Hello and welcome to The Powhatan Empire trail walk. The trail you are about to enter will take you on an audio tour of the life, culture, and history of the Powhatan Indians. Each stop on the trail is identified by a blue marker and a QR code. Simply scan the QR code to find the corresponding audio track, or search St. Michael’s Trail Tales on Itunes, choose “Season One: The Powhatan Empire” and the episode number that corresponds to the marker you are closest to.

The information provided on this audio tour has primarily come from editor Brendan Wolfe’s Encyclopedia Virginia entries on Indians in Virginia and historian Helen Rountree’s extensive research on the Powhatan people. Though both of these secondary sources are well vetted, it is important to note that there are significant limitations on what information researchers can gather about Central Virginia’s native people.

The Powhatan lacked a written language until significantly later in their colonial history, which means that most of the primary sources we are familiar with come from English settlers, who recorded information about the Powhatan people with their own biases.

To the English settlers, the Powhatan people were at best viewed as gatekeepers of agricultural knowledge and thus a means of survival, at worst, they were a conquered people. And the latter essentially removes almost all Indian agency from historical accounts.

In addition to these narrow viewpoints, none of the English settlers who recorded information about the Powhatan people were anthropologists-- meaning that these recounts were not gathered as a means of observation, but as a reflection of the settlers' own day-to-day lives. Thus, the settlers showed little to no interest in Indian life that did not intersect with their own, leaving much wanting from these accounts as a source of comprehensive information about the Powhatan people.

At its peak, the Powhatan empire, led by the Paramount Chief Wahunsenecaw, consisted of over 30 tribes from the coastal plains region of modern day Virginia.  Its influence stretched North to South from the Potomac River to the southern side of the James River; East to West it stretched from the Eastern Shore across the Chesapeake Bay inland up to the Fall Line -- which is a geological feature that stretches North-South through modern day Richmond and acted as a barrier to further upstream water travel.  As the 1600’s began and Europeans began their search for new profits in America, the paramount chief Powhatan expanded his empire for various reasons through military force, familial relations, and installation of his own local chiefs, or weroances. Those tribes that were under the influence of Powhatan, had local chiefs and paid tributes to the Paramount Chief Wahunsenecaw as a form of taxation. A handful of groups in the area managed to hold out from joining the Powhatan empire, the Chickahomany tribes being one such example.