Virginia Vignettes

When the English arrived in Virginia in 1607, Powhatan, whose informal name was Wahunsunacock, was the acknowledged paramount chief, or mamanatowick, of at least 32 Algonquian-speaking tribes with more than 150 towns. These tribes ranged from the Potomac River in the north to just south of the James River, and from the fall line of the rivers in the west to the Atlantic Ocean.

Powhatan, who was probably in his 60s when he first met the English, had acquired leadership of these tribes through inheritance and coercion that was frequently reinforced with family or marriage ties. He held his position not only through military strength but also through great personal and spiritual charisma as well as a complex system of social rules not fully understood by the English. The tribes under Powhatan’s leadership paid tribute to his treasury in food and goods, which were then used for redistribution, trade, rewards, and ceremonial display.

In the early years of the English colony, Powhatan’s first intent was probably to incorporate the English into his polity as another tribe. Thwarted by the English, who had another agenda, he retired from leadership around 1616 and died in April 1618.

For Further Reading:

Gleach, Frederic W. 1997. Powhatan’s World and Colonial Virginia. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

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

This Vignette Provided By

Deanna Beacham, Program Specialist, VA Council on Indians