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European colonization of North America expanded through Spanish colonists establishing themselves in present-day Florida in the 1500s and English colonists doing so farther up the East Coast in the 1600s. North America’s Indigenous peoples preserved their cultures and dignity through this period, de…

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Pre-Colonial North America (also known as Pre-Columbian, Prehistoric, and Precontact) is the period between the migration of the Paleo-Indians to the region between 40,000-14,000 years ago and contact between indigenous tribes and European colonists in the 16th century CE which eradicated the Native American culture, replacing it with what became Canada and the United States of America.

Christopher Columbus (l. 1451-1506) initiated European colonization of the Americas in 1492 when he landed in the West Indies, and this encouraged efforts by the Dutch, French, and, finally, the English to establish colonies in North America beginning in 1534 through 1620 which led to rapid colonization for the next 100 years.

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Native Americans lived as autonomous nations (also known as tribes) across the continent from present-day Alaska, across Canada, and throughout the lower 48 United States. In order to study this era more easily, modern-day scholars have divided it into periods:

Paleoindian-Clovis Culture - c. 40,000 - c. 14,000 BCE

Dalton-Folsom Culture c. 8500-7900 BCE

Archaic Period - c. 8000-1000 BCE

Woodland Period - c. 500 BCE - 1100 CE

Mississippian Culture - c. 1100-1540 CE

It should be noted that, while efforts have been made to be precise in this dating, the various Native American cultures of the region developed at varying rates and in different ways and, also, that various scholars date these periods differently. There was no uniform development of every native culture at the same time everywhere. Some nations continued to use the technology and adhere to the traditions associated with, say, the Woodland Period while others had developed in ways that characterize the Mississippian Culture. Further, the designation 'Dalton-Folsom Culture' is used in this article as a general term for a time period in which many different cultures have been identified through differences in their manufacture of projectile points. Each of these cultures or nations, like the Evans for example, followed their own paths of development.

Nations & cultures across North America developed highly sophisticated social orders, built monumental urban centers, & engaged in long-distance trade.

Some of the nations were nomadic or semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers longer than others who built large urban complexes and engaged in agricultural pursuits and trade, but the latter should not be regarded as more "highly developed" than the former. The people of the Great Plains continued the hunter-gatherer mode longer than those on the east coast simply because the terrain and game were better suited to that region.

Nations and cultures across North America developed highly sophisticated social orders, built monumental urban centers, engaged in long-distance trade and agriculture on a large scale, inventing irrigation systems which still exist in parts of the United States in the present day (such as the Southwest, notably the area around Phoenix, Arizona). As more and more colonists arrived from Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, however, Native Americans were steadily pushed onto reservations, losing the lands they had lived on for thousands of years to the steadily increasing hordes of European immigrants who would eventually regard themselves as the rightful owners of the lands formerly inhabited by natives.

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Paleoindian-Clovis Culture

Depending on whether one adheres to the long or short chronology, Paleoindians migrated from Asia to North America 40,000 or 14,000 years ago. The earlier date is most likely more accurate based on the dispersion and development of the nations throughout North, Central, and South America. It is also thought that the people may have migrated by boats, hugging the coasts until they settled in areas such as modern-day California, Mexico, and points south, possibly at the same time others were migrating by land. Scholar Ron Fisher comments:

Archaeologists mostly agree that the Americas were peopled by migrants from Asia some 30,000 years ago, when, with much of the world's water locked up in ice, a 600-mile-wide land bridge linked Alaska and Siberia. The peoples crossed this Bering Land Bridge, with no notion that they were migrating. As the centuries passed, they followed the game, the weather, their own instincts, and, like pollen drifting on a breeze, they populated the continent before them. (10)

The earliest culture identified is the Clovis, so named for the "Clovis Points" first discovered in Clovis, New Mexico in 1929. These points are crafted stone spearheads used primarily in hunting game and, once identified in New Mexico, were recognized in finds located across the continent. Although it does seem there are earlier cultures than the Clovis, this designation is used to identify a widespread hunter-gatherer culture that subsisted primarily on hunting so-called megafauna, large animals such as great bison, giant beaver, the mastodon, mammoth, saber-toothed tiger, and others.

The Clovis peoples are thought to have followed the migration patterns of the big game until they came to primarily inhabit a particular region. At this point, they seem to have begun to engage in trade with others. Fisher notes:

Because points were often found far from their places of manufacture, archaeologists know that the people of different societies exchanged them, through trade or as gifts. Different sites also tell archaeologists about the sorts of groups who used them: a small site on a hill rich in spear points might have been a men's hunting camp; a riverside site with tools for making food, a women 's campsite. (11)

As the climate changed and more animals were hunted to extinction, larger game began to disappear and smaller game survived. At this point, the people began to gravitate toward permanent or semi-permanent settlements by lakes, streams, and rivers they could harvest for fish.

Dalton-Folsom Culture

This change in patterns of living differentiates the earlier Clovis Culture from the later Dalton-Folsom Culture which, like Clovis, is so-called from the projectiles found primarily in the Southwest (Folsom) and Midwest (Dalton) but identified in finds throughout most of North America dated to c. 8500-7900 BCE. Scholar Alan Taylor comments on this development:

The changing climate and demise of the mega-animals induced the nomadic bands to pursue more diversified strategies to tap a broader range of food sources. The natives had to learn their local environments more intimately to harvest shellfish, fish, birds, nuts, seeds, berries, and tubers. The Indians obtained more of their diet from fishing as they developed nets, traps and bone hooks. Their hunting evolved into the patient and prolonged tracking of more elusive mammals, especially deer, pronghorn antelope, moose, elk, and caribou. Beginning about nine thousand years ago, the Indians adjust to their smaller, fleeter prey by developing the atlatl - a spear thrower that provided increased thrust, velocity, and distance. (8-9)

The tips of the spears hurled by the atlatl - a carved stick with a cup at one end which held the butt of a projectile to be thrown - are these Dalton-Folsom points which give the culture its name. The atlatl is only one of the tools developed during this period, however, as the Dalton-Folsom people are also characterized by the development of stone knives, scrapers, drills, and other tools. The points of the spears were resharpened after each hunt using a type of whetstone, and the knives were crafted with serrated edges, quite sharp, for cutting meat for meals and hides for clothing. This culture also shows the first signs of religious belief and an afterlife based on grave goods found at sites dated to this period.

A belief in a higher, divine power informed the culture of the Archaic Period who are chiefly characterized by their construction of large earthen mounds which have given them the epithet of "mound builders". These mounds were initially created as sacred spaces where rituals were enacted and may also have served as "homes to the gods" and to elevate the priest above the world of the rest of the community.

The earliest mounds date to the so-called Middle Archaic Period around 5400 BCE, primarily in modern-day Louisiana (specifically, the Ouachita Mound at Watson Brake, the oldest mound complex in North America), Mississippi, and surrounding states and sometimes seem to have become religious or political centers for the surrounding community. Permanent settlements were established at this time and plants and some animals were domesticated. The dog was already domesticated by this time and, according to some scholars, traveled with the earliest arrivals from Asia.

Small communities of the Early and Middle Archaic periods developed into larger cities by the Late Archaic Period when sites such as Poverty Point, in modern-day Louisiana, were established. The Poverty Point site has given its name to the unknown people who constructed it - the Poverty Point Culture - and both derive from the name given by Phillip Guier to his 19th-century plantation. Guier farmed the land without recognizing that the "hills" of concentric half-circles were artificial earthworks created by Native Americans. No one else realized this either until 1953 when an aerial photograph clearly showed concentric earthworks built out facing a plateau.

Woodland Period

Mound building continued and developed during the Woodland Period (usually divided into Early, Middle, and Late periods), a term which is usually associated with the eastern and middle regions of North America but is equally applicable to the Southwest and Great Plains in that similar advances were made across the continent. Ceramics became more refined as did craftwork generally as evidenced by statuary, tools, and weapons. In the Southwest, nations like the Hohokam built cities and designed efficient irrigation systems. In Alaska, the Inuit developed stone lamps, large fishhooks, better knives, and harpoons. Toward the east, individual nations built mounds not only as sacred places but for burial and residential purposes, and each different group engaged in long-distance and local trade.

One of the most significant developments was in the area of religion as evidenced by artifacts found at various sites. Poverty Point clearly shows a high level of some kind of religious activity early on but religion was only one aspect of that site as it was also residential. Some sites of the Woodland Period, such as Pinson Mounds in modern-day Tennessee, were built and used entirely for religious purposes. The Pinson site includes 17 large mounds and artifacts discovered there clearly indicate it was never residential but served a sacred purpose.

The Native Americans observed the religious belief of animism - the conviction that all things in nature are animated by a spirit and all are interconnected - and so recognized that the unseen world was just as real and powerful as the one they walked through in their daily lives. Taylor comments:

Natives believed that humans lived inside, rather than apart from, that web of the natural and supernatural. They conceived of their actions with all other-than-human beings as essentially social, as involving creatures more like than unlike themselves. Indeed, in their myths and dreams, people and the other-than-human could metamorphose into one another. As in all aspects of native life, the fundamental principle in harvesting nature was the pursuit of reciprocity. People felt justified in claiming a share in the other life around them but felt obligated to reciprocate by paying ritual honor and by minimizing waste. (19)

This reciprocity took the form of personal and communal gestures of gratitude for the life of an animal taken or a tree cut down for lumber, but sacred sites like Pinson Mounds were another expression of this same sentiment. Mound building in general, it is thought, was a response to the unseen world in that the forces of nature could be focused and, perhaps, controlled by centering them in a mound that raised the celebrants toward the heavens but kept them firmly connected to the earth. As mounds were often also raised by water, it is thought that all four elements of earth, air, fire, and water were celebrated and given thanks during mound rituals.

Mississippian Culture

The Mississippian Culture is so-called because the people primarily lived in the Mississippi River Valley, but they also established cities and villages in the Ohio River Valley, Tennessee River Valley, and elsewhere ranging from the Northeast down to Louisiana and out toward Indiana. The Mississippian Culture's best-known communities were the Adena Culture (c. 800 BCE-1 CE) and the Hopewell Culture (c. 100 BCE - 500 CE) who built numerous mounds and further developed trade, commerce, craftworks, and technology. The Adena built cone-shaped mounds while the Hopewell's were more intricate, often in the shape of animals, but both served a religious function.

As with Poverty Point, the mounds of the Hopewell Culture can only be fully recognized and appreciated from above. How the people were able to create a work they themselves could not see is unknown. The skill of the Adena and Hopewell in their ceramics, artworks, and technology such as irrigation ditches is impressive as is their apparent talent in farming and abilities in trade. Scholar Yvonne Wakim Dennis comments on the perception of Native Americans as "noble savages" quietly wandering the land, writing:

Far from being the passive children of nature depicted in colonial reports...Indians practiced calculated and extensive resource management. Nor were the people of the Midwest simple nomads, but urbanized engineers, long-distance traders, and large-scale farmers. (135)

Another nation, considered distinct from both the Adena and Hopewell, built the city of Cahokia (in modern-day Illinois), the largest urban center in North America prior to the 18th century, which flourished between c. 650 - c. 1350 CE. Cahokia may have developed through an appeal by the priestly class to neighboring communities to come and participate in the construction of the city's enormous ritualistic mound - known as Monks Mound today - as well as the other 119 mounds used for other purposes.

Cahokia was a grand city with a wide central plaza, shops, ball fields, a solar calendar, residences, & long fields of crops.

Cahokia was a grand city with a wide central plaza, shops, ball fields, a solar calendar, residences for the lower class and others for the elite, and long fields of corn and other crops. The Cahokians cultivation of corn is one of the aspects separating them from the earlier cultures which had not mastered this crop. Their corn cultivation was so successful it not only fed the people of the city but was used in local and long-distance trade.

Another large city, known today as Moundville (located in Alabama) engaged in long-distance trade and drew people for religious services between c. 1100 - c. 1450 CE. The original names of both Cahokia and Moundville are unknown. Cahokia is named for the tribe living nearby at the time the site was first noticed by Europeans in the 19th century and Moundville was given its fairly unimaginative name for the many mounds dotting the landscape by the Black Warrior River.

The Moundville people maintained a strictly stratified social hierarchy which they demonstrated through the architecture of the city. The wealthy lived in wooden homes on top of the mounds which all faced the central mound in the plaza below, while the lower classes lived in thatch huts on the other side of the plaza. At some point, the city seems to have become a religious center and place of pilgrimage as its population increased at the same time that artifacts suggest a greater frequency of religious rituals.

Conclusion

The Mississippian Culture was still flourishing, although Cahokia had been abandoned (most likely due to overpopulation) when the Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto (l. c. 1500-1542) arrived in the region in 1541. De Soto's small army came in search of gold they had been informed could be found in abundance and killed a number of natives they believed were hiding the vast treasure from them. The De Soto expedition also brought diseases the natives had no immunity to, which killed many more even after De Soto himself had died and his men had returned to the coast.

The Spanish continued to make forays into the south and southwest regions of North America while the French were establishing themselves in Canada and throughout the Midwest of the present-day United States down to Louisiana. The French, also, brought diseases that killed large numbers of natives just as the English would do when they started arriving.

The English first attempted colonization through the Roanoke Colony in 1585 and again in 1587, both of which failed, and then finally managed to succeed with the Jamestown Colony of Virginia in 1607, which also would have failed if not for the intervention and assistance given by the native tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy. The English also attempted colonization of New England in 1607 through the Popham Colony, which was also assisted at first by the natives, until it failed. New England was first successfully colonized by the English in 1620 with the establishment of Plymouth Colony - which also owed its survival to the Native Americans, this time by the tribes of the Wampanoag Confederacy - and other New England Colonies developed quickly afterwards.

As more Europeans arrived in the "land of opportunity", they seized more and more native lands, pushing the original inhabitants further and further into the interior. The natives fought back in a series of wars from the Anglo-Powhatan Wars of 1610-1646 to King Philip's War (1675-1678) and many others up through the 18th century and into the 19th, but a lack of cohesion and unity on their part coupled with the seemingly unending supply of immigrants the English were able to send against them eventually led to their defeat. By the late 19th century, most Native Americans were confined to reservations and the immigrants, having stolen their lands through treaties that were never honored, then settled into their new home and named states, provinces, rivers, and parks after the people who had once owned everything.

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Pre-Colonial North America (also known as Pre-Columbian, Prehistoric, and Precontact) is the period between the migration of the Paleo-Indians to the region between 40,000-14,000 years ago and contact...

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Pre-1607 - Before the arrival of the English the Virginia Indians had been living in what is now Virginia for over 12,000 years. Chief Powhatan inherited six tribes that made up what became known as the Powhatan Chiefdom during this time. The Powhatan Indian lands encompassed all of the tidewater Virginia area, from the south side of the James River north to the Potomac River, and parts of the Eastern Shore, an area they called Tsenacommacah. Its span was approximately 100 miles by 100 miles. Before the arrival of the English, and their foreign diseases, the population is estimated to have been at least 25,000.

May 1607 - When the English arrived Wahunsunacock, or more popularly Chief Powhatan, was the mamanatowick (paramount chief) of the more than 30 tribes that comprised the Powhatan Chiefdom. These additional tribes had been gained through marriage alliances and coercion. Each tribe had their own chief ( weroance/weroansqua), but all were "ruled" by Powhatan and paid "tribute" to him. By this time the population of the members of the chiefdom was about 15,000 - these are the peoples the English interacted with most.

Winter 1607 - Captain John Smith was captured while out exploring and taken to Werowocomoco where Powhatan lived. The two men conversed and came to an understanding of sorts and in the spring of 1608 Smith was released. Powhatan then began to send gifts of food to help the English - his young daughter Pocahontas usually accompanied these visits as a sign of peace.

1609 - Smith was injured when his gunpowder pouch caught fire and was sent home to England. With his departure relations between the Powhatan Indians and the English began to sour more rapidly. Powhatan moved from Werowocomoco to Orapaks, which was further inland, to get away from the English.

1610 - Pocahontas, who was now a young woman, married a Powhatan "private captain" named Kocoum.

1613 - The English kidnapped Pocahontas to try and force the return of English prisoners and stolen weapons. She was eventually taken to Henrico to live. Negotiations between the two peoples began.

1614 - While in captivity Pocahontas was taught English ways, the Christian faith and baptized Rebecca. During this time she met an Englishman named John Rolfe, who wanted to marry her. With blessings from her father and the governor, according to English accounts, the two were married. The marriage solidified a peace between the English and the Powhatan that became known as the "Peace of Pocahontas." The Rolfes later had a son, who was named Thomas.

1616 - The Virginia Company paid to send Pocahontas, her husband, their infant son and several Powhatan Indians to England. Their hope in doing so was to gain more interest in Jamestown.

1617 - Pocahontas became ill and died in Gravesend, England. After her death the peace between the Powhatan Indians and the English back in Virginia began to unravel.

1618 - Powhatan died. His succession was briefly passed on to his younger brother, Opitchapam, and then to his next younger brother Opechancanough.

1622 - Tired of English expansion Opechancanough planned a coordinated attack on the English settlements. Because of a young Indian boy's warning Jamestown itself was spared. Many outlying settlements were attacked and of a population of about 1,200 settlers about 350-400 were killed. After their attack, on March 22, the Powhatan Indians withdrew, as was their way, to wait for the English to pack up and leave. The English did not leave and more conflicts arose and continued on and off for the next ten years.

1644 - Although the English population had risen to about 8,000 Opechancanough was still upset about the English encroachment on the land and planned another attack. Once again approximately 350-400 English were killed.

1646 - Opechancanough, who was about 100, was captured by the English. While in captivity he was shot in the back by an English guard - against orders - and killed. His death began the end of the Powhatan Chiefdom.

1646/77 - Treaties were signed between the Powhatan and the English. They limited access to lands that were considered English and set up reservations. The 1677 treaty also set up yearly tribute payment that was made to the English king. The Powhatan were now English subjects.

1693 - The College of William and Mary was founded to teach American Indians and clergy. In the early 1700s Governor Spotswood told the Powhatan Indians he would remit their yearly tribute payments if they sent their children to the school. By the late 1700s funding for the college was diverted elsewhere and the school was closed to non-whites until 1964.

1700s - More Indian lands were lost, including the reservations of the Rappahannock (shortly after 1700), the Chickahominy (1718), and the Nansemond (who sold theirs in 1792). Some traditional ways were still practiced, but after decades of interactions with the English many Powhatan Indians were identifying themselves as Christians and speaking English more and more. By 1800 many of the native languages were no longer heard.

1800s - The desire to push the Powhatan Indians off their lands began again. This time the specific target was the four remaining Virginia Indian tribes that still held onto their reservation lands. The whites also wanted to end their status as tribes. One reservation was sold by 1850 while another, the Nottoway Reservation, was divided by 1878 (though many families held onto their lands into the 20th century). The Mattaponi and Pamunkey are the only two tribes that refused to give in to the attempts and still maintain their reservations into the present day.

1912-1946 - Walter Plecker was the head of vital statistics in Virginia during this time. He was a follower of the eugenics movement and a white supremacist. Plecker performed what amounted to "paper genocide" against all Virginia Indians because he wanted to deny they existed as he thought there were no "true" Indians in Virginia. In his view if you had 1/16th African ancestry, or by 1923 any trace of African ancestry, you were considered "colored." He wanted all documents, such as birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, voter registration books, etc to reflect this by not using the term "Indian." The only two classifications according to Plecker were "white" and "colored."

1924 - The Racial Integrity Act was passed. It said, among other things, that it was illegal for whites and non-whites to marry as well as recognized only two racial classifications: "white" and "colored." Walter Plecker was a strong advocate for it as he wanted to keep the white "master race" "pure" and because he denied the existence of the Virginia Indians - who he called "mongrels." He believed the Virginia Indians wanted to escape "negro status" so they could go to white schools and marry whites. After this act was passed it was easier for Plecker to get his wish in having documents use only the terms "white" or "colored." To escape Plecker's aggressive campaign many Virginia Indians left the state. This is the same year the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 was passed. The Act granted all American Indians United States citizenship - some had gained it previously through marriage, special treaties, receipt of allotments or through military service.

1967 - The United States Supreme Court overturned the Racial Integrity Act in the case Loving vs. Virginia saying "Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State." Virginia Indians were now able to marry who they chose and more importantly to change their birth certificates to accurately show they were Indians, for a fee. After 1997, when Delegate Harvey Morgan's bill passed, any Virginia Indian born in Virginia could have their records changed for free.

1980s - By the end of the 1980s there were seven tribes recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia who were part of, or allied with, the Powhatan Chiefdom: the Pamunkey, Mattaponi (both maintain their reservation lands from the 1600s), Upper Mattaponi, Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Nansemond, and the Rappahannock.
The Monacan Nation, who was never part of the Powhatan Chiefdom, was recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia during this time as well.

1990s-2009 - Six of the state recognized tribes, all but the 2 reservation tribes, began seeking federal recognition through an Act of Congress. They have tried to get the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act passed many times over the years.
In March 2009 the tribes sent the bill to the House Committee on Natural Resources to start the process again. On April 22 the committee recommended the bill be sent on to the House of Representatives, who passed it on June 3. The Senate then referred a companion bill to their Committee on Indian Affairs, who had it sent to the full Senate on October 25. The bill was then placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar on December 23, 2009. This is the farthest the bill has ever gotten in the congressional process.
The Senate bill later died as a result of a hold placed on it - by Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) - that prevented it from being heard and voted on by the Senate before 2010 came to a close (the end of that Congressional session).

2010 - In early 2010 three more tribes were recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia: the Patawomeck, the Nottoway, and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway). There are now eleven tribes recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia and eight who are Powhatan descended - the Patawomeck Indian Tribe joins the seven tribes that were state recognized in the 1980s. About 3,400 people are tribal members of these eight Powhatan descended tribes.
The Monacan Nation has 2,000 tribal members, the Nottoway Indians of Virginia have 120 tribal members, and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indians of Virginia have 272 tribal members.
Collectively these eleven recognized Virginia Indian tribes own less than 2,000 acres of land.
The 2 reservation tribes, the Mattaponi and the Pamunkey, continue to make the yearly tribute payments of fish and game, now to the Virginia governor, as stipulated in the 1646 and 1677 treaties.
Many other Powhatan Indian and Virginia Indian descended tribes are still living in Virginia, and elsewhere, today. Several who still live in Virginia are currently seeking state recognition.

2011 - In February, all six tribes began the process to gain federal recognition again, placing a bill in the US House of Representatives (H.R.783) and a companion bill in the Senate (S.379) on the same day. On July 28, 2011, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs approved the Senate bill; the bill is currently waiting to be placed on the Senate legislative calendar. The House bill is currently in the House Subcommittee Indian and Alaska Native Affairs. Both bills remain in the same spot as of April 2012. If the bills do not pass by the end of 2012 (the end of this Congressional session), the tribes must start the process all over again.
For the most up to date information on the bills:
House version of Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act
Senate version of Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act

Bibliography

Breed, Allen. "Virginia Indians balk at Jamestown Anniversary without Recognition." HamptonRoads.com. 12/26/2005. Web. 22 May 2008.

Dilday, Robert. "Baptists executives urge federal recognition of Virginia tribes." AssociatedBaptistPress.com 08/19/2010. Web. 21 August 2010.

Egloff, Keith and Deborah Woodward. First People: The Early Indians of Virginia. Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia,1992.

Fiske, Warren. "The Black-and-White World of Walter Ashby Plecker." The Virginian-Pilot. 08/18/2004 1-7. Web. 22 May 2008.

Gleach, Frederic W. Powhatan's World and Colonial Virginia: A Conflict of Cultures. Lincoln: The University of Nebraska Press, 1997.

"Govtrack.us." H.R. 1385: Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2009.05/13/2009. Web. 18 March 2009

"Govtrack.us." S.1178: Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2009. 04/06/2010. Web. 3 June 2009.

Kimberlain, Joanne. "We're Still Here." The Virginian-Pilot. June 7-9 2009: Print.

"Native American Citizenship: 1924 Indian Citizenship Act." NebraskaStudies.org. Web. 24 May 2009.

Rountree, Helen C. Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005.

Rountree, Helen C. (editor) Powhatan Foreign Relations: 1500-1722. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993.

Rountree, Helen C. The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.

Rountree, Helen C. and E. Randolph Turner III. Before and After Jamestown: Virginia's Powhatans and Their Predecessors. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2002.

"THOMAS (Library of Congress)." 06/04/2009. Web. 10 June 2009.

"THOMAS (Library of Congress)." 12/23/2009. Web. 10 June 2009.

"THOMAS (Library of Congress)." 09/29/2011. Web. 15 February 2011.

"THOMAS (Library of Congress)." 09/29/2011. Web. 15 February 2011.

"U.S. Supreme Court Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. (1967)." FindLaw. 1994-99. Web.3 February 2000.

Waugaman, Sandra F. and Danielle Moretti-Langholtz, PhD. We're Still Here: Contemporary Virginia Indians Tell Their Stories. Richmond: Palari Publishing, revised edition 2006.

Wood, Karenne (editor). The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail. Charlottesville: Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2007.
Sarah J Stebbins
NPS Seasonal, May 2009
updated June 2010, April 2012
Available online through the National Park Service is A Study of Virginia Indians and Jamestown: THE FIRST CENTURY by Danielle Moretti-Langholtz, Ph.D.

Additional information on Virginia Indians can be obtained through the Virginia Council on Indians website at: http://indians.vipnet.org/

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Chronology of Powhatan Indian Activity - Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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Pre-1607 - Before the arrival of the English the Virginia Indians had been living in what is now Virginia for over 12,000 years. Chief Powhatan inherited six tribes that made up what became known as the Powhatan Chiefdom during this time.

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Not apparent to European eyes

Essay by Dr. Kelly Enright

Strange beasts and thickly-clothed humans disembarked from large wooden vessels floating on water with billowing white wings. They spoke a new language and brought objects never before seen: crossed poles which they planted in the ground, sometimes topped by colored fabrics, heavy sticks that shot fire and sounded a deafening boom.

Not knowing their intentions, some approached warily, some offered gifts, some attacked, others surely fled. American Indian responses to European arrival on their shores is as varied as were their sixteenth-century cultures. What we know about native reactions must be inferred from European written accounts and the material cultures of both peoples.

The image Theodore de Bry created in 1594, Christopher Columbus arrives in America, reflects one perception of first interactions-the one explorers most wanted people to believe about their adventures. Here we see nearly naked, muscular people (representing Tainos) offering gifts; in the background, others flail, seemingly in fear. But such accounts must be weighed against existing evidence. While Europeans liked to tell tales of natives treating them as gods, for the most part, initial encounters were measured assessments.

Throughout the Americas, native peoples were used to difference - there were more than 300 different languages in North America alone. For thousands of years, cultures in the Americas had flourished, adapted, and developed. While with hindsight we see the coming of Europeans as a major event, to many already on these shores, the newcomers were, perhaps, just another people.

First Civilizations

Although the Paleo-Indians who migrated to America from Asia (across the Bering Strait - a land bridge that once joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia) during the Pleistocene Epoch (Ice Age) did not leave behind a written (or even a large material record) they can be identified by specific toolkits. Clovis points, for example, reveal technologies of hunting and processing meat, as well as crafting a sharp point from available resources. Workers used a hard rock to chip flakes from a softer one, shaping it into a sturdy point that could be used by hand or fastened to a wooden spear.

These tools reveal that Clovis people were hunter-gatherers, relying upon big game. As ice thawed, toolkits diversified. Later Archaic people left behind wooden fishing spears reflecting an expansion of hunting and diet, possible boat technology, and a variety of specialized stone tools. But the most significant development in the Americas was the start of agriculture which fundamentally altered lifestyles of people throughout the hemisphere.

The first American crop was developed in Mexico where people cultivated a wild grass known as teosinte-the small, wild grass ancestor of modern corn. Agriculture fundamentally changed the nature of culture on the continent. Once people began planting crops, cultures became more complex, more permanently settled (people had to stay in one place to care for crops), and, importantly for our understanding of them, left behind larger and more diverse cultural objects. Agriculture led to hierarchical structures of labor, politics, and religion, including the worship of gods associated with agricultural needs like water and sun.

At the Southwestern sites of Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon, the alignment of structures reveals an understanding of solstices and astronomical concepts, while petroglyphs, wall paintings, and pottery reflect skilled artisans, symbolism, and design. The Pacific coast was the most densely populated region, we find carved sophisticated wood objects (including totem poles), and seashells used as currency.

Along the Mississippi River, earthen ceremonial and effigy mounds speak to the presence of large urban centers and expansive trade networks in the region. In fact, at its peak, the Mississippian city of Cahokia was larger than London at the time.

European arrival

As the Europeans readied to cross the Atlantic, a number of metropolitan cultures in North America were declining, likely due to soil depletion or drought. People disbanded and spread out into smaller villages and tribes. When Europeans contacted the people of the East Coast, they depicted them naked, or nearly so, and labeled them as "savage" and "uncivilized."

While many of these people had complex cosmologies, rituals, and agriculture, these were not apparent to European eyes. Crops, for instance, were planted together-corn, beans, and squash would intermingle-while Europeans practiced monoculture (one crop in one area).

Columbian exchange

Food played a major role in the Columbian Exchange (the exchange of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the Americas, West Africa, and Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries). Sixteenth-century ships brought with them new plants and animals-some intentional like pigs and horses-others unintentional like rats and cockroaches. These new species wreaked havoc on the landscape, tearing up indigenous crops and grazing in tribal hunting grounds. Americans, in turn, had crops that suited European tastes and so foods and other plants were brought back to Europe, including potatoes, tomatoes, beans, cocoa, and tobacco.

Likewise, disease was an unwitting environmental actor. The continent's inhabitants had little to no immunity to a variety of deadly European pathogens such as smallpox and influenza. While Indians shared some diseases with Europeans, they were much less devastating.

By the end of the sixteenth century, Spain had established its strict and culturally-destructive mission system from California to Florida. While Spain dominated early colonial settlement, when the English defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, the continent was opened up for Dutch, French, and English ventures.

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Native Americans were used to difference - there were more than 300 languages spoken in North America alone.

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When the London Company sent out its first expedition to begin colonizing Virginia on December 20, 1606, it was by no means the first European attempt to exploit North America. In 1564, for example, French Protestants (Huguenots) built a colony near what is now Jacksonville, Florida. This intrusion did not go unnoticed by the Spanish, who had previously claimed the region. The next year, the Spanish established a military post at St. Augustine; Spanish troops soon wiped out the French interlopers residing but 40 miles away.

Meanwhile, Basque, English, and French fishing fleets became regular visitors to the coasts from Newfoundland to Cape Cod. Some of these fishing fleets even set up semi-permanent camps on the coasts to dry their catches and to trade with local people, exchanging furs for manufactured goods. For the next two decades, Europeans' presence in North America was limited to these semi-permanent incursions. Then in the 1580s, the English tried to plant a permanent colony on Roanoke Island (on the outer banks of present-day North Carolina), but their effort was short-lived.

History of Virginia
Louisiana: European Explorations and the Louisiana Purchase

In the early 1600s, in rapid succession, the English began a colony (Jamestown) in Chesapeake Bay in 1607, the French built Quebec in 1608, and the Dutch began their interest in the region that became present-day New York. Within another generation, the Plymouth Company (1620), the Massachusetts Bay Company (1629), the Company of New France (1627), and the Dutch West India Company (1621) began to send thousands of colonists, including families, to North America. Successful colonization was not inevitable. Rather, interest in North America was a halting, yet global, contest among European powers to exploit these lands.

There is another very important point to keep in mind: European colonization and settlement of North America (and other areas of the so-called "new world") was an invasion of territory controlled and settled for centuries by Native Americans. To be sure, Native American control and settlement of that land looked different to European eyes. Nonetheless, Native American groups perceived the Europeans' arrival as an encroachment and they pursued any number of avenues to deal with that invasion. That the Native American were unsuccessful in the long run in resisting or in establishing a more favorable accommodation with the Europeans was as much the result of the impact of European diseases as superior force of arms. Moreover, to view the situation from Native American perspectives is essential in understanding the complex interaction of these very different peoples.

Finally, it is also important to keep in mind that yet a third group of people--in this case Africans--played an active role in the European invasion (or colonization) of the western hemisphere. From the very beginning, Europeans' attempts to establish colonies in the western hemisphere foundered on the lack of laborers to do the hard work of colony-building. The Spanish, for example, enslaved the Native American in regions under their control. The English struck upon the idea of indentured servitude to solve the labor problem in Virginia. Virtually all the European powers eventually turned to African slavery to provide labor on their islands in the West Indies. Slavery was eventually transferred to other colonies in both South and North America.

Because of the interactions of these very diverse peoples, the process of European colonization of the western hemisphere was a complex one, indeed. Individual members of each group confronted situations that were most often not of their own making or choosing. These individuals responded with the means available to them. For most, these means were not sufficient to prevail. Yet these people were not simply victims; they were active agents trying to shape their own destinies. That many of them failed should not detract from their efforts.

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Overview | Colonial Settlement, 1600s - 1763 | U.S. History Primary Source Timeline | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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When the London Company sent out its first expedition to begin colonizing Virginia on December 20, 1606, it was by no means the first European attempt to exploit North America.

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The economy of the Native Americans relied on the men and women performing their everyday jobs. The men would hunt, fish and make tools. These tools were helpful for clearing the land so they could make gardens. Then the women would farm, collect the firewood, prepare and serve meals, and make clothing for everyone. Another main role was the role that the children played in helping their parents and elders. The boys would learn from their fathers about hunting and fishing. Then the young girls would weed and take care of the garden.

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Before The Europeans arrived in North America, the Native Americans lived in tribes called autonomous nations. These tribes were nomadic and semi nomadic. They hunted and gathered their food and then there were other tribes that would build larger complexes. They then would trade with others and they were very developed.

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The highest levels were tribes or nations. These large groups had similar cultures, geography and language. Then there were clans and these clans were the smaller groups of the tribes. Most of the time the members shared a common ancestor. Most of them were considered related.

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When the Europeans formed their colonies the social structure changed a lot. Everything became divided by religion and race. The societies were no longer free because they would either be slaves and servants. This was so they could produce wealth for the Europeans.

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Once the Europeans colonized North America the population of the Americas went down by 80% (estimated). This was because the Europeans brought diseases that the Native Americans had never been exposed to before. It also changed the way that people lived. They were no longer free, they had to work in order for the Europeans to make things.

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There was a massive loss of land, property and freedom when the Europeans arrived. The Europeans also enforced many laws that went against the Native American religion. They also started importing things from Europe.