Melungeon researchers have got to be familiar with Virginia's Indians to
comprehend the historical origins of the Melungeons. When the feet of the
Englishmen stepped on the ground the fate and destiny of the Melungeons was set
in the times of history. Thanks to
www.google.com the task of
researching history is easier than baking an apple or cheery pies. The Cradle
of the Republic was written by Lyon Gardimer Tyler in the year 1906.
By
Lyon Gardiner Tyler
The Indians Along James River.
At the time of the arrival of the English in Virginia, the Indians inhabiting
the Tide-water section were united in a confederacy, of which Powhatan was the
head war-chief or werowance. They belonged to the Algonquin race, and were far
less barbarous than the wild inhabitants of the Mississippi region. Each tribe
had a territory denned by natural bounds, and they lived on rivers and creeks in
fixed villages, consisting of huts called wigwams, oval in shape, and made of
bark set upon a frame-work of saplings. Sometimes their houses were of great
length accommodating many families at once, and at Uttamussick in the peninsula
formed by the
Pamunkey
and
Mattapony
were three such structures sixty feet in length, where the Indians kept the
bodies of their dead werowances under the care of seven priests or medicine men.
Near every wigwam there was a cleared spot, in which corn, tobacco, gourds,
pumpkins, beans and cymlings were planted. The tribes received their werowances
from Powhatan, and these petty werowances numbered in all about thirty-four.
On the south side of Chesapeake Bay the Chesapeake Indians had their cornfields
and villages. It would appear from Strachey that they were new-comers in that
region, and successors of others who had fallen victims to the jealousy and
cruelty of Powhatan. " It is not long since," says1 Strachey,
" that his priests told Powhatan that from the Chesapeake Bay a nation should
arise which should dissolve and give end to his empire, for which not many years
since (perplext with this divelish oracle and divers understanding thereof),
according to the ancyent and gentile customs, he destroyed and put to sword all
such who might lye under any doubtful construccion of the said prophesie, as all
the inhabitants, the werowance, and his subjects of that province." Perhaps it
was the memory of this event and this prophecy that made the Indians in the
Chesapeake region so quick to resent the landing of the whites at Cape Henry,
April 26, 1607.
Above the Chesapeakes, on the same side, were the
Nanse- monds,
governed by four werowances — Weyhohomo, Ama- petough, Weyingopo and Tirchtough.
Their villages were, for the most part, on the Nansemond River, which meant a
neck "where there was a fishing place"—(Naus-amung).
Next came the Warrascoyacks residing in the county of Isle of Wight. Their chief
town was probably near " Old Town," on
Pagan River,
" where a Bay wherein fallctli or prettie brookes and creekes halfe intrench the
inhabitants of Warrascoyac," — a word meaning " point of land." At Pagan Point
there was a small village called Mokete and on Burwell's Bay another small
village called Mathomank. The Werowance was Sasenticum and his son was Kaintu.
The neighbors of the Warrascoyacks were the
Quiyoughco- hanocks,
whose territory extended through Surry and Prince George counties. The werowance
was Pepiscumali, called for short Pipisco, who kept on good terms with the
whites. However, in 1610, he had been deposed by Powhatan, and one of Powhatan's
wives, Oholasc, was queen in the minority of her son Tatacope, who lived at
Chawopo with Chopoke, one of Pipisco's brothers. Ouiyoughcohanock was on Upper
Chip- pokes Creek, near the present Claremont.
The name " Tapahanah " was for a time wrongfully applied to Ouiyoughcohanock by
the whites. When in the Spring of 1607 the Indians in Virginia heard of the
arrival of the ships in James River, some of them from a distance came to the
banks of the James and temporarily established habitations there, in order to
assist in resisting the landing of the explorers. Among these Indians were the
chief Tapahanah or Tapa- hanock, and a body of his men from the Rappahannock or
Tappahanuock River. The extensive marsh at Brandon, famous for its wild ducks,
still Quiyoughcohanock was one of the ceremonial places of the Indians, where
the boys intended to be priests or Quiyough- quisocks were initiated into the
mysteries of their cult.
Next in order were the Weyanokes, who had towns on both sides of the river.
Their chief town, situated on the south side, was known as " Weanock," or
"Wyanoke," or "Wynauk," meaning " the going around place " or " place about
which the river winds itself." A land grant1 issued in 1650 located " Weyanoke
Old Town " at the head of Powell's creek on Flowerdew Hundred plantation.
Numerous Indian relics have been found there, and earth-works evidently thrown
up for fortification are still extant. The place in 1705 was known as Powhatan
town, and there was a ferry connecting it with Swineyards on the north side of
the James.2 The chief of the Weyanokes in 1612 was Kaquothocun.
Above the Weyanokes were the people of the Appomattox country between the river
of that name and the James. The bestowal of the name on the stream was done by
the colonists and not by the natives, and the same is true of all the naming of
rivers noted on Smith's map. In explaining the etymology, some have derived it
from Apameteku, " a sinuous tidal estuary," indicative of the curls in the river
at that locality. But the eminent anthropologist, William Wallace Tooker,
explains it as meaning " the resting tree " or " bower," from the mulberry tree
under which Queen Opussoquionuske, sitting on a mat, received the voyagers in
1607. Above the Falls of the River resided the hereditary enemies of the Pow-
hatans — the Manakins or Monacans — on the site of whose chief town in
Nicholson's administration the French Hugenots were established.
Along the north side of the James River there were several tribes, and the first
met with was the Powhatans, whose chief village stood on a hill opposite to an
island about three miles from the Falls, and was separated from the river by a
meadow of 300 acres planted with Indian corn, tobacco, pumpkins, gourds and
other vegetables. The word Powhatan is derived from Powwow-atan meaning the "
Powwow hill," or the hillpreserves the evidence of this mistake — being known as
" Tapahana (Tappahannock) marsh." where the great chief held his powwows. Here
Powhatan was born, but at the coming of the English the werowance at the Falls
was Parahunt, one of Powhatan's sons, called Tanx Powhatan, " Little Powhatarf."
Below the Powhatans were the Arrohatecks, whose chief town was just above the
Dutch Gap Canal, in Henrico County, opposite Proctor's Creek, in Chesterfield
County. A farm in that quarter, owned by the Cox family for many years, still
retains the Indian name. The word Arrohateck is cognate with Natick ahanehtan
" he
laughs at him," and the idea is expressed in "Arrohatecks Joy " applied by
Gabriel Archer to the village of the Indian werowance Ashuaquid.
Adjoining them was the territory of the Weyanokes, whose chief town was,
however, on the south side of the river as already observed.
Next to the Arrohateck Country' was the territory of the Paspahegh Indians, from
about Sturgeon Point, in Charles City County, to Skiffes Creek, in James City
County. As Jamestown was in this district, these Indians and their chief
Wowinchopunk were brought into more important relations with the whites than any
other of the tribes. Their chief town was formerly about a mile from the Island
called " Old Pas- paheghs," but at the time of the coming of the English,
Wowinchopunk resided at Sandy Point, nearly opposite to Quiyoughcohanock. The
etymology of the term Paspahegh had reference to the mouth of the Chickahominy,
which opened into the James in the Paspahegh territory. The same term was
applied to the mouth of the Connecticut River, and in the Indian deed for
Gardiner's Island we find " Pashpes- hauks als Saybrook Forte;" while on Long
Island it occurs as " Puspatick, a locality at the mouth of a creek." "
Paspeiouk" meant land " at the flowing out," or at a stream's mouth.
Finally, near the mouth of the James was the district of the Kecoughtans — a
word which meant " great town," identical with the Naticft " Keihtotan." Some
years before the English arrived, the Kecoughtan tribe was very powerful, and
their country was sometimes the seat of as many as a thousand ndians and three
hundred houses. There was a large open district in the neighborhood of nearly
two or three thousand acres, and the fishing was excellent. Powhatan regarded
the power of the tribe with suspicio'n, and while things were in confusion, on
account of the death of the old Kecoughtan werowance, he suddenly invaded the
territory, killed the new chief and most of the tribe, and transported the
survivors over the York, where he quartered them with his own people. After much
suit, these survivors obtained from him the country of Pianketank, in Mathews
County, which country he likewise dispeopled in 1608. When Captain Smith and his
company, in January, 1609, visited Werowocomoco, they saw the scalps of the
unfortunate Pianketanks hanging on a line between two trees. In the room of the
former inhabitants at Kecoughtan, Powhatan placed his son Pochins and some of
his own men on whom he could rely; and at the arrival of the English their chief
village was on the left side of Hampton River, near the Soldier's Home.
The fighting strength of these Indian tribes was estimated by Strachey, as
follows: Chesapeakes, 100 warriors; Nansemonds, 200; Warrascoyacks, 60;
Tapahanas, or Quiyoughcohanocks, 60; Weyanokes, 100; Appomattocos, 120;
Powhatans, 50; Arrohatecks, 60; Paspaheghs, 40; and Kecoughtans, 30 — in all,
820 warriors.
Close by, on the York River, were numerous other tribes, the nearest of whom
were the Chiskiacks, two miles above Yorktown under their werowance, Ottahotin.
The name of the tribe meant " wide land," " broad place," and is quite
descriptive of the locality where the Indians resided, which is still known as "
Indian Fields." Upon the Pamunkey River, a branch of the York, were the villages
of Powhatan's three brothers, Opitchapan, Opechancanough and Kecatough.
Along the Chickahominy, where there were fine bottom lands, lived a tribe of
three hundred fighting men, who, while they paid tribute to Powhatan, did not
receive any werowances from him, but were governed by their priests, assisted by
their old men, whom they called Cawcawwassoughes. According to Mr. Tooker,
Chickahominy was not a place name, but the designation of a people who
contributed corn to the colonists, thus saving them from starvation. He gives
its etymology as Chick-aham-min-anaugh
" coarse
pounded corn people " or in brief " hominy people."
The extent of Powhatan's dominions was greater than any of his predecessors in
authority ever had. He had inherited only the countries of Powhatan, Arrohateck,
Appomattox, Pamunkey, Youghtamund and Mattapanient; but he had by craft and arms
extended his dominions till they included all the country from the Roanoke River
on the south to a palisaded town called Tockwogh, standing at the head of
Chesapeake Bay, in forty degrees north latitude, or thereabouts. He was known
among the Indians in 1607 as Powhatan from the place of his birth at the Falls,
but his proper name was Wa- hunsenacawh. He had other titles, and the Indians
sometimes referred to him as Ottaniack and sometimes as Mannatowick, which last
signified " Great King." He had several " seates or houses," but his chief
abode,1 when
the whites came into the country, was upon the north side of York River at
Portan Bay (i. e. Poetan or Powhatan Bay), fifteen or sixteen miles from West
Point. On the earliest chart of York River (Tin- dall's chart), the place is
called Poetan, but it was generally known as Werowocomoco, meaning the house of
the wero- wance, or " Kings-house," as Strachey says. In 1609, becoming uneasy
at the neighborhood of the whites, he removed to a place " at the top of the
river Chickahomania between Youghtamund (Pamunkey) River and Powhatan (James)
River.2" This new seat was called Orapaks, being a combination of Oro " solitary
" and paks (peakes) " a little water place," aptly descriptive of " White Oak
Swamp " near Richmond.
This terrible old chief was over seventy years old, when the English first
intruded upon his dominions. He bore his years well; and in stature he was tall
and powerfully framed. His thin grey hair floated over his broad shoulders, and
his countenance was furrowed and melancholy. He had a round face and some few
hairs upon his chin and upper lip. He had a regular system of finance, and an
organized force of tax- gatherers, whom he sent around regularly to make
collections. His laws on the subject were rigid and despotic. Every werowance
had to pay Powhatan eighty per cent, of all the commodities which his country
yielded or the chase afforded; " insomuch that they dared not dress a single
deerskin or put it on until Powhatan had seen and refused it."
To enforce his commands, he kept about him fifty of the choicest men in his
kingdom, who were always ready for war. As he knew no mercy or compassion for
those who offended him, the werowances everywhere groveled before him in abject
terror. He had a dozen wives, whose names were: Winganuske, Ashetoiske,
Amopotoiske, Ottopomtacke, Oweroughwough, Ottermiske, and Memeoughquiske
In 1612, Powhatan had living twenty sons and twelve daughters including the
celebrated Pocahontas, " the nonpareil of her race." The succession of the
government, however,
was not to his children but to his three brothers and to
his sisters, and after them to the heirs male and female of his eldest sister,
but never to the heirs of his brothers. So when Powhatan died in April, 1618, he
was succeeded by his brother Opitchapan, who, like Powhatan, had several other
names: Taughaiten, Itopatin, Istan, Sassapen, etc.; and after the latter's death
the chief authority was held by the able and ferocious Opechancanough, whose
name meant " the white hair man;" probably from the white robe of fur about his
shoulders.1 He
planned the massacres of 1622 and 1644; and when he died in 1646, he was
succeeded by Necotowance, probably son of the eldest sister. Then came the Queen
of Pamunkey of the " blood royal," who was living in 1676, at which time her
authority had shrunk to a command of the Indians in Pamunkey Neck. A fragment of
her tribe still exists on a reservation near West Point, and they regularly
elect a chieftain.
The religion of these Tide-water Virginia Indians, like that of all the other
Indians formerly found on the coast, consisted in a belief in a great number of
devils, who were to be warded off by powwows and conjurations. Captain Smith
gives an account of a conjuration to which he was subjected at Utta- mussick
when a captive in December, 1607. At daybreak, they kindled a fire in one of the
long houses and by it seated Captain Smith. Soon the chief priest, hideously
painted, bedecked with feathers, and hung with skins of snakes and weasels, came
skipping in, followed by six others similarly arrayed. Rattling gourds and
chanting most dismally, they marched about Captain Smith, the chief priest in
the lead and trailing a circle of meal, after which they marched about him again
and put down at intervals little heaps of corn of five or six grains each. Next
they took some little bunches of sticks and put one between every two heaps of
corn. These proceedings, lasting at intervals for three days, were punctuated
with violent gesticulations, grunts, and a great rattling of gourds.
The Indian men occupied themselves, for the most part, in hunting and fishing,
and the women tended the crops and did the housework, but both sexes were very
fond of dancing and revelling. During the visit to Werowocomoco in January,
1609, Captain Smith was witness to a very charming scene, in which Pocahontas
was the leading actor. While the English were sitting upon a mat near the fire,
they were startled by loud shouts, and a party of Indian girls came out of the
woods strangely attired. Their bodies were painted, some red, some white, and
some blue. Pocahontas carried a pair of antlers on .her head, an otter's skin at
her waist and another on her arm, a quiver of arrows at her back, and a bow and
arrow in her hand. Another of the band carried a sword, another a club, and
another a pot-stick, and all were horned as Pocahontas. Casting themselves in a
ring about the fire, they danced and sang for the space of an hour, and then
with a shout departed into the woods as suddenly as they came.
The Indians had their love songs, which they sang with some idea of tune, and
they had also their angry and scornful songs against the Tassantassees, as they
called the English, one of which is given by Strachey.2 It
celebrates an attack upon the English at the Falls of the James River in 1610,
when Lord Delaware sent an expedition from Jamestown to search the country above
the Falls for gold mines. In this attack Lord Delaware's nephew, Captain William
West, was killed and Simon Skore, a sailor, and one Cobb, a boy, were taken
prisoners. The song was as follows:
Matanerew shashashewaw erawango pechecoma
Whe Tassantassa inoshashaw yehockan pocosack.
Whe whe yah haha nehe wittowa wittowa.
Matanerew shashashewaw erawango pechecoma
Capt. Newport inoshashaw neir inhoc natian matassan.
Whe whe yah haha nehe wittowa wittowa.
Matanerew shashashewaw erawango pechecoma
Thorn Newport inoshashaw neir inhoc natian monacock.
Whe whe yah haha nehe wittowa wittowa.
Matanerew shashashewaw erawango pechecoma . .
Pochin Simon inoshashaw ningon natian monacock.
Whe whe yah haha nehe wittowa wittowa.
The words of the song boasted that the Indians had killed the English in spite
of their guns (pocosack) and copper matassun), meaning the copper crown which
Captain Newport had presented to Powhatan (hoping thereby to secure his
friendship) ; that Thomas Newport (that is, Thomas Savage, whom Captain Newport
had given to Powhatan, calling him his son) had not frightened them with his
sword (monacock) ; and neither had Simon Skore's weapon saved him from capture.
The whe
ivhe of
the chorus made mock lamentation over the death of Simon Skore, whom they
tortured; and the words yah
haha nehe witto-wa wittowa conveyed
a jeering, laughing commentary upon the English lack of fort1tude under torment.
In the Powhatan name for Virginia occurs one of the few instances in which is
found an Indian name applied to a country so extensive. It was called by them "Attanough-
komouck," meaning " land enclosed for producing or growing," and so by free
translation " a plantation," in which sense it was perhaps understood by the
Virginia colonists.
Source :
The Cradle of the Republic: Jamestown and James River By Lyon Gardiner Tyler
Edition: 2 Original from Harvard University 286 pages
Digitized Sep 13, 2006 By google.com