n.
Confederacy of more than 30 North American Indian tribes living in Oklahoma, New Jersey, and Virginia, U.S., and in Canada.
Powhatan languages belong to the Algonquian language family. They once occupied most of Tidewater Virginia and the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay. The confederacy was named for its powerful chief, Powhatan , to whom the tribes provided military support and paid taxes in the form of goods. Many of the villages, consisting of long dwellings covered with bark or reed mats, were palisaded. Powhatan women cultivated corn, beans, and squash; the men hunted and waged war, chiefly against the Iroquois . The intermittent hostilities with the English settlers, often called the Powhatan War (162244), ended with the breaking of the confederacy.