Powhatan

The Powhatan were the leading Algonquian people of Tsenacommacah, coastal Virginia. From six inherited nations, the paramount chief Wahunsenacawh, known to the English as Powhatan, built a confederacy of more than thirty tribes, ruling from Werowocomoco when the Jamestown settlers arrived in 1607.

Wahunsenacawh’s daughter Matoaka, called Pocahontas, was captured in 1613 and married the colonist John Rolfe in 1614. After the chief’s death in 1618 his brother Opechancanough led uprisings in 1622 and 1644, ending in his capture and shooting in 1646. The treaty of that year dissolved the confederacy.

Following Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 and the diplomacy of the Pamunkey queen Cockacoeske, the Treaty of Middle Plantation in 1677 reduced surviving bands to tributaries on small reservations. The Powhatan language had fallen silent by the end of the eighteenth century.