Pamunkey
The Powhatan paramount chiefdom was made up of over 30 nations, estimated to total about 10,000 to 15,000 people at the time the English arrived in 1607.
[7][8] The Pamunkey Tribe is one of only two that retain the reservation lands assigned by the 1646 and 1677 treaties with the English colonial government.
[9] Their reservation is located on some of their ancestral land on the Pamunkey River adjacent to present-day King William County.
Dalrymple S.T.D., are,[12] Except for nikkut 'one', which is clearly similar to Powhatan nekut, none of the words correspond to any known Algonquian language, or to reconstructions of proto-Algonquian.
Because the Pamunkey people did not use fertilizers, they moved their fields and homes about every ten years to allow land to lie fallow and recover from cultivation.
Differing concepts of land and farm animal ownership and use caused some conflicts between the Virginia tribes and English colonists.
As a result, when Englishmen allowed land to lie fallow, Native Americans assumed they were free to use it for hunting and gathering.
[5] Pamunkey homes, called yihakans (or yehakins), were long and narrow; they were described as "longhouses" by English colonists.
The 17th-century historian William Strachey thought that bark was harder to acquire, as he noticed that only higher-status families owned bark-covered houses.
[15] As with other tribes in the Powhatan confederacy, the Pamunkey also had a weroance (chief) and a tribal council composed of seven members, elected every four years.
[6][9] The same 1896 study noted that tribal laws were concerned with, but not limited to, controlling land use, stealing, and fighting (breaking the peace).
In criminal matters, outside authorities such as a Sheriff or Police, may respectfully notify the Tribal Chief about serving a warrant.
[16] In the pre-Columbian era, Based on archaeological evidence, scholars estimate that various distinct cultures of American Indians occupied this part of the mid-Atlantic coast for more than 10,000 years before European contact.
[9][18] Chief Powhatan and his daughter Matoaka (better known as Pocahontas to historians), who achieved historical fame, were the Pamunkey Indians.
[7] Captain Samuel Argall abducted her as a hostage in an attempt to secure the release of some English prisoners and ammunitions held by her father.
[5] Colonists of the first successful English settlement, based at Jamestown, had a complicated relationship with Virginia's tribes.
As the settlement expanded, competition for land and other resources, and conflict between the European settlers and Virginia tribes, had increased.
Study of primary documents from the time of English arrival shows that initial contact was characterized by mutual cultural misunderstanding.
George Percy's account of the early years expresses such duality: "It pleased God, after a while, to send those people which were our mortal enemies to relieve us with victuals, as bread, corn fish, and flesh in great plenty, which was the setting up of our feeble men, otherwise we had all perished".
[5] During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, English settlers continued to expand the colony of Virginia, even further by displacing the Pamunkey and making it impossible for them to sustain their traditional practices.
The cause of the rebellion was Berkeley's refusal to come to the aid of colonists subjected to frequent raids and murder by the Indians.
Cockacoeske (weroansqua of the Pamunkey), who succeeded her husband after he was killed fighting for the English, was an ally of Berkeley against Bacon.
It reinforced the annual tribute payments and added the Siouan and Iroquoian tribes to the Tributary Indians of the colonial government.
More reservation lands were established for the tribes, but the treaty required Virginia’s tribal leaders to acknowledge they and their peoples were subjects of the King of England.
While the rebellion did not completely succeed in the initial goal of driving the American Indians away from Virginia, it did result in Governor Sir William Berkeley being recalled to England, where he died shortly thereafter.
The Pamunkey Indian Museum has a variety of vessels, as well as videos and exhibits, that explain the differences in construction methods, types of temper, and decorating techniques.
The Smithsonian Institution recently selected the Pamunkey as one of 24 tribes to be featured in the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
The Commonwealth of Virginia has always recognized the Pamunkey tribe, with formal relations dating back to the treaties of 1646 and 1677.
[26] Their formal application met with opposition from MGM Casinos, which feared potential competition with its planned casino in Prince George's County, Maryland, and from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who noted that the tribe had historically forbidden intermarriage between its members and black people.
The interracial marriage ban, which had long been unenforced and was formally rescinded in 2012, was a relic of the tribe's attempt to circumvent Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which recognized only "White" and "Colored" people.
