The Powhatan (also spelled Powatan and Powhaten) were a very powerful tribe of Native Americans, speaking an Algonquian language, who lived in what is now Virginia at the time of the first European-Native encounters. Powhatan was originally the name of the town that the chief Wahunsunacock came from. When this chief created a powerful empire by conquering much of Virginia, he called his lands Powhatan and titled himself Chief Powhatan.
In 1607, when English soldier and pioneer John Smith arrived, he was captured by Opchanacanough, the younger brother of Chief Powhatan. According to Smith's account (which in the late 1800s was considered to be fabricated, but since is believed to be mostly accurate—although several highly romanticized popular versions cloud the matter), Pocahontas, Powhatan's daughter, is said to have prevented her father from executing Smith. It is believed that this was a ritual intended to adopt Smith into the tribe.
After Smith left Virginia because of an injury sustained in a gunpowder accident, the nervous tribe attacked and killed many of the Jamestown residents. The residents fought back, but only killed twenty. When Smith came back, he made peace and the past was forgotten.
However, within a few years both the Chief and Pocahontas were dead from disease. The Chief died in Virginia, but Pocahontas died in England, having been captured and married to the tobacco planter John Rolfe. Meanwhile, the English continued to encroach on Powhatan territory. After Wahunsunacock's death, his younger brother Opchanacanough became chief, and in 1622 and 1644 he attempted to force the English from Virginia. These attempts invited strong reprisals from the English, ultimately resulting in the destruction of the tribe.
The Powhatan language is now extinct, although approximately 3,000 Powahatan people remain in Virginia.
External links
The Anglo-Powhatan Wars (http://www.virginiaplaces.org/nativeamerican/anglopowhatan.html)
Powhatan was also the original name of the town that Wahunsunacock (the Chief Powhatan) came from (today the site of Richmond, Virginia), as well as the name of the river where it sat (today called the James River).
The original six constituent tribes in Wahunsunacock's Powhatanconfederacy were: the Powhatans proper, the Arrohatecks, the Appamattucks, the Pamunkeys, the Mattaponis, and the Chiskiacks.
Powhatan County was named in honor of the Chief and his tribe, although located about 60 miles to the west of lands ever under their control.
The Powhatan are said to have been driven N to Virginia by the Spanish, where their chief, Powhatan’s father, subjugated five other Virginia tribes.
On Powhatan’s death in 1618, Opechancanough, chief of the Pamunkey, became the central power in the confederacy, and he organized the general attack (1622) in which some 350 settlers were killed.
After the Iroquois, traditional enemies of the confederacy, agreed to cease their attacks in the Treaty of Albany (1722), the tribes scattered, mixed with the settlers, and all semblance of the confederacy disappeared.
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