Powhatan Indians

When the English arrived in Virginia in 1607 and created the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, they did not encounter an uninhabited land. An estimated 50,000 Virginia Indians had called what is now the Commonwealth of Virginia home for more than 12,000 years. The tribes the English encountered first, and most often, belonged to the powerful Powhatan Chiefdom. The land occupied by the Powhatan Indians encompassed all of Tidewater Virginia, from the Potomac River in the north to south of the James River, and parts of the Eastern Shore. This area, which they called Tsenacommacah, was about 100 miles long from north to south and about 100 miles wide from southeast to northwest. Before the arrival of foreigners, and their unknown diseases, the Powhatan Indians were estimated to have numbered 25,000.

By 1607, the Powhatan Chiefdom numbered approximately 15,000. Chief Powhatan, whose given name was Wahunsunacock, was the mamanatowick (paramount chief) of the Powhatan Chiefdom. In the sixteenth century, he inherited six tribes from his mother or someone related to her; Powhatan society was matrilineal so descent was passed through the mother's line. By 1607, the Powhatan Chiefdom had more than 30 different tribes, each of which had its own chief (weroance/weroansqua). All had been gained through marriage alliance or coercion and were "ruled" by and had to pay "tribute" to Powhatan.

Image of a Powhatan Indian town based on a John White watercolor of other Algonquian-speaking Indians.

What a Powhatan town might have looked like.

NPS Image

The Powhatan Indians lived in towns located on high ground near rivers, which were sources of food and transportation. The Powhatan also used the rivers to bathe every morning. Sometimes the towns were palisaded, which usually meant they were closer to enemy territory. The towns consisted of from two to a hundred houses with six to twenty people living in each dwelling, according to Captain John Smith. These houses, called yehakins, were typically scattered and interspersed between the trees.

 

The yehakins were made from saplings bent and lashed together at the top to form a barrel shape. Woven mats or bark were placed on top of the saplings and space left for an entrance at each end of the house and an open hole at the center of the roof for smoke to escape. The size of the house varied, but someone like Chief Powhatan, as the mamanatowick, had a larger house than most - it even had separate corridors! In summer, when heat and humidity increased, the mat walls could be rolled up or removed for better air circulation. Inside the house, bedsteads were built along both walls. One or more mats were placed on top for bedding, with more mats or skins for blankets. A rolled mat served as a pillow. During the day, the bedding was rolled up to save space.

Yehakins were constructed by the women (who may have also owned them). Women provided most, if not all of the fuel, and much of the food as well. Besides building the houses, and everything associated with them, Powhatan women cooked and prepared food, gathered firewood (which was kept constantly going), collected water for cooking and drinking, reared the children (with help from the men when they were home), made the clothing, farmed (planting and harvesting), and made baskets, pots, cordage, wooden spoons, platters and mortars. Many tasks took them away from not only their houses, but the towns as well. They also collected edible plants - which meant women needed to be able to identify the various useful plants in all seasons and terrains. Women were barbers for the men and would process any meat the men brought home, as well as tan hides used to make clothing. They were constantly doing something. To acquire the varied knowledge and skills necessary to be an adult, Powhatan girls' education began at an early age.

How a Powhatan man might have looked based on a John White watercolor of other Algonquian-speaking people.

A Powhatan man ready to hunt.

Unknown British Musuem

Powhatan men had fewer jobs than the women, but they were especially demanding. Their world revolved around always being prepared to kill enemy people and animals efficiently. Besides hunting and war, men built dugout canoes (used by men and women), fished, and cleared garden plots. They fished mostly in the spring and hunted mostly in the fall; it was the man's responsibility to provide animals, for food, clothing and tools. Hunting was a taxing job, requiring mental concentration, extended bursts of physical energy, and an intimate knowledge of the terrain and plant cover that attracted animals. Hunting methods necessitated the men's unique hairstyles. They wore the left side of their hair long and tied in a knot, decorated with various trophies from wars or feathers, and shaved the right side, so as not to get their bow strings caught in their hair. The intensiveness of hunting required periods of rest. During their "rest time" men also cleared land for garden plots, built and repaired fishing weirs and hunting gear, and exchanged information with other men.

Men's work was different than women's, but both were important and benefited Powhatan society as a whole. In fact, if a Powhatan family had at least one adult male and one adult female it could live comfortably entirely by its own labor. Powhatan children learned how to be adults, and to do adults' work, from both of their parents. At first, both boys and girls were taught mostly by their mothers; fathers helped rear the children when they were not hunting or fishing. Once boys were old enough, agile enough, good enough runners, and were an accurate shot with a bow and arrow, they were taken hunting and fishing by their fathers. These same hunting skills also helped the boys learn the art of war and vice versa.

 

Between the ages of ten and fifteen boys had learned all necessary skills to be a man in Powhatan society and were initiated as men. They began to dress like men, wearing a breechclout passed between the legs and attached to a cordage belt, and leggings or moccasins when in the woods to protect against scratches that could become easily infected. Girls, of course, continued to learn women's work from their mothers. They became women once they reached puberty, which was by about the age of thirteen. They then wore a deerskin apron, hung on a cordage belt, and grew their hair out (they wore no clothing before puberty and shaved their hair except for a strand in the back that was usually braided). Like men, they wore leggings and moccasins when in the woods. The women wore their hair in a variety of ways: hanging loose, braided into a plait with bangs, or cut short in a uniform length.

Marriage in Powhatan society meant that a man was able to be a provider for his wife and family - which had to be proven to the prospective in-laws. Marriage indicated a man had truly reached maturity and that a woman was able to bear children. Once a man found a woman he wanted to marry, he had to attract her interest and, if she still lived with her parents, gain their approval. He did so through gifts of food, which showed his ability to provide. Once an agreement was reached, the man negotiated and paid a bride wealth to her parents, as a way of compensating her family for their loss of valuable labor and for her child-bearing potential. The bride wealth served as a public declaration of the chosen woman's value. Soon after the man procured the necessary household items (a house, mortar and pestle, mats, pots, and bedding) and the bride wealth was paid, the bride was brought to the groom's house. There, her father, guardian or "chief friend" joined the couple's hands together. A string of beads was measured to the man's arm length and then broken over the couple's hands (the beads were given to the person who brought the bride). The couple were now married, and expected to be for life, and a celebration took place. Divorce was possible, however, in which case any children were possibly split between their parents according to their sex.

Another type of marriage, a marriage by contract, was a temporary agreement made between a Powhatan man and woman that usually lasted one year. Each year, the contractual union was either renewed or ended and the two were free to marry others. If, however, the allotted time passed without the union being ended or re-negotiated the couple were married permanently.

English view of Powhatan seen surrounded by his wives and important council.

English depiction of paramount chief Powhatan.

John Smith's Map of 1612.

Chief Powhatan, and possibly other chiefs, were in a position to not only choose whom they wanted to marry on a grander scale, but could pay whatever bride wealth they saw fit with no negotiation (they outranked their prospective in-laws). Marrying the paramount chief was considered an honor. However, unlike other Powhatan Indian marriages, Powhatan's wives were not allowed to have extramarital relations, which were permitted in the rest of Powhatan society if the wife had her husband's permission. As the paramount chief, Powhatan was able to afford more wives than the average man (multiple wives were allowed so long as they could all be supported); he was recorded as having had more than one hundred wives. Once one of his wives had a child by him, Powhatan sent her with their baby back to her home town, where they were supported by Powhatan. Once the child was old enough, he or she was sent back to live with Powhatan's other children. The mother was then considered divorced from Powhatan and free to marry another. For all Powhatan Indians, marriage was considered a child-rearing arrangement. Love, if it materialized during the course of a marriage, was welcomed but not expected, as the worlds of men and women were so different and separate.