STM Trail Tales

Early Virginian Indians spoke dialects of Algic, Iroquoian, and Siouan, three large linguistic families that include many of the more than 800 indigenous languages in North America. Among Virginia's Algic-speakers were the Powhatan Indians, who lived in the Tidewater region and encountered the Jamestown settlers in 1607. Little is known of their language, which was a form of Algic known as Virginia Algonquian.

Very little is known about the old algonquian languages and dialects. William Strachey, who worked with two boys that had lived with the native americans and learned their language became one of the most educated men on the subject, being more knowledgeable than John Smith and Thomas Hariot. However, he had trouble understanding algonquian sounds, and only 263 out of hundreds of words were legible and identified as algonquian. Thomas Hariot, an english soldier in 1585, may have been taught basic algonquian by two native people at the time, and he made a list of 46 algonquian words, including moccasins, which are shoes, and tomahawks, which are axes. Some more words are pejig-one, inini-man, ikwe-woman, animosh-dog, kizis-sun, tibek-kizes-moon, nibi-water, and waba-white. John Smith knew a simplified version of the language used to trade, and wrote down “Bid Pocahontas bring hither two little baskets, and I will give her beads to make a chaine”. He also found much of Hariot’s old work, and wrote it down in his document, A Brief and True Report of the Newfoundland of Virginia. Captain Gabriel Archer and Robert Beverly Jr. both compiled short lists of Algonquian as well.

This concludes our knowledge of the fascinating language called algonquian. I hope this inspires you to become more knowledgeable on the subject of native americans and their languages.

Central Virginia has been a key place for Indians for thousands of years. Nomadic tribes have been going there to hunt elk, turkey, bear and deer, as well as to gather the various nuts, roots, and berries found there. These tribes left no permanent structures behind and only through archaeological studies were they discovered. Later, after places became warmer, these nomadic groups started settling in one place. These settlements were in places such as Piedmont, and also farther west in parts of the Shenandoah Valley. There were many tribes, and the Powhatans were simply the tribes surrounding Jamestown, Central Virginia, and the tidewater areas.

By the time settlers arrived in 1607, most of the villages in the area had come together under the rule of a single, all powerful chief, or “werowance”. The chief came from the town of Powhatan, which is where the name comes from. At the time of English arrival, the population of Indians in the tidewater region was about 14,000.

As more settlers arrived, the Indians became increasingly frustrated that the english were encroaching on their land, and after many settlers had arrived, fighting became regular. In addition, Indians had never encountered many of the diseases brought over from Europe, and many died off. Over the years, the population of settlers increased while the Indian population steadily decreased. In 1644, the Indian chief was captured and killed, and the once-thriving indian civilization crumbled to pieces.

Although all but lost, the Powhatan empire was a powerful one, and one that ended because the English were greedy. However, most of what we know today did come from original primary sources that came from Jamestown and a few other early European explorers.

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.