated the Nansemonds, Weyanokes, and Appomattox, who retreated southward, from the other tribes then occupying the Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck. While the southern frontier demarcated in 1646 was respected for the remainder of the 17th century, the House of Burgesses lifted the northern one on September 1, 1649. Waves of new immigrants quickly flooded the peninsular region, then known as Chickacoan. This restricted the tribes to smaller and smaller tracts of land that became some of the earliest Indian reservations.

In 1665, the House of Burgesses passed stringent laws requiring the confederacy to accept chiefs appointed by the governor. After the Treaty of Albany in 1684, the Powhatan Confederacy all but vanished.

Changing society and English expansion

Assimilation programs established through the creation of an Indian School at the College of William & Mary in 1691 were a driving force behind cultural change. The college provided native boys with skills considered useless by their own people. However, settlers viewed Western literacy as a benefit, and boys who had received an education at William & Mary sent their sons to the school.

Many of the survivors had begun gambling, smoking tobacco, and consuming alcohol recreationally by the end of the 17th century.

Culture and lifeways

The peoples of the confederacy lived east of the Fall Line in Tidewater Virginia. They built their houses, called yehakins, by bending saplings and placing woven mats or bark over the top of the saplings. They supported themselves most through agriculture using crops such as maize. They also fished and hunted in the region's large forests. Towns consisted of many related families organized in nations led by a Weroance or Weroansqua if female. They, in turn, were led by the Mamanatowick for Confederacy-wide issues.

The confederacy was roughly bounded by the Potomac River to the north, the Fall Line to the west, the Virginia-North Carolina border to the south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Generally, peaceful interactions with the Pamlicos and Chowanocs occurred along the southern boundary, while the western and northern boundaries were more contested. Conflicts occurred with Monacans and Mannahoacs along the western boundary and the Massawomecks along the northern boundary.

Fires were primarily used to heat their sleeping rooms. As a result, less bedding was needed, and bedding materials could be easily stored during daytime hours. Couples typically slept head to foot. Due to early English hopes that they could appropriate the Powhatan Confederacy for profit, as the Spanish did in their colonies, their statements detailing rigid tribute and hierarchy are "most assurdly overestimated."

Men were soldiers and hunters, while women were farmers and gatherers. Women spent much of their hours growing crops, pounding corn into meals, gathering nuts, and performing other important jobs. When the men undertook extended hunts, the women went ahead of them to construct hunting camps. The economy depended on the labor of both sexes. Women would form work parties to accomplish tasks more efficiently. Women also acted as barbers, home furnishers, and clothing makers. Overall, women maintained independence in both their work lives and sexual lives. After a long day, they would celebrate and burn off any last energy they had by dancing and singing. This also allowed them to release any tensions they had from working.

The native residents of Tsenacommacah practiced Three Sisters agriculture. They periodically moved their towns to different locations. They cleared the fields by felling, girdling, or firing trees at the base and then using fire to reduce the slash and stumps. To stop a town from becoming unusable as soil productivity gradually declined and local fish and game were depleted. The inhabitants would instead move on to allow the area to revitalize, the soil to replenish, the foliage to grow, and the number of fish and game to increase. With every location change, the people used fire to clear new land. The peoples of Tsenacommacah also used fire to maintain extensive areas of open game habitat throughout the East, later called "barrens" by European colonists. There were also rich fishing grounds along the confederacy's shores and rivers. Bison had migrated to this area by the early 15th century.

Religion

English settlers observed the native people making offerings and praying at sunrise. They also prayed and made offerings to specific spirits, who were believed to ensure a good harvest. They used the land differently, and their religion was a native one. Significantly, one of the major duties of priests was controlling the weather.

Members of the confederacy

The number of members of the Confederacy listed below and the number of soldiers are based on estimates or reports which mostly go back to Captain John Smith (1580 - 1631) and William Strachey (1572 - 1621). Usually, only the number of soldiers of the individual members is known; the stem number will therefore be determined with a ratio of 1: 3, 1: 3,3, or the last 1: 4, and the studies of Christian Feest are decisive. The last-mentioned figures refer to the first mention as well as the last mention of the respective members - e.g., 1585/1627 for the Chesapeake (Source: Handbook of North American Indians).

20th-century history

Virginia passed stringent racial segregation laws in the early 20th century and the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 which mandated every person who had any African heritage be deemed "black". Walter Plecker, the head of the state's vital statistics office for more than thirty years, directed all state and local registration offices to use only the terms "white" or "colored" to denote race on official documents. This eliminated all traceable records of the native people who lived in Virginia, including birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, tax forms, and land deeds. Plecker took a personal interest in eliminating traces of Virginia Indians and surmized that no true Virginia Indians were remaining, as years of intermarriage had "diluted the race". Over his years of service, he conducted a campaign to reclassify all biracial and multiracial 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 "paper genocide".

After the United States entered World War II, many of Virginia's native people volunteered to serve in the military. Virginia Indian men fought to be regarded separately from the Black community by the Selective Service. In 1954, they were given partial legal recognition by the Virginia General Assembly through a law stating that people with one-fourth or more Indian ancestry and one-sixteenth or less African ancestry were to be recognized as tribal Indians.

Confederacy tribes today

State-recognized tribes

The Commonwealth of Virginia has recognized eleven tribes, beginning with the Mattaponi and Pamunkey since its establishment. In the 1980s, Virginia recognized six more tribes, also descended from the Powhatan Confederacy. In 2010, Virginia recognized three more tribes; one being the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia, who identify as being descendants of the Patawomeck people who were loosely connected to the Powhatan Confederacy.

Of these state-recognized tribes that identify as being descendants of the peoples of the Confederacy, all but the Mattaponi Indian Nation and the Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia have since gained federal recognition.

The Powhatan Renape Nation are a state-recognized tribe in New Jersey that identifies as descendants of the Powhatan Confederacy.

Federally recognized tribes

Of the original members of the Powhatan Confederacy, there are six federally recognized tribes today, all based in Virginia.

1. Chickahominy Indian Tribe
2. Chickahominy Indian Tribe–Eastern Division
3. Nansemond Indian Nation
4. Pamunkey Indian Tribe
5. Rappahannock Tribe, Inc.
6. Upper Mattaponi Tribe

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe was the first to gain federal recognition in 2016. The other six were recognized by Congress through the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017. Two of these tribes, the Mattaponi and Pamunkey, still retain their reservations from the 17th century and are located in King William County, Virginia. As part of a treaties in 1646 and 1677, the tribes agreed to bring wild game to the governor of Virginia each year.

Languages of the confederacy

Most members of the Powhatan Confederacy likely spoke mutually intelligible Algonquian languages. This use became dormant due to the widespread deaths and social disruption suffered by the people. Much of the vocabulary is forgotten. Attempts have been made to reconstruct a language using sources such as word lists provided by Smith and by the 17th-century writer William Strachey.