Pamunkey

Powhatan Featherwork

Chief William Terrill Bradby, Pamunkey

We now come to what is perhaps the most interesting topic in the material life of the southern tribes, the woven feather technique. An art so ancient and so elaborate can hardly be expected to have persisted from colonial times down to the present day where the process of deculturation among the conquered tribes has gone so far. But surprising as it is, the Virginia Indians have not entirely forgotten, nor even lost, the art of weaving feathers into the foundation of textile fabrics. The antiquity of the woven-feather technique is attested by virtually all the authors of the old … Read more

Powhatan Pottery

Recent Pamunkey pipes.

First let us look over the material from the Virginia tidewater area. Everywhere here from the southern boundary of Virginia by actual observation, north-ward even through the Delaware valley, the pot-sherds are almost identical in material, decoration and color. Holmes has appropriately called the ceramics of the tidewater “the Algonquian type.” On the Pamunkey, Mattaponi, Rappahannock, James, and Chickahominy rivers it is all the same, the rims, decorations, and ingredients being practically uniform within a certain range of variation.

Powhatan Canoes

Dugout canoe of the Pamunkey in course of construction.

The means provided by the Powhatan tribes for transporting themselves about in their marshy wastes was the dugout canoe. This article describes these canoes, their method of manufacture, and provides pictures of them and their paddles.

A Pamunkey Turkey Hunt

Pamunkey hunter demonstrating method of calling wild turkey with a wing-bone call

A scene from the work of a day of one of the hunters (Paul Miles) will convey a picture of life at Pamunkey and help to give a background for an understanding of living conditions.

Pamunkey Hunting Grounds

Big bend in Pamunkey River; Uttamussak in the distance.

Perhaps the most striking feature of all in the natural history of the modern Pamunkey comes before us in the survival of the controlled hunting and trapping rights: the custom by which each hunter in the band controls an assigned and definitely bounded area within which he enjoys the exclusive privilege of setting his traps for fur-bearing animals.

Legal Status of the Pamunkey Tribe

The Pamunkey, with a resident population of little more than a hundred, still preserve their national independence under the privileges accorded them by the State of Virginia almost two and a half centuries ago. They enjoy the unique distinction of being in all likelihood the smallest independent nation in the world. Pollard’s synopsis of the political circumstances leaves nothing to be added. In government the tribe is a true democracy, over which, however, the State of Virginia exercises a kindly supervision. The State appoints five trustees to look after the interest of the Indians. No reports of these trustees could … Read more

The Question of the Maternal Clan

Speck argues against the question of a possible maternal clan in the Powhatan Confederacy, based upon some form of social grouping determined on the mother’s side.

Opechancanough and Don Luis

Opechancanough

Jamestown was founded in 1607 on land recently conquered by the Powhatan Confederacy. Movies about Pocahontas have given the impression that the “Powhatan Indians” were concentrated on the Chesapeake Bay.  They were not. The villages on the coastline of the Chesapeake were the vassals of the Pamunkey Indians, who forged the confederacy. The capital of the confederacy, Werowocomoco, was originally on the north side of the York River, not near Jamestown. Note that the town’s name ends with “moko” which is very similar to the Itza Maya title for king, mako, which was also used as a suffix by Itsate Creek … Read more

Pamunkey Tribe History

Captola Cook, Pamunkey

Of the remnant tribes in Virginia, the Pamunkey have long formed the social backbone. They have retained their internal government, their social tradition and geographical position as the people of Powhatan.

Pamunkey Government and Tribal Laws

In government the tribe is a true democracy over which however the State of Virginia exercises a kindly supervision. The State appoints five trustees to look after the interest of the Indians. No reports of these trustees could be found on file at the office of the governor of Virginia and their only function that could be ascertained to have been performed was the disapproval of certain sections in the Indian code of laws. Laws thus disapproved are expunged from the statute book. The tribe is not taxed but they pay an annual tribute to the State by presenting through … Read more

Language of the Pamunkey

One visiting Indian town at the present day would not find a vestige of the Pamunkey language even in the names of persons or things. In 1844 Rev. E. A. Dalrymple collected the following seventeen words which so far as the writer can ascertain are all that remain of the language of the Pamunkey Indians proper: Tonshee= son. Nucksee= daughter. Petucka= cat. Kayyo= thankfulness. O-ma-yah= O my Lord. Kenaanee= friendship. Baskonee= thank you. Eeskut= go out dog. Nikkut= one. Orijak= two. Kiketock= three. Mitture= four. Nahnkitty= five. Vomtally= six. Talliko= seven. Tingdum= eight. Yantay= ten. The vocabulary recorded by Captain … Read more

Pamunkey Indians of Virginia

1910 photo of Pamunkey Indians re-enacting the story of Pocahontas.

The Pilgrim Fathers of New England, the Dutch traders and merchants of Manhattan island and the Hudson, the Quaker colonists of Pennsylvania, the Jesuit missionaries and Cavalier grantees of Maryland and Virginia, all encountered the native tribes and confederacies of this great stock. This collection looks at the past history of the Pamunkey Indians of Virginia up until the 20th century.

Early History of the Pamunkey Indians

At the time of the settlement of Jamestown, in 1607, that region lying in Virginia between Potomac and James rivers was occupied by three great Indian confederacies, each of which derived its name from one of its leading tribes. They were: (1) The Mannahoac, who lived on the head waters of Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers; (2) The Monocan, who occupied the banks of the upper James (3) The Powhatan, who in habited all that portion of the tidewater region lying north of the James. The last-named powerful confederacy was composed of thirty warlike tribes, having 2, 400 warriors, whose disastrous … Read more

Present Home of Pamunkey Indians

Map of the Pamunkey Reservation Showing the Tribal Hunting Grounds

The Pamunkey Indians reside in “Indian-town,” a uniquely shaped area on the Pamunkey River in Virginia. This small reservation, about 21 miles east of Richmond, includes 800 acres with some arable land. The location offers natural defense, aiding their survival. Established by colonial legislation, the land cannot be sold. In 1893, there were 90 residents, with the total population around 110, showing stability over the years. The history of their settlement underscores their enduring connection to this territory.

How the Pamunkey Indians Live

The Pamunkey Indians make their living for the most part in true aboriginal style. Their chief occupations are hunting and fishing and although they do not neglect their truck patches they cherish a hearty dislike for manual labor and frequently hire negroes to come in and work their little farms. The deer the raccoon the otter the musk-rat and the mink are captured on the reservation. As many as sixteen deer have been killed in this small area in one season. The skins of all these animals are a good source of income and the flesh except of the mink … Read more

Art of the Pamunkey Indians

In 1891 the writer was sent by the Smithsonian Institution to visit the Pamunkey Indians and make a collection of specimens of their arts. Few articles could be found which were distinctively Indian productions. Of their aboriginal arts none are now retained by them except that of making earthenware and “dug-out” canoes. Until recent years they engaged quite extensively in the making- of pottery which they sold to their white neighbors but since earthen ware has become so cheap they have abandoned its manufacture so that now only the oldest of the tribe retain the art and even these cannot … Read more

Characteristics of Pamunkey Indians

No member of the Pamunkey tribe is of full Indian blood. While the copper- colored skin and the straight, coarse hair of the aboriginal American show decidedly in some individuals, there are others whose Indian origin would not be detected by the ordinary observer. There has been considerable intermixture of white blood in the tribe, and not a little of that of the Negro, though the laws of the tribe now strictly prohibit marriage to persons of African descent. No one who visits the Pamunkey could fail to notice their race pride. Though they would probably acknowledge the whites as … Read more

Black-Indian History

The first black slaves were introduced into the New World (1501-03) ostensibly to labor in the place of the Indians, who showed themselves ill-suited to enforced tasks and moreover were being exterminated in the Spanish colonies. The Indian-black inter-mixture has proceeded on a larger scale in South America, but not a little has also taken place in various parts of the northern continent. Wood (New England’s Prospect, 77, 1634) tells how some Indians of Massachusetts in 1633, coming across a black in the top of a tree were frightened, surmising that; ‘he was Abamacho, or the devil.” Nevertheless, inter-mixture of … Read more