Powhatan (Native American leader)
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Wahunsenacawh, Powhatan | |
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Opechancanough (brother) (son-in-law)John Rolfe |
Powhatan (
in 1607.Powhatan, alternately called "King" or "Chief" Powhatan by English settlers, led the main political and military power facing the early colonists, and was probably the older brother of
Name
In 1607, the English colonists were introduced to Wahunsenacawh as Powhatan and understood this latter name to come from Powhatan's hometown near the falls of the James River near present-day Richmond, Virginia.[1]
Seventeenth-century English spellings were not standardized, and representations were many of the sounds of the Algonquian language spoken by Wahunsenacawh and his people. Charles Dudley Warner, writing in the 19th century, but quoting extensively from John Smith's 17th-century writings, in his essay on Pocahontas states: "In 1618 died the great Powhatan, full of years and satiated with fighting and the savage delights of life. He had many names and titles; his people called him Ottaniack, sometimes Mamauatonick, and usually in his presence Wahunsenasawk." Many variants are used in texts:
- The place:
- Powhatan, Powatan, Powhaten, Pohetan, Powhattan, Poughwaton
- The description (meaning chief?):
- weroance, weeroance, wyrounce, wyrounnces, werowance, wyroance, werowans
- The name:
- Wahunsunacock, Wahunsenasawk, Wahunsenacawh, Wahunsenacock, Wahunsenakah
- The title:
- Mamanatowick (paramount- or great-chief)
Life
Little is known of Powhatan's life before the arrival of English colonists in 1607. He apparently inherited the leadership of about 4–6 tribes, with its base at the
In December 1607,
In January 1609, Smith recorded directing some of his men to build an English-style house for Powhatan at Werowocomoco, in exchange for food supplies for the hungry English colony.[4] Both sides looked for opportunities to surprise one another. Smith proceeded to Opchanacanough's village. When ambushed, he held Powhatan at gunpoint before the warriors. When Smith returned to Werowocomoco, he found the house unfinished and the place abandoned. The men had deserted to the Powhatan side. At a village now called Wicomico in Gloucester County, the reconstructed ruins of what were traditionally believed to be the chimney and part of the building for Powhatan are known as Powhatan's Chimney.
Since 2003, state officials and researchers have concluded the likely site of Werowocomoco is further west along the York River at Purtan Bay. There
Powhatan made his next capital at Orapake, located about 50 miles (80 km) west in a swamp at the head of the Chickahominy River. The modern-day interchange of Interstate 64 and Interstate 295 is near this location. Sometime between 1611 and 1614, Powhatan moved further north to Matchut, in present-day King William County on the north bank of the Pamunkey River, near where his younger brother Opchanacanough ruled at Youghtanund.
By the time Smith left Virginia in 1609, the fragile peace between colonists and Algonquians was already beginning to fray. Soon conflict led to the
Meanwhile, English colonists continued to expand along the James Riverfront. The aged Powhatan's final years have been called "ineffectual" (Rountree 1990). Opchanacanough became the greater Native power in the region. Upon the death of Wahunsunacock in 1618, his next younger brother Opitchapam officially became
Through his daughter Pocahontas (and her marriage to the English colonist John Rolfe), Wahunsunacock was the grandfather of Thomas Rolfe. In 1635 Rolfe returned to Virginia from England. Although Rolfe was raised as an Englishman, he did honor his Native American heritage and even visited his uncle, Opchanacanough, along with his aunt, “Cleopatra” upon returning to Jamestown. His true loyalty remained with the colonists and he was made a commander of James Fort on the Chickahominy after the next war. Like his mother, Pocahontas, Thomas Rolfe was not a celebrity while he was alive.[6] The numerous Rolfe family descendants comprised one of the First Families of Virginia, one with both English and Virginia Indian roots. The modern Mattaponi and Patawomeck tribes believe that Powhatan's line also survives through Ka-Okee, Pocahontas' daughter by her first husband Kocoum.[7]
According to one legend, Powhatan, returning homeward from a battle near what is now
Appearance
In A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Happened in Virginia (1608), Smith described Powhatan thus: "[...] their Emperor proudly [lay] upon a bedstead a foot high upon ten or twelve mats, richly hung with many chains of great pearls about his neck, and covered with a great covering of Rahaughcums [raccoon skins]. At his head sat a woman, at his feet another, on each side, sitting upon a mat upon the ground, were ranged his chief men on each side [of] the fire, ten in a rank, and behind them as many young women, each a great chain of white beads over their shoulders, their heads painted in red, and [he] with such a grave a majestical countenance as drove me into admiration to see such state in a naked savage."[11]
"Powhatan's Mantle" is the name given to a cloak of
In his 1906 work Lives of Famous Chiefs, Norman Wood provided a description of Powhatan, based on reports from English colonists. He was said to be a "tall, well-proportioned man with a sower looke, his head somewhat gray, his beard so thinne that it seemeth none at all, his age neare sixtie, of a very able and hardy body, to endure any labor."[13]
Sites associated with Powhatan
- Powhatan's burial mound is located on the Pamunkey Indian Reservation in King William. The remains were relocated there by his brother, Opchanacanough.
- Powhatan County, although located somewhat to the west of their territory, was named for Powhatan and his tribe.
- In the independent City of Richmond, Powhatan Hill is believed to be located near Powhatan's main village. It was ruled by a subject weroance called Parahunt, or Tanx ("little") Powhatan. On first meeting him, English colonists mistook him for the Great Powhatan. The confusion persists in historic accounts.
- Powhatan's central village, Werowocomoco, is believed to have been located in Gloucester County, Virginia. The Werowocomoco Archeological Site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Excavations there have revealed much about the early Powhatan people and their interaction with English colonists.
Tribes associated with Powhatan
Powhatan gained control of six tribes when he became chief. He inherited them from his father, whose name is unknown.
Those six tribes included:
• Arrohattoc (Arro-hattoc/Arrohateck) • Appomattoc (Appomattox) • Mattaponi (Mattapa-nient) • Pamunkey • Youghtanund • Powhatan
Through his chiefdom, Powhatan obtained the following tribes known as
•
• Opiscopank (Piscataway) • Paspahegh • Piankatank • Pissaseck • Patawomeck (Potomac) • Quiyoughcohannock • Rappahannock (Tappahannock) • Sekakawon (Secacawoni)
•
References
- ^ a b Huber, Margaret Williamson (January 12, 2011). "Powhatan (d. 1618)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Archived from the original on May 3, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-8139-1474-9.
- ISBN 978-0-8050-7603-5.
- ISBN 978-1-4042-2653-1.
- ISBN 978-0-8139-2323-9.
- ^ Rountree 2005, p. 186.
- ^ Deyo, William "Night Owl" (September 5, 2009). "Our Patawomeck Ancestors" (PDF). Patawomeck Tides. 12 (1): 2–7. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 6, 2014.
- ^ C. E. Olmstead, 1958, Takoma Park: a photo history p. 16; cited in Geology and Ground-Water Resources of Washington DC and vicinity, US Geological Survey, 1964 [1]
- ^ "History of Takoma Park, Md". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
- ^ "Takoma Voice, Feb. 2008". Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved March 28, 2011.
- ^ Smith, John. A True Relation of such Occurrences and Accidents of Noate as hath Hapned in Virginia. 1608. "Personal Narratives from the Virtual Jamestown Project, 1575–1705". Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2009. Repr. in The Complete Works of John Smith (1580–1631). Ed. Philip L. Barbour. Chapel Hill: University Press of Virginia, 1983. Vol. 1, p. 53.
- ^ she-philosopher.com: Gallery exhibit (Powhatan's map on deerskin mantle)
- ^ "Powhatan, or Wah-Un-So-Na-Cook. (Part 1 of 2)". journals.aol.com. Archived from the original on September 17, 2008.
- ISBN 978-1-58765-067-3.
- S2CID 128959255.
Further reading
- David A. Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of A New Nation, Alfred A. Knopf, 2003
- Huber, Margaret Williamson (January 12, 2011). "Powhatan (d. 1618)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
- Townsend, Camilla. Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, New York: Hill and Wang, 2004. ISBN 0-8090-7738-8
External links
- The Anglo-Powhatan Wars
- Powhatan's Mantle in the Ashmolean Museum – Pictures and extensive description and history
- Weidemeyer, John William (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography.
- The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
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- High-resolution 3D image viewer by Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation