The Powhatan

The Native American Indian group, the Powhatan is well-known with the story about a girl name Pocahontas. However, many stories about Pocahontas contain false historical information about the girl herself and the Powhatan people. A lot of people don't acknowledge that the Powhatan have their own political organization, diversity of traditional practices. In fact, the Powhatan is a confederation of Algonquian tribes in Virginia, which is similar to a nation. They were also known as Virginia Algonquians since The Powhatan spoke the Algonquians language (Sturtevant 299). Powhatan was also the common name of the founder as well as the ruling chief of the Powhatan confederacy (Sturtevant 302). The Powhatan confederacy was located in an area that stretches from "36 30' and 38 40' north latitude and 75 35' and 77 25' west longitude"(Rountree 17). This territory included the Eastern water section of Virginia and "southern half of the Delmarva Peninsula" that was called the Eastern shore. The largest and longest river Potomac runs through the territory and flows to the sea (Roundtree 17).

Originally, the land and the water provided Powhatan resources of foods and subsistence in daily live. The beach supplied fishes and shellfish for foods and shells. Shell beads, made from seashells were considered scarce and spiritual items. In the higher ground, there were forests that consisted large oaks, pine trees, wild berries, persimmons and plums. The Powhatan could easily gather these fruits and nuts for their diet. Where the salt water covered the land occasionally, there were clams, fishes and ducks for food source. Additionally, Native American Indians used salt water grass and rushes to weave textile for basket, ropes, and threats (Rountr...

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...urial customs regarding the person's status and locality. In general, Powhatan "dug deep holes in the earth with very sharp stakes, and wrapping the corpse in the skins, laid it upon sticks in the ground and covered it with earth" (Sturtevant 301). For their chief, "they removed the flesh and dried it, and then they wrapped the flesh with the bones in a mat. The placed the body on scaffolds with the mat and the remains were then laid in their order with those of others who had previously died" (Sturtevant 301). The Powhatan were believed to have priests. Powhatan people believed that priest had great powers of divine and communicating with gods (Rountree 100). Powhatan worshiped "to everything that was able to do they harm beyond their prevention such as fire, water, lighting, and thunder…" (Sturtevant 301). Their religious beliefs were both animism and animatisms.