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

Mantenau, An Indian Legend

MANTENAU
An Indian Legend.

On the prairie, flower-laden,
Once there dwelt an Indian maiden.
And her lodge was by the side
Of a river's sweeping tide,
And its name, of "Kankakee,"
Meant in English, fair to see,
For its beauty was so rare
None had seen a stream so fair!
Flowing through the prairies grand.
Stretching wide on every hand -
And along its winding shore
Often strayed in days of yore,
Mantenau, as wild and free
As the red-bird in the tree -
Or upon its waters flew
In her painted birch canoe:
She was nimble as the roe,
And as swiftly could she go,
Over prairie, hill and dale.
With the hunters on the trail -
She was sprightly, young and fair,
And in spirit light as air.
Troconeco was her lover.
He could hunt the grouse and plover.
And with him she oft would go.
Bearing arrows for his bow -
Bearing home the smaller game -
Guarding well his rising fame;
No other hunter of his tribe.
It were vain to here describe.
Troconeco, yet a boy.
Hunted with the Iroquois -
Hunted through the forest drear,
For the turkey and the deer -
Hunted o'er the prairies wide.
Yet, was ever at their side.
And the Iroquois confessed
Troconeco was the best.
This young maiden of the wild.

Simply lived, as nature's child,
And her life to us doth seem
Like some laughing silver stream,
That goes dancing down the glade,
Singing on through sun and shade -
Through the prairie, kissed by flowers,
Then beneath low hanging bowers -
Dashing down the rocky ledges -
Spreading o'er the grassy sedges,
Stealing on in quiet mood
'Neath the shadows of the wood -
Hastening now to find the river,
And then sweeping on forever!
Here the Pottawatomie reigns,
O'er these wide and flow'ry plains -
Fish abundant, in the streams,
Game to bless, his brightest schemes -
Corn and fruit for keen desires.
Wood to build his wigwam fires -
Springs of water here are found,
Gushing from the enchanted ground.
And a "Wonder Land" it seems!
Far beyond his wildest dreams;
Here he thought his Manitou, 
Came and dwelt the summer through,
And beneath his charmed spell.
Thus in peace was wont to dwell;
But there came an evil hour -
Came the White Man with his power,
And by thousands quick did slaughter,
The Red Man then, with fire-water -
And the remnant by the river,
Now must quit their homes forever.

Troconeco, now a man,
Grown up, since our tale began -
On the war path or the chase -
Form of symmetry and grace,
Manhood's strength befits him well,
Brave and true whom none excel -
On a bright September day.
O'er the prairies far away.
Lone he rode in quest of game.
But not back, that night he came;
Mantenau feels much alarm.
Fears to him has come some harm,
And that night, with sleepless eyes.
Sees him 'neath the naked skies.
Unprotected from the rain,
Moaning in his dreadful pain; -
At the morning's early dawn.
On her pony she is gone.
Searching through the wilderness
For her lover in distress.
And by instinct surely led.
Northward far, she soon had sped.
Where he lay upon the ground,
While his pony grazed around:
Here upon the day before
As he flew the prairies o'er,
His pony stumbling o'er a stone
On the ground they both were thrown,
And his leg thus falling under.
Quick the bone was broke asunder: -
Mantenau in deep distress,
Now proceeds his wound to dress.
And with utmost stretch of thought,
Quick by love and kindness taught,
Binds it up, as best she could
With strips of cloth and splints of wood;
Then brought water from the creek;
Quenched his thirst and bathed his cheek.
Then a lodge of boughs she made,
Placing him beneath its shade,
Near the stream that murmured by,
And then homeward swift did fly;
For her tribe upon that day,
Westward far must take its way,
And with friends she fain would go,
Love and Duty answered, "no."
For the maid they left a tent.
Then her mother wept and went!
While for company there stayed
A young brother with the maid:
To her lover back she flew,
Bearing food and blankets, too,
And each day she brought him there.
Food of fish, and fowl so rare.
That a spirit pure she seems, -
Smiling through his waking dreams.
While the glance of her bright eyes
Seemed like sunshine from the skies.

Now when thirty days were o'er,
Troconeco well once more -
On their ponies for the west.
Eagerly they forward pressed.
Reached their tribe ere Winter's blast
Bound the streams in fetters fast;
And then friends rejoice to see
Once again the lonely three!
And a feast was then prepared,
Which the tribe in gladness shared,
And ere long the marriage rite.
Gave the lovers pure delight -
Troconeco, made their chief,
(Death had gave the old relief),
Mantenau through many years
Was their stay through toil and fears
Troconeco, true and brave!
From peril oft his tribe did save -
Reigned a Sachem, all his life.
Ever guided by his wife.

       It was for this maiden the town of Manteno, in Kankakee County, was named - by making a slight change in the accent and the orthography, it became Man-te-no, the accent falling on the second syllable. While Man-to-nau had the accent about equally divided between the first and the third, and very slight on the second syllable, the last being pronounced as if it was spelled naw. The etimology of the word, as near as the writer has been able to gather from the legends, signified in the Pottawattomie tongue, "Indian Spirit," or, "Spirit of the Indian,'' a sobriquet given to the maiden when she was partly grown, owing to her light and airy manners, and physique, they thought, resembling a spirit.

• The Village of Manteno
• Visit the Potawatomi Nation