Powhatans and other Virginian indigenous tribes have been attracted to Virginia’s natural beauty for a while. Most of what we know about these native people comes from archaeological discoveries in areas around Jamestown, the largest and most significant tribe during this era was the Powhatan tribe.

When English settlers first had contact with the Native Americans in Virginia, the tribes in the area had a population of about 14,000. The first towns of the English settlers were built near the Chesapeake Bay, and they were usually made in a way that prevented intruders, and made it easy to spot incoming people.

In Native American villages, there was a lot of hunting and gathering, the men did most of the hunting, they usually hunted for the whole day and brought home enough food for the whole family. The women and children did the farming, they farmed/gathered berries, roots, nuts, and they occasionally fished. Men did the chores of making weapons and tools with stone and wood, and the women and children made the houses and the clothing. The Native Americans usually got around by canoe, which was made by hollowing a tree out using fire.

The Powhatans didn’t treat their fields, so after they were done using them they moved their village to another location.  The Native Americans believed that all land was shared, but the English settlers had a different system and they just “claimed” this land. If a Native American were to come on these grounds again, then they would be considered “trespassing”. This created tension between the settlers and the Native Americans because it was no longer safe to go to their former land, and they still used the land for hunting and gathering  This led to the settlers attacking the Native American villages, the first village they destroyed was the town of Paspahegh, and they sadly killed every Native American living there.  The tension got worse and worse until the capture of Pocahontas (the daughter of Chief Powhatan) while being held hostage she was tutored and she learned English, she ended up marrying her tutor who was named John Rolfe. This led to a peace agreement between the Native Americans and the colonists that lasted for quite a while, but the peaceful period ended when Pocahontas died in England. 

Chief Powhatan then died soon after that, and Opitchapam became the new chief, but a man named Opechancanough had the most authority on attacks.  Opechancanough led a  massive raid on an English settlement in 1622, this raid was a very important event and the tensions between the two kept getting worse. They kept fighting for years and in 1644 after decades of killing each other, Opechancanough led another raid on a settlement, but his odds were awful, the settlers had 8,000 people and the Powhatan had a population of only 5,000. The population of both sides was decreasing due to disease,  during the raid, Opechancanough was captured and forced to go to Jamestown, where he was executed.  

After his death, the Powhatan tribe kept declining and it eventually ceased to exist. From then on, the other coastal tribes started to slowly lose control of their land, traditions, and ways of life. The government let many tribes keep certain pieces of their land, but none of the reservations were large enough to be able to keep the same lifestyle.