The Powhatan Indians occupied a territory that encompassed a large portion of the coastal plains of Virginia. The eastern border of their territory was, of course, the Atlantic Ocean, while the western border stretched almost one hundred miles inland from the coast. Their western boundary was marked by the beginning of the territory that belonged to the neighboring Monacan and Mannahoac tribes. The southern border of the Powhatan territory was marked by the present day Virginia-North Carolina border, and the northern border was generally regarded as being located at the present day Virginia-Maryland border. This area included approximately six thousand square miles of land that was dominated at the time by Chief Powhatan. The territory that the Powhatan lived on contained many rivers and streams that ran down from the Appalachian Mountains and the piedmont and emptied their water into the Chesapeake Bay. Most of the waterways of the four major rivers, the James, York, Rappahannock, and Potomac were navigable almost one hundred miles inland by Powhatan canoes and even large European ships. Because of it’s latitude, the environment, including the climate, animal life, and plant life, of the Powhatan region included both northern and southern elements. At the time of the English settlement of Jamestown, 1607, the Northern Hemisphere was going through a "Little Ice Age" which resulted in temperatures that were about 3 ½ degrees cooler than what they are today, which in turn made the winters a little bit harsher. There are several different types of environments that can be classified in the coastal region of Virginia: beach, dunes, dune forest, salt marsh, freshwater marsh, pine barrens, mixed forest, oak flats, "juniper" swamp, and "cypress" swamp. Most of their territory was untouched by European explores until 1524, therefore, up until 1607 the detrimental effects of European colonizers were not present in Powhatan territory.
At the time of the Jamestown settlement, 1607, chief Powhatan ruled over fourteen thousand people. His empire included thirty-one tribes, which were members of nine nations that all spoke the Algonquian language. A century before Jamestown the numbers of Powhatan were even higher, however, even the seldom contact with Europeans led to the spread of disease that began to lessen the number of Powhatans. Throughout the 17th century the Powhatan and the European settlers waged many battles. By the end of the century the Powhatans numbers were reduced to a few hundred, mostly because of wars and disease, and they inhabited only small corners of what used to be their large territory.
The region that the Powhatan inhabited contained several different environments which included: beach, dunes, dune forest, salt marsh, freshwater marsh, pine barrens, mixed forest, oak flats, "juniper" swamp, and "cypress" swamp. The Powhatan used the beach and dunes primarily for camping and for gathering shellfish. In the dunes and dune forest they were able to collect nuts produced by pignut hickory trees, grapes, blackberries, and chicksaw plums. The salt-water marshes provided rushes and grasses that the Powhatans probably used for textiles. These marshes also proved to be a good food source, periwinkles, sand fiddlers, oysters two kinds of clams, fish and ducks were all available. The freshwater marshes provided edible rushes and grasses such as cattails, arrow arum, broad-leaved arrowhead, and golden club. Mussels, ducks, shad, and herring were also available sources of food in the freshwater marshes. The pine barrens were generally flat lands that contained loblolly, pond, and yellow pines. Northern pine barrens were characterized by their abundance of pitch pine. The smaller trees found in the barrens included the shrub oak and red cedar. The Powhatan found the barrens to be useless lands because of the layer of pine straw that covered the forest floor making it hard for other plants and animal to thrive. The mixed forest was the richest in species of any of the environment that the Powhatans inhabited. The upper story of trees includes pines, sweet gum, southern red oak, white oak, red maple and many others. The lower story consists of American holly, persimmon, black gum, flowering dogwood, hackberry, and American elm just to name a few. Flowering plants and roots found in the mixed forest were used by the Powhatans as food and medicine. They also gathered and hunted many different varieties of nuts and berries and animals. The Powhatans also preferred the mixed forest because the soil was rich and therefore suitable for framing. The oak flats contained several types of oak trees, elm, maple, sycamore and other trees that dropped acorns providing a good hunting ground for the Powhatans. Both types of swamps were used primarily as hunting grounds also. The "juniper" swamp, being the less wet of the two was dominated by juniper trees. The "cypress" swamp, the deeper and wetter of the two, mostly contained black gum and bald cypress. The Powhatan hunted deer and turkey, both of which were found in higher abundance before the Europeans, came. Coastal Virginia also contained black bears, raccoons, opossums, long-tailed weasels, minks, fishers, wolves, foxes, martens, and white-tailed deer all of which the Powhatans and English used for trading, clothing and food. The Powhatans also hunted Canada geese, snow geese, mallards, black ducks and many other species of ducks. The fish that the Powhatan hunted were much more abundant and larger than they are today. The rivers were full of small and largemouth bass, black and white crappie, yellow perch, channel catfish, white catfish, brown bullhead, pickerel, and many more. The Powhatan built their villages along the banks of the four major river and the larger tributaries. These areas provided plenty of food and good soil for horticulture. Before the English came all the tools and weapons used by the Powhatans were made of stone or other natural objects that they could find in their environment. Canoes were made of logs carved out with the teeth of beavers, fishnets were made from deer sinew, cords and lines were made from hemp that the women spun by hand. The Powhatans lived in houses called yihakan, which housed six to twenty people and were made out of saplings that were lashed together. The houses were not strong or of a high standard, however they were cheap, quick and easy to build.
From the information that I gathered some of the early beliefs and myths that the Powhatans subscribed to, such as reincarnation and a reverence to the sun, have changed over the years. Most of this change was due to the pressures that the English settlers put on the Powhatans to convert to their "civilized" culture. The Powhatan were nearly eliminated by the settlers by the end of the 17th century, and I believe that a lot of their beliefs and myths were also eliminated at that time. Many marriages between the Powhatans and the English occurred during that time, including the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, which also added to the accelerated the rate at which the Powhatan culture was eventually altered and morphed into English culture.
Josephy, Alvin M. 500 Nations. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
Rountree, Helen. Pocahontas’s People. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, 1990.
Rountree, Helen. The Powhatan Indians of Virginia. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, 1989.
