History
Pamunkey Pre-1607
- Some scholars believe that the Pamunkey have occupied their tribal area for 10,000 to 12,000 years. (Encyclopedia Virginia)
- Based on archaeological evidence, scholars estimate that various distinct cultures of Native Americans occupied this part of the mid-Atlantic coast for more than 10,000 years before European contact (Wiki)
- The Pamunkey was one of the six core tribes of Tsenacomoco, a political alliance of Algonquian-speaking tribes that in 1607 was ruled by Powhatan.
- The Pamunkey are part of the larger Algonquian-speaking language family. This was composed of several tribes who spoke variations of the same language, which is now mostly lost.
Powhatan Indians
- The Powhatans were comprised of approximately 30 tribal groups, with a total population of about 14,000. Their leader was known as Wahunsonacock, sometimes called “Powhatan.”
- In a ranked society of rulers, great warriors, priests and commoners, status was determined by achievement, often in warfare, and by the inheritance of luxury goods such as copper, shell beads and furs. Those of higher status had larger homes, multiple wives and elaborate clothing. (History Is Fun)
- The Powhatans participated in an extensive trade network with Indian groups within and outside the chiefdom. (History Is Fun)
First Contact (1607)
- Scholars estimate that when the English arrived in 1607, this paramount chiefdom numbered about 14,000–21,000 people. (Pamunkey Wiki)
- The Powhatan Confederacy was where the English made their first permanent settlement in North America. Conflicts began immediately between the Powhatan people and the English (Powhatan Wiki)
Anglo-Powhatan Wars (1609-1646)
- As part of Tsenacomoco, the Pamunkey were involved in the periods of hostility between the English and Indian communities which, are now known as the First (1609–1614), Second (1622–1632), and Third (1644–1646) Anglo-Powhatan Wars (Encyclopedia Virginia)
- FIRST
- After the English arrived in Virginia in 1607, colonists struggled to survive through terrible drought and cold winters. Unable to adequately provide for themselves, they pressured the Indians of Tsenacomoco for relief, which led to a series of conflicts along the James River that intensified in the autumn of 1609.
- Powhatan ordered a siege of the English fort, which lasted through the winter of 1609–1610 and precipitated the so-called “Starving Time.” This was the Indians' best chance to win the war, but the English survived. After the arrival of reinforcements, the colonists viciously attacked the Indians.
- Using terror tactics borrowed from Queen Elizabeth's conquest of Ireland, English soldiers burned Indian villages and towns in addition to executing women and children. (Encyclopedia Virginia)
- SECOND
- The Second Anglo-Powhatan War was fought from 1622-1632, pitting English colonists in Virginia against the Algonquian-speaking Indians of Tsenacomoco, led by Opitchapam and his brother (or close kinsman) Opechancanough.
- After the First Anglo-Powhatan War (1609–1614), which ended with the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, the English colony began to grow. (Encyclopedia Virginia)
- Third
- The third Anglo-Powhatan War (1644 to 1646) started with a large, coordinated strike by Powhatan warriors against the Virginia colonists.
- Hundreds of Indians the English had captured during the Third Anglo-Powhatan War were sold into slavery. With the death of Opechancanough, Necotowance assumed leadership of the Powhatan alliance and negotiated a new treaty with the English.
- The peace treaty between the English colonists and the Powhattan called for removing the Powhatan Confederacy to an area north of the York River. Necotowance signed the treaty as “King of the Indians.”
- The treaty established a pattern of removing Indian nations from invading Europeans to reduce the conflict between the two groups. (Native American NetRoots)
- The Virginia Colony continued to grow and encroach on Powhatan land, making it impossible for them to sustain traditional practices. Many Pamunkey were forced to work for the English or were enslaved. As the colonial settlement grew, so did settlers with their resistance to Native American attacks. (Wikipedia)
Post War
- Bacon’s Rebellion
- Bacon's Rebellion, which began in 1675, resulted in attacks on several tribes loyal to the English. The Rebellion was a joint effort of White and Black former indentured servants. The Rebellion was led by Nathaniel Bacon against his kin, Governor Sir William Berkeley.
- Cockacoeske, who succeeded her husband after he was killed fighting for the English, was an ally of Berkeley against Bacon. To the English, she was known as "Queen of the Pamunkey". She is known for having signed the Articles of Peace (Treaty of Middle Plantation) in 1677, after Bacon's Rebellion ended.
- Efforts to preserve and protect the Pamunkey Indian Reservation extended through the eighteenth century when many tribal groups lost their land. In the late nineteenth century, each of the four remaining reservation tribes—the Gingaskin, Mattaponi, Nottoway, and Pamunkey—were pressured to dissolve their reservation – ending their relationship to the state – and divide the land among their members. The Pamunkey refused, maintaining their reservation, church, and school.
- 1632 Peace Agreement
- This decision effectively ended the Second Anglo-Powhatan War.
- Although no documentation of the Agreement survives, the Opechancanough did not resist when colonists built a wall across the Peninsula in 1634.
- The wall made clear that old towns south of the York River, such as Kiskiak, were permanently converted to English use and excluded Native Americans from the traditional hunting/gathering areas east of Middle Plantation (now Williamsburg).
- Treaty Ending the Third Anglo-Powhatan War (1646)
- This treaty prohibited Englishman from being in Indian territory except with permission from Chief Necotowance or the Governor. It declared that the English would notify Necotowance before settling north of York River on land downstream from Poropotank River
- The Treaty required Native Americans to obtain permission and wear a badge or a striped coat when traveling on the Peninsula, whenever the English authorized such travel.
- The Treaty also required an annual gift to English consisting of 20 beaver skins, thereby acknowledging the authority of English rulers and creating status as "tributary" tribes who were to receive some protection against hostile tribes, such as the Susquehannocks or Seneca.
- Articles of Peace (1677)
- In Articles of Peace, published in London in 1677, the British government formalized what became known as the Treaty of Middle Plantation, signed on May 29, 1677. Following the violence against Virginia Indians that accompanied Bacon's Rebellion (1676–1677), several tribes, formerly part of the paramount chiefdom Tsenacomoco, reunited under the authority of the Pamunkey Chief Cockacoeske and promised fidelity to the Crown in exchange for its protection.
- NOTE: Some spelling has been modernized in the above text.
- 1684 Albany Agreement (also known as "Lord Howard's treaty")
- After Bacon's Rebellion ended in 1676, Seneca, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oneida were conducting raids south into Virginia Piedmont, seeking to control local tribes in addition to Piscataway and Susquehannock, which had been disrupted by Maryland and Virginia forces.
- Virginia Governor Lord Howard of Effingham (called "Assarigoa" by the Iroquois) traveled from Virginia to Albany to negotiate with the Iroquois alongside the New York Governor Col. Thomas Dongan.
- 1722 Treaty of Albany
- Virginia Governor Spotswood and governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York agreed to cooperate in treaty negotiations, despite competition for trade with different tribes.
- The Treaty of Albany prohibited the Iroquois and their subordinate tribes from occupying any previous settlements east of the Blue Ridge, blocking any return to the fort that Piscataway (Conoy) had occupied on the Potomac River at what is now called Heater's Island near Point of Rocks, downstream from the Route 15 bridge.
- This was the last treaty in which the remnants of the Powhatan tribes would participate.
