The Indigenous Peoples of the Chesapeake Colonies--- By Christin Bechtel

For more than 10,000 years prior to the arrival of British settlers, native peoples were living and thriving in the naturally rich Chesapeake Bay region.  Many inhabited villages built around “longhouses” made of wood where several generations and extended families lived together (refer to attached image).   Labor was roughly divided with women working primarily as “gatherers” attending to agricultural needs, and men providing the “hunting” needs.   In 1607 all native people’s destinies were changed when the British settled Jamestown in a territory called Paspahegh, named for the local tribe of the same name.  The Paspahegh were one of roughly 30 tribes under the rule of the great Algonquian werowance , or “great chief” Powhatan (Tayak). 

One can only imagine the first impression these early English settlers made on the Natives.  While the English clearly possessed miraculous technologies such as forged iron and guns, they were nearly helpless in providing sustenance for themselves.   The combination of these two dichonomies must have been bewildering to the natives. 

Powhatan’s peoples mostly appeared friendly towards the new settlers in those first months, trading corn with the starving colonist despite evidence of drought resulting in probable diminishing food stores.  Very soon, however, increasing skirmishes and raids by both the English and the Natives escalated tensions between the two groups.   As the drought continued and in the late fall of 1609, the Natives were less willing to trade food supplies with the growing number of dependent settlers. Perhaps this was an unsuccessful bid to starve them out of their land once and for all (Roark).  Contact with the Europeans introduced numerous deadly diseases to Powhatans tribes, and epidemics swept through their numbers in 1608, 1617, and 1619 (Roark).

Despite numerous small battles, and many deaths on both sides, Powhatan never organized his forces for full war against the settlers for reasons not fully known.  After his death in 1618, Powhatan’s brother, Opechancanough, assumed the role of head chief.  He organized a partially successful assault on the settlers in 1622, killing as many as 1/3 of the colonists (Roark).  This act secured ongoing hatred and distrust between the English and the American Natives which prompted the English to eventually drive the natives out of the area once and for all.

           

Engraving of the American Indian town of Pomeiooc, published in Thomas Hariot's 1588 book A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia. Illustration by Theodor de Bry.

Resources

Roark, Johnson, Cohen, Stage, Lawson, Hartmann. Bedford/St. Martin's 2009.“The

American Promise: A History of the United States, 4th Edition. Volume I: To 1877.”

Tayak, Gabrielle.  “Chesapeake Natives, Three Major Chiefdoms.” Web.<http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/native-chesapeake/1803>