Name: _________________________________
Date: ___________
DIRECTIONS: Read the following excerpt about the Powhatan Indians. Take diligent notes
while you are reading. Then, answer the questions at the end of the reading on the class blog
under the Powhatan posting.
POWHATAN INDIAN LIFEWAYS
The 104 Englishmen who landed at Jamestown on May 13, 1607 chose that settlement site
partially because no one else was presently occupying the small peninsula and because it was an
unhealthy area. This lack of inhabitants was hardly the case for most of Tidewater Virginia, as the
English were soon to discover. Although it is difficult to estimate, modern historians number the
native population of 1607 Tidewater Virginia at 13,000 to 14,000. Powhatan settlements were
concentrated along the rivers, which provided both food and transportation. The inhabitants
spoke a now-extinct form of Algonquian, a language that was common with many native peoples
from present-day New York south to Florida.
The undisputed ruler of Tidewater Virginia was Wahunsonacock, usually referred to by the title
of "Powhatan." John Smith describes Powhatan as "a tall well proportioned man, with a sower
look, his head somewhat gray, his beard so thin, that it seems none at all, his age (as of 1608)
near sixty, of a very able and hardy body to endure any labor.”
Powhatan had inherited six tribes located not far from present-day Richmond. By 1607, he had
added considerably to his domain, which at its peak, numbered over 30 tribes. Each tribe was
governed by a werowance, a chief who owed allegiance and tribute to Powhatan. Although
Powhatan maintained residences amongst all the tribes, his usual dwelling-place was at
Werowocomoco, on the north side of the York River.
In addition to his council, whom he kept about him always, Powhatan also had an extensive
family. Because of the large amounts of tribute collected (estimated by one settler as eight parts
out of ten of all that his people produced) Powhatan could support over a hundred wives and the
resulting offspring, the most famous of whom was Matoaka, better known by her nickname
"Pocahontas."
Powhatan's people lived in villages, which could number as many as one hundred homes. Some
villages were protected by wooden palisades; each house boasted an extensive and carefullytended garden, in which was sown such staples as corn, beans, peas, squash, pumpkin, sunflowers
and maypops (passionflower). Tobacco, primarily used for ceremonial purposes, was grown apart
from the rest of the crops.
Although the gardens were an important food source, the Powhatans' diet was far more extensive.
John Smith remarked that for the bulk of the year, Powhatans relied on other sources of food. The
waterways afforded a rich diet of fish and shellfish and the woods yielded nuts, fruits and berries.
Since the dog was the only animal domesticated by the Powhatans, hunting was an important way
to supplement the diet, and was a task relegated to the men of the tribe. At a very young age, a
boy was taught the use of the bow. Rather than a recreational activity for the wealthy, as hunting
was perceived by the English, Powhatans considered it a very serious business, an important way
of securing food and clothing.
The hard work of Powhatan women was more often remarked upon by the English. Whether she
was gathering wood, making pottery, preparing food, dressing hides, caring for the garden or
making clothing, a Powhatan woman was seldom at rest.
Some of the most detailed descriptions of Powhatan people concerns their appearance. According
to John Smith, the native Virginians were "Generally tall and straight," an observation confirmed
by archeological analysis, which estimates that the average Powhatan stood at about six feet.
William Strachey, another 17th-century author, recorded that Powhatans were "Generally of a
color brown or rather tawny."
Costume varied according to sex, age, and status. The most common article of apparel for men
was a breechclout of skin worn between the thighs. According to Smith, "The common sort have
scarce to cover their nakedness but with grass, the leaves of trees, or such like. . . The better sort
use large mantels of deer skins not much different from the Irish mantels." A man of high status
might wear a shirt-like garment made of fringed deerskin or a mantle of turkey feathers. The hair
was shaven from the right side of the head (to reduce the risk of entanglement in the hunter's
bowstring); the hair on the other side of the head was allowed to grow long and often pulled into
a knot and decorated with everything from shells to the dead hand of an enemy. Men used body
paint in preparation for war or games.
Werowances (chiefs) wore fine clothes and many ornaments of pearl, rare shell beads and copper,
the precious metal of the Powhatans. George Percy described the headdress of one werowance: "a
crown of deer hair colored red, in fashion of a rose fastened about his knot of hair, and a great
plate of copper on the other side of his head; with two long feathers in fashion of a pair of horns
placed in the midst of his Crown."
In his History and Present State of Virginia (1705), colonist Robert Beverley opined that
Powhatan Indian "women are generally beautiful, possessing an uncommon delicacy of shape and
features." The skirt was the ever-present garment for women; those of higher-status swathed
themselves in fringed deerskin. The hair of married women was worn long and plaited in the
back; a young girl had her head on the front and sides shaven close, with the rest of the hair
growing long and braided down the back.
George Strachey remarked at length on the use of tattooed decorations by the Powhatan Indian
women, commenting that they "have their arms, breasts, thighs, shoulders, and faces, cunningly
embroidered with tattoes”.
Although early interaction between the English and Powhatans was sometimes violent and
exploitive on both sides, leaders of both peoples realized the mutual benefit, which could be
derived from peaceful relations. Powhatan craved the trade goods brought by the English, which
would give him increased status, make his peoples' lives easier and also help him to expand his
empire to the west. The English needed food, allies and knowledgeable guides to help them locate
raw materials, precious metals and the much-sought trade route to the Far East. The marriage of
Powhatan's favorite daughter Pocahontas to settler John Rolfe in 1614 ensured a few peaceful
years between the Powhatans and the English.
This brief time of peace ended in 1617 with the death of Pocahontas during a trip to England and,
the next year, of her father. Opitchapan, Powhatan's brother, served briefly as chief, and then
retired in favor of Opechancanough, the powerful and aggressive werowance whose land centered
around present-day West Point. Opechancanough resented the English, and, although Powhatan
had been assured the Jamestown settlement was merely a temporary one, the new chief saw all
too clearly that the English were in Virginia to stay. Thanks to the introduction of a successful
strain of tobacco by John Rolfe, the colonists had a way to achieve a profit and, consequently, the
need for greater and greater tracts of land on which to grow their crop.
On March 22, 1622, Opechancanough's carefully orchestrated plan to dismay and perhaps even
rout his enemy was executed by his warriors throughout the small English settlements in Virginia.
Although some areas, including Jamestown, escaped unscathed, within a few hours as many as
400 English settlers had lost their lives and the colony had received a near-fatal blow.
The surviving settlers' reaction to the Powhatan uprising was retaliation, and the English, better
armed and organized than the Powhatans, set to with a vengeance. The Virginia Company
instructed the settlers to wage a total war against the Powhatan people, doing whatever it took to
subdue them utterly. For over a decade, the English killed men and women, captured children and
systematically razed villages, seizing or destroying crops. The Powhatans land was further
reduced due to the Treaty of 1677.
Egloff, Keith and Deborah Woodward. First People: The Early Indians of Virginia.
Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1992.
Questions to answer:
1. What beliefs and activities were important to the Powhatan tribe?
2. What were relations like between the Powhatan and the English settlers when the
English first arrived?
3. How did the relationship between the Powhatan and the English decline?
4. What impact did the English have on the Powhatan? How did this shape the future of
the Powhatan?