Powhatan Confederacy

Tribes affected: Chickahominy, Gingaskin, Mattaponi, Nansemond, Nottoway, Pamunkey, Patawomeck (Potomac), Rappahannock, Weyanoke, Wiccocomicos, about twenty others

Culture area: Southeast

Language group: Algonquian

Primary location: Virginia

The American Indians who encountered the first permanent English colonists at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 were Powhatans. The name can be a source of confusion because it has at least four related but distinct meanings. First, it is applied collectively to those early seventeenth century Virginia tribes that acknowledged the leadership of a paramount chief. After 1607 this chief was generally called Powhatan by the English (though his personal name was Wahunsonacock). Powhatan was also the name of the chief’s native village at the falls of the James River. (The term literally meant “at the falls.”) Finally, the name is applied to the dialect of the Algonquian language family spoken by Powhatan’s subjects.

The Powhatan tribes lived in eastern Virginia, between the Potomac River and the south bank of the James River. There were approximately thirty tribes or groups that acknowledged Powhatan’s supremacy. Some of these (such as the Mattaponi, Pamunkey, and Rappahannock) survived into later centuries; most of the others (such as the Patawomecks, Weyanokes, and Wiccocomicos) did not.

Traditional Lifestyle

By the time of contact with the English, the Powhatans had evolved a settled way of life based on a mixed economy of agriculture and foraging. Powhatan tribes lived in villages located on the many creeks and rivers that fed into Chesapeake Bay. The men hunted and foraged for food, while the Native American women were responsible for planting and harvesting corn and vegetables. The sexes enjoyed greater equality than existed in contemporary European society. Powhatan society was relatively stratified, with recognized ruling families in each village, as well as priests and military leaders, all ranking above the commoners. The political organization that had evolved by the time of contact was relatively elaborate. Each group had its own chief (or weroance), though all swore allegiance to Powhatan. Individual village chiefs were the lowest tier of authority. Though often styled a confederacy, Powhatan’s polity is more accurately termed a paramount chiefdom because it was based on the subordination of its member tribes rather than their voluntary association. Powhatan was not an absolute ruler, however, and his power was greater over some tribes than others.

Contact with the English

Powhatan’s life was changed forever by the arrival of the English in Virginia in 1607. While Indian assistance in the form of food and knowledge was essential to the colony’s survival, a clash of cultures almost immediately ensued, and conflict became the dominant pattern. Powhatan led wars against the English in 1610-1613. In 1622-1632 and 1644-1646 Opechancanough, Powhatan’s younger brother and successor as paramount chief, continued these wars. The second of the wars began with a surprise uprising that killed a quarter of Virginia’s white population. Opechancanough was killed during the last of the wars, and thereafter the paramount chiefdom disintegrated.

An attempt was made, with English encouragement, to resurrect it in the 1670’s under Cockacoeske, queen of the Pamunkeys. By this time, however, the Powhatan tribes that survived preferred dealing with the English on an individual basis. In 1677, treaties were made with the colony of Virginia in which several of the tribes accepted reservations. The Powhatans were clearly a civilization in decline. The combination of wars and European diseases had reduced their numbers from twelve thousand in 1607 to one thousand in 1700. Over time the Indians became increasingly acculturated. By the mid-eighteenth century, the Powhatan language had died out.

Modern Struggles

Despite a decimated population and social disorganization, the Virginia tribes that survived managed to maintain a strong sense of Indian identity. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they faced an uphill struggle to preserve it. To many white Virginians, the descendants of the Powhatans did not seem very “Indian”: They spoke English, farmed, and dressed like other Virginians. Moreover, many had intermarried—with blacks as well as whites—in an era of increasing racial consciousness. The Gingaskin and Nottaway (the latter a non-Algonquian group) agreed to termination in the early nineteenth century, and their reservation lands were divided among themselves. The Pamunkeys and Mattaponis hung onto their reservation lands, though at times with difficulty. The nonreservation tribes (such as the Rappahannocks, Nansemonds, and Chickahominies) had more problems maintaining separate identities and were not recognized by the state government as Indians. (Since the treaties governing Virginia’s Indians were made long before American independence, the Virginia tribes never entered into a formal relationship with the United States government and lacked federal recognition as Indians.)

Probably the greatest difficulties for Virginia’s Indians came during the era of racial segregation, when state authorities sought to treat Indians as they treated African Americans. Indians resisted, however, often wearing their straight hair long to display their physical distinctiveness. During World War I and World War II, reservation Indians were able to establish their claim to Indian status and thus served in white, rather than black, units.

The twentieth century witnessed a revival among Virginia tribes of Powhatan ancestry. The Pamunkey and Mattaponi continue to maintain their reservations, and nonreservation groups organized and sought formal recognition from the state. By 1990, five such groups had obtained state recognition: the Upper Mattaponi, the United Rappahanock, the Nansemond, the Chickahominy, and the Eastern Chickahominy. Organized legally as corporations, the nonreservation tribes adopted democratic governments that elected councils and chiefs. The reservation tribes by this time also had elected governments, though they limited participation in them to male reservation residents.

Bibliography

Craven, Wesley Frank. Red, White, and Black. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1971.

Paredes, J. Anthony, ed. Indians of the Southeastern United States in the Late Twentieth Century. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1992.

Rountree, Helen C. Pocahontas’s People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia Through Four Centuries. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗., ed. Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.

Williams, Walter L., ed. Southeastern Indians Since the Removal Era. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1979.