Subject: weroance chief
Culture: Powhatan confederacy tribes
Setting: English wars, Virginia late 16th - mid 17thc
Evolution:
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Paterek 1994 p22
"Powhatan was a confederation of tribes in the tidewater country of Virginia brought under one control by Chief Powhatan in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Algonquian speakers, they were members of the Potomac, Rappahannock, Pamunkey, Chickahominy, Chesapeake, and Powhatan tribes. The confederation existed only from Powhatan's unification to the death of his son in 1644, but the constituent tribes probably existed long before the confederacy did. The name, meaning 'falls in a current of water,' refers to the area from the tidewater to the 'fall line' of the interior. The people lived in villages and practiced agriculture, but subsistence also depended on fishing, hunting, and gathering. They dressed more like the Southeastern peoples than their Algonquian cousins to the north, a fact that may be attributed to the climate. First European contact was in the late sixteenth century."
* Virginia Historical Society > Story of Virginia
"To the Powhatan Indians of eastern Virginia, open land was a source of food and materials to be shared by all. The idea of individual ownership of land was entirely foreign to them. To the English, however, unoccupied land was there for the taking and, once tobacco proved profitable, they took it.
"The Powhatans became hostile as soon as they perceived that the English intended to stay. The English had two advantages in the ensuing wars. One was firepower. The other was a secret weapon unknown even to the English -- European diseases to which the Indians had no immunity. Within forty years of Jamestown's founding, the Powhatans had been defeated by warfare, smallpox, and measles. The Powhatan empire disintegrated, and its people were forced to live on disconnected pieces of tribal territory far from traditional hunting and fishing grounds."
"By 1622, the paramount chief Powhatan and Pocahontas were dead, and the English had spread deep into Powhatan territory. 'The English forced the Powhatan Indians to move inland away from their traditional river valley homes. 'Native leaders under Opechancanough, Powhatan’s half-brother and successor, had privately adopted a more militant attitude toward the English.
"On March 22, 1622, Opechancanough led a coordinated attack on several English plantations, killing more than 300 of the 1,200 colonists. Jamestown was warned and escaped destruction. 'Colonists from outlying areas were ordered into fortified settlements, where severe food shortages occurred and contagious diseases spread. 'The settlers retaliated, burning Powhatan villages, taking their corn in “feed fights”, and killing the inhabitants.
"The 1622 attack was followed by a decade of open warfare with intermittent raids, kidnappings and ambushes by both sides. A treaty in 1632 created a decade of tenuous peace. However, all Powhatan Indians were barred from traveling on the lower James-York peninsula."
Gorget
"A gorget is a pendant that was worn around the neck by Virginia Indians as a form of personal adornment. One of the earliest written observations of the use of gorgets among indigenous people in the Chesapeake region was recorded by Captains M. Phillip Amadas and M. Arthur Barlowe in 1584. Writing to the sponsor of their expedition Sir Walter Raleigh, they mention meeting some of the “people of the Countrey (sic)”, specifically Granganimeo, the king’s brother. “When we shewed him all our packet of merchandize, of all things that he sawe, a bright tinne dish most pleased him, which hee presently tooke up and clapt it before his breast, and after made a hole in the brimme thereof and hung it about his necke, making signes that it would defende him against his enemies arrows”.
"Though Granganimeo seems to have wanted a gorget for protection, similar to elements of the same name that were part of the armor that Amadas and Barlowe were likely wearing at the time of their meeting, the adornment also functioned as a status symbol. Gorgets could be made of stone, shell, bone, or metal and had holes punched or drilled through to allow for hanging. There are only four known partial examples of stone gorgets in Jamestown’s collection and all are made from different stone types. Three of the gorgets were recovered from mixed strata on the site, meaning they were no longer part of their 17th century deposition."
Costume
* Paterek 1994 p23
"Men wore an unusual type of breechclout; made of deerskin, it was draped, tied in the back (which was left bare), and was characteristically fringed. At times there seems to have been a fold-over section, also draped and fringed. Some seem to have worn a tail behind. Instead of this draped breechclout, some men wore a lightweight garment of skin, also draped and fringed, and fastened on one shoulder. When hunting or during severe weather, men wore gartered leggings. The very poor covered themselves with grass or leaves fastened to belts."
* Rosenthal/Jones 2008 p568 (Cesare Vecellio, writing in 1590)
"CLOTHING OF A CENTURION of Virginia Centurions wear certain skins of birds on their heads, with beaks and feet through their ears; they do this in order to look more terrifying. On their chests they wear a particular object of copper or silver. They cover their private parts with skins, from which tails hang down. They have discs of copper at their thighs, and they also wear chains around their legs and arms."
* Rosenthal/Jones 2008 p569 (Cesare Vecellio, writing in 1590)
"A LEADER on the Battlefield This set of clothing is even more beautiful that the previous set. On their heads these leaders wear a lion skin and colored feathers; they cover themselves all over with this kind of skin, and they tie it on with another at their navel. They wear the same things as the preceding man, with the same tails, and they paint themselves in various ways."
* Hadfield ed. 2001 p273 (Thomas Harriot, A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia [1588, 1590]" p266-278)
"The Princes of Virginia are attyred in suche manner as is expressed in this figure. They weare the haire of their heades long and bynde opp the ende of the same in a knot under their eares. Yet they cutt the topp of their heades from the forehead to the nape of the necke in manner of a cockscombe, strikinge a faier longe pecher of some berd att the Begininge of the creste uppun their foreheads, and another short one on bothe seides about their eares. They hange at their eares ether thicke pearles, or somewhat els, as the clawe of some great birde, as cometh in to their fansye. Moreover They ether pownes, or paynt their forehead, cheeks, chynne, bodye, armes, and leggs, yet in another sorte then the inhabitantz of Florida. They weare a chaine about their necks of pearles or beades of copper, wich they much esteeme, and ther of wear they also braselets ohn their armes. Under their brests about their bellyes appeir certayne spotts, whear they use to lett them selves bloode, when they are sicke. They hange before them the skinne of some beaste verye feinelye dresset in suche sorte, that the tayle hangeth down behynde. They carye a quiver made of small rushes holding their bowe readie bent in on hand, and an arrowe in the other, radie to defend themselves. In this manner they goe to warr, or tho their solemne feasts and banquetts."
Sword
* Burton 1884 p49
"In the account of the expedition sent out (1584) by Raleigh to relieve the colony of Virginia, we read of 'flat, edged truncheons of wood,' about a yard long. In these were inserted points of stag-horn much in the same manner as is now practised, except that European lance-heads have taken their place."
* Rosenthal/Jones 2008 p568 (Cesare Vecellio, writing in 1590)
"In their hands they carry a staff, which, at the top, is like a blade edged with nails, which they use to strike blows; and in this way they go into battle."
* McNab 2010 p22
"Other Eastern Indian club weapons more resembled wooden swords, with sharpened edges providing something of a cutting effect, or were fitted with antler, stone, bone or metal spikes to create a penetrating injury."
* JYF Museums 2021-06-03 online
"Powhatan war clubs ... come in a variety, from what we know historically. You're going to see largely two sets: Ones that are referred to as monahawks ... and tomahawks, both of which are Powhatan words. ... Monahawks are more commonly the wooden sword sort or variety that you'll see fairly common throughout the Southeast. Here their reference is oftentimes being wood, fairly short, curved ... and then either with a hardwood edge burnished down, or a cutting edge inset with, the English say, 'blades of stone and iron that will cleave a man asunder,' they write. So both varieties of monahawk are going to be an edged type weapon either for shattering or breaking limbs, deflecting an enemy's attack, or swiping with a nice jagged edge ...."
Archery
* Taylor 2001 p65
"Some of the earliest illustrations (c.1585) by John White of the Indians of present-day North Carolina and Virginia, show bows which, at a conservative estimate, were 5 feet 6 inches to 6 feet (1.7m to 1.8m) in length. Of relatively simple construction and resembling the English longbow, they were undoubtedly of a style which extended back at least a further 500 years."
* JYF Museums 2021-03-11 online
"The English colonists write with some pretty decent respect for Powhatan archery. One of them in later days writes that 'I imagine the world hath no better marksmen with their bow and arrows than they be. They kill birds flying, fishes swimming and beasts running. With such a strength,' he says, 'I saw them shoot one of our unarmored men clean through, nailing his arms down to his sides. ... Other English accounts reference the men hitting level or near their mark at 40 yards reliably, hitting their best random shots at 120 or so, and even in a test piercing an Englishman's shield although, he says, 'our pistols will not do the same.'"
Tomahawk
* Taylor 2001 p18
"Pick axe styles were described as early as 1540 by the Spanish explorer, De Soto, who visited groups on the Savannah. They were provided with copper or stone blades or celts. Such celts had a sharp edge on one side and a diamond-shaped point at the back; a variant was that used in the Virginia region which had a horn or stone celt which was pointed at both ends, the celt itself being driven through the wooden handle."
* Spangenberger 2015-05-26 online
"The word “tomahawk,” sometimes simply called a “hawk,” was introduced into the English language during the 17th century. It is derived from the Powhatan Algonquian word “tamahaac,” which, in turn, comes from the Proto-Algonquian root “temah,” meaning “to cut off by tool,” or by an axe."
* JYF Museums 2021-06-03 online
" "Tomahawks will certainly include ... stone hatchets ... commonly with blades of basalt or different types of quartzite inset. It's a fairly utilitarian tool for building houses and making camp, but can certainly be used as a weapon as well. The English mentioned seeing tomahawks being used in two specific occasions: One to split a man's skull in one swift stroke, and the other to crush a man's helmet onto his head leaving him thoroughly concussed."
Knife
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Bowl
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Cf
* Gleach 1997
* McCary 1957
* Rountree 1989
* Rountree 1990
* Rountree 2005
* Rountree/Davidson 1997
* Rountree/Turner 2002
* Townsend 2004
* Williamson 2003
