The Powhatan Natives

Reconstructed Powhatan village at the Jamestown Settlement 
living-history museum.

       One of the most famous stories in our American history centers about a fun-loving Indian girl known as Pocahontas. She is said to have saved the lives of Captain John Smith and other early English settlers when they aroused the anger of her father, the chief of the Powhatans. Later, she married an Englishman, went to England, and was received in London as a princess.

       The Powhatans formed a strong federation of tribes living in the region extending from the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay inland to the fall line. The word Powhatan comes from "pawa tan" which means "falls in a current of water."

       When the English reached Jamestown in 1607, the tribes occupied some 200 villages. Each had from 50 to 500 families. The people lived in wigwangs. These were made of saplings thrust into the ground in an oblong shape and bent over at the top. When these had been securely tied with root strings, or with white oak thongs, they were covered with sheets of bark. Each village also had small huts shaped like beehives. Doors and windows were simply openings, which were closed with bark shutters in stormy weather. Fires were made by turning a dry, pointed stick about in a hole in a piece of dried wood. When it ignited, tinder was added and the blaze applied to the materials in the clay fire-hole in the center of the house. Smoke passed out through an opening directly above.

       The English were much surprised at the crops raised by their native neighbors. At first, they were friendly with the Indians, who supplied them with several kinds of corn, peas, melons, pumpkins, fruits and tobacco. The Indians were very fond of peaches which had been dried in the sun, and of sweet, juicy, green corn roasted in the ear before the fire. Bread was made of corn, wild oat or sunflower seed meal. No salt was used, but ashes of the hickory or of stickweed supplied the seasoning needed. Hominy was eaten by itself or cooked with fish or the flesh of animals. Barbecuing whole deer was a favorite means of celebrating a feast or ceremony.

       The Powhatans believed in a great spirit known as Okee or Kiwasa. This giver of all good things was thought to dwell in the heavens above. Images of this god were placed in their burial temples. They also worshipped many forces capable of doing them harm, such as fire, water, lightning and thunder. The priests and magicians controlled the life of the community.

       The divisions of the year, months and days were very interesting. If Pocahontas wished to tell that something happened at noon, she would say it occurred during the power of the sun; morning was - the rise of the sun; afternoon and evening, the lowering of the sun. Months were counted by moons. For instance, one was the moon of stags, another, the corn moon. We divide our year into four seasons, the Powhatans had five: the budding time; the roasting-ear time; the highest sun time; the corn harvest or fall of the leaf time, and the winter, or cokonk time. It was then they heard the call of the wild geese. Trading and account records were kept by means of knots on a string or by notches on a stick.

       Like other native tribes, they were fond of personal decorations. Copper pendants were their most prized possessions. Next came the necklaces, wristlets and kneelets of pearls, beads and shells. The usual dress of the men consisted of a fringed apron or mantle of deerskin belted at the waist. When on the warpath, their bodies were painted with designs fantastic and strange.

       Pocahontas and her brothers were very straight. At birth, they had been dipped head and ears in cold water and then bound onto boards which had coverings of cotton, wool or fur. Against the board the first years were spent. Often the board was hung from the limb of a tree. When the brothers grew up, their hair was cut so as to leave a short, stiff ridge standing up on top of the head exactly like the comb on the head of a rooster. Sometimes, the rest of the head was shaved, but usually the back hair was allowed to grow and fastened in a knot back of the left ear. The hair on the right side of the head was kept flat so as not to interfere when the Indian was using the bow and arrow.

       From the Powhatans, the Jamestown colonists learned how to hollow out trunks of trees and make them into dugouts for fishing, and how to plant and harvest the corn and beans which have become such important foods to Americans. Cornell