Essay
American Indians
If history is the story of what people have done, then American history began thousands of years ago, and by far most of it is that of Indian peoples and their ancestors before...
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Showing results 1 – 7 of 7
Essay
Native American Discoveries of Europe
Native Americans discovered Europe at the same time Europeans discovered America. As far as we know, no birch bark canoes caught the gulf stream to...
Glossary Term – Organization
Powhatan Confederacy
Like the Iroquois League, this confederation of Algonquian-speaking peoples in what is now Virginia seems to have formed in response to the effects of the Little Ice Age. Oral testimony suggests that it began forming around 1550—the time that the climate reached its severest stage. Consisting initially of six villages in the area that is now Richmond, it expanded significantly toward the end of the sixteenth century under the influence of the dynamic leader Wahunsunacock, called the Powhatan. Over a twenty-year period, Powhatan drew in...
Glossary Term – Person
Powhatan
Powhatan (unknown–1618), or Wahunsonakok, was a chief of the Powhatan people in what is now Virginia. Powhatan ruled over several Algonquian tribes during the English settlement of Jamestown. He negotiated and sometimes clashed with Jamestown colonists and John Smith. Though Powhatan at first cooperated with English colonists, he later cut off trade and became hostile to them. His daughter, Pocahontas, was captured by an English expedition in 1613, however, and Powhatan approved her...
Glossary Term – Person
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (ca. 1595–1617), also known as Matoaka and Rebecca Rolfe, was the daughter of Wahunsonakok, a Powhatan Indian chief who mediated between the Powhatans and the English colonists at Jamestown. In 1607, she participated in John Smith’s initiation into tribal membership of the Powhatans, an incident that has been mytholigized and re-imagined throughout American history. After being captured by an English expedition in 1613, Pocahontas was reluctantly converted to Christianity. She took the name “Rebecca” and was married to John Rolfe...
Glossary Term – Person
John Smith
John Smith was an English explorer and founder of Jamestown. During an expedition in 1607, Smith was captured by a group of Powhatan warriors. Rather than killing him, however, the Powhatans inducted Smith into their tribe. Pocahontas played a role in Smith’s initiation ceremony.
Glossary Term – Person
Opechancanough
Opechancanough (cc. 1545–1646) was a Powhatan Indian chief who led a series of attacks on English colonists in Virginia in 1622 in an attempt to force them from the region. After leading the Powhatans for more than twenty years, Opechancanough was captured and killed by English forces in 1646.