POWHATAN

died April 1618, Virginia also called Wahunsonacock, or Wahunsenacawh North American Indian chief, father of Pocahontas. Powhatan was the son of an Algonkin chief whose tribe had migrated to Virginia during the 16th century. His father had vanquished five of the resident tribes and established a six-tribe confederacy. After Powhatan succeeded his father, he brought two dozen other tribes into the confederacy; at the peak of his power, he allegedly controlled 128 villages with about 9,000 inhabitants. The boundaries of the Powhatan Confederacy at the time of the founding of Jamestown in 1607 extended from the Potomac River to the Great Dismal Swamp, with its capital at the village of Werowocomoco. Powhatan was a bright and energetic ruler, but he was also noted as being cruel. Powhatan initially opposed the English settlement at Jamestown. According to legend, he changed his policy in 1607 when he released the captured Capt. John Smith following the alleged intercession of his daughter, Pocahontas. Because of efforts by the English to maintain cordial relations with the Indians, he was presented with a royal crown and gifts in 1609 on the recommendation of the Virginia Company. Yet since the settlers continued to seize the better land, Powhatan's tribesmen persistently attacked isolated groups of settlers and refused to sell food to them. In April 1614, Pocahontas married the planter John Rolfe, and shortly thereafter Powhatan negotiated a peace agreement; it resulted in generally friendly relations between the English and the Indians that persisted for a while after his death. confederacy of at least 30 Algonkian-speaking North American Indian tribes that once occupied most of what is now tidewater Virginia, the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, and possibly southern Maryland. The confederacy had been formed by and named for a powerful chief, Powhatan, shortly before the colonial settlement of Jamestown in 1607. The tribes of the confederacy provided military support and paid taxes in the form of food, pelts, copper, or pearls to Powhatan. Many of these villages, consisting of long dwellings covered with bark or reed mats, were palisaded; they were situated near fields in which women cultivated corn (maize), beans, squash, and other vegetables. Men were occupied with hunting and warfare. Hostilities developed between the Powhatans and the English settlers and resulted in intermittent fighting until 1676. Long-standing Iroquois hostility ended with a treaty in 1722, but the greatly reduced Powhatan population continued to decline. Those on the eastern shore of Virginia, who had become racially mixed with blacks, were driven off in 1831 during the disturbances caused by the Nat Turner slave rebellion. In the late 20th century an estimated 3,000 Powhatans were reported, largely scattered along the Virginia coast.