Powhatan Tribes


In the early 1600s, when the Jamestown colonists first arrived in the Chesapeake area, there were about 30 tribes in the Powhatan federation that were recorded by the Jamestown chroniclers, as well as numerous others that fell outside of the federation. In the present day, there are 8 tribes that claim descent from those original Powhatan tribes, including two (Pamunkey and Mattaponi) that have reservations near the original Jamestown area. Below are links to the tribes via their websites.
Also in Virginia
Nearby in North Carolina
Links to more information about Powhatan tribes

​Pamunkey & Mattaponi Reservation Photos (August 2016)

Meet the State-Recognized Virginia Indian Tribes (National Park Service webpage; Sorry! This page may be temporarily(?) unavailable. However, Native People of the Chesapeake is still active.)

​Chronology of Powhatan Indian Activity (National Park Service webpage)

Virginia's First People: Past and Present (Virginia Dept. of Education)

​Virginia History Series - this site has PDF slideshows on Virginia history, including Virginia Indian history

"Indians" of Virginia - The Real First Families of Virginia

Virginia Indian Archive

Virginia Humanities: Virginia Indians (This page is no longer available, but there are other pages on the Virginia Humanities site dealing with specific topics related to Virginia Indians. This page in particular, A More Complete Picture of Virginia (PDF), by David Bearinger, Spring 2007, contains some relevant information.)

American Indian Tribes of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay (Nov. 11, 2020) - YouTube video by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Mattaponi Indian Reservation, King William County, Virginia Heritage Properties of Indian Town: The Mattaponi Indian Baptist Church, School, and Homes of Chiefly Lineages (2017) by Buck Woodard and Danielle Moretti-Langholtz (PDF here and at Academia - 150 pages!)

VirginiaIndian (on Reddit); this subreddit seems to not be very active recently

Pamunkey Blogger - This site does not seem to be a current, ongoing blog, but there are some interesting documents linked here

Slavery in the US before 1619; why are we ignoring it? -  Stephen Carr Hampton at Memories of the People  (Aug. 31, 2019)
America, meet the real Pocahontas - article by Cherokee writer, Stephen Carr Hampton at Memories of the People  (Jan. 19, 2019)

A descendant of Pocahontas has a lesson for America:  https://twitter.com/mic/status/936285178732908544

C-SPAN video: (March 27, 2008): The True Story of Pocahontas (and my commentary on the book)

On the Traces of Pocahontas (2010) - by Max Carocci and Simona Piantieri

Algonquian Conference Archives (to 2012)

​Frederic W. Gleach 1992 article from the archives of the 23rd Algonquian Conference
A Traditional Story of the Powhatan Indians Recorded in the Early 19th Century with PDF download; re. Armstrong Archer

​A compendium of slavery, as it exists in the present day in the United States of America, by Archer, Armstrong (1844); Internet Archive

Beyond the Princess: No One Wants to Talk About Pocahontas
The video below is by (non-native American) Ana Mirabel. I'm embedding the video here for two reasons; 1) I like that she's working hard to understand the Pocahontas story and seeking out Native American input as well as academic opinion, and 2) she recorded her visit with Pamunkey Indian, Warren Taylor, who speaks about his perspective on the Pocahontas story and Pocahontas movie (around the 6:40 minute mark). There's also an interview with Prof. Adrienne Petty of William & Mary (about 1:30 mark), who provides her thoughts on why Virginia Indians might be hesitant to discuss the Pocahontas story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnpKxiJ3xxE

Updated March 7, 2023 / Banner photo by Hadley-Ives  [fixed some dead links]