Powhatan Indian Culture

Powhatan are a virginia Indian tribe that dominated eastern virginia when the English settled Jamestown, they famously interacted with the jamestown colony. Some Powhatan descendants still live in virginia today. Other Powhatan Indians were driven northward and their descendants live in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Powhatan Indians speak English today.

The Pamunkey Indian Tribe, descendants of the powhatan chiefdom, of which Pocahontas was a member, became the first federally recognized tribe in the state of virginia. In the late 16 and 17th centuries, a paramount chief named wahunsenacawh created a powerful organization by affiliating 30 tribes including not only the powhatan, but also arrohateck, appomattox, pamunkey, mattaponi, kiskiack,

and others. This organization was known as the powhatan confederacy.
Wahunsenacawh came to be known by the English as chief powhatan Though all of the tribes within the Confederacy had its own chief, all paid tribute to Chief Powhatan. The starving time refers to the winter of 1609–1610 when about three quarters of the English colonists in Virginia died of starvation or starvation related diseases.
Their territory included the tidewater section of Virginia from the Potomac River south to to the divide between the James River and Albemarle Sound, and extended into the interior as far as the falls of the principal rivers about Fredericksburg and Richmond.

They also occupied the Virginia counties east of Chesapeake Bay and possibly included some tribes in lower Maryland.

The Powhatan were not only hunters and gatherers but were considerably advanced in farming, cultivating several varieties of maize, beans, certain kinds of melons or pumpkins, roots and 2-3 types of fruit trees. They lived in oblong houses with rounded roofs which varied in length up to 36 yards. Many of their towns were enclosed with palisades, consisting of posts planted in the ground and standing 10 or 12 feet high. Where great strength and security were required, a triple stockade was sometimes made.

A large number of Indians were at one time induced to return to their homes by promises of peace, but all were massacred in their villages and their houses burned. The ruse was attempted a second time, but was unsuccessful. The war went on for 14 years, until both sides were exhausted, when peace was made in 1636. The greatest battle was fought in 1625 at Pamunkey, where Governor Francis Wyatt defeated nearly 1,000 Indians and burned their principal

village.
Born about 1596, Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, chief of over 30 tribes in coastal Virginia. Pocahontas was a nickname meaning playful one. Her formal names were Amonute and Matoaka. Pocahontas was Powhatan’s most rare and wellbeloved daughter, according to Captain John Smith, an English colonial leader who wrote extensively about his experiences in Virginia. Powhatan had numerous wives, and Pocahontas had many half brothers and half sisters. Her mother’s name is not mentioned by any 17th century writers.