warrior by
John White 16th century , orange is
Iroquoian, and olive is
Siouan languages. The first European explorers in what is now Virginia were
Spaniards, who landed at two separate places several decades before the English founded
Jamestown in 1607. By 1525 the Spanish had charted the eastern Atlantic coastline north of Florida. In 1609,
Francisco Fernández de Écija, seeking to deny the English claim, asserted that
Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón's failed colony of
San Miguel de Gualdape, which lasted the three months of winter 1526–27, had been near Jamestown. Modern scholars instead place this first Spanish colony within US boundaries as having been on an island off Georgia. In 1542, Spanish explorer
Hernando de Soto in his expedition to the North American continent encountered the
Chisca people, who lived in present-day southwestern Virginia. In the spring of 1567, the
conquistador Juan Pardo was based at
Fort San Juan, built near the
Mississippian culture center of
Joara in present-day western
North Carolina. He sent a detachment under Hernando Moyano de Morales into present-day Virginia. This expedition destroyed the Chisca village of Maniatique. The site was later developed as the present-day town of
Saltville, Virginia. Meanwhile, as early as 1559–60, the Spanish had explored Virginia, which they called
Ajacán, from the
Chesapeake Bay while they sought a water passage to the west. They captured a Native man, possibly from the
Paspahegh or
Kiskiack tribe, whom they named
Don Luis after they
baptized him. They took him to Spain, where he received a
Jesuit education. About ten years later, Don Luis returned with Spanish Jesuit
missionaries to establish the short-lived
Ajacán Mission. Native Americans attacked it in 1571 and killed all the missionaries. English attempts to settle the
Roanoke Colony in 1585–87 failed. Although the island site is located in present-day North Carolina, the English considered it part of the Virginia territory. The English collected ethnological information about the local
Croatan tribe, as well as related coastal tribes extending as far north as the Chesapeake Bay. There were no records of indigenous life before the Europeans started documenting their expeditions and colonization efforts. But scholars have used
archaeological,
linguistic and
anthropological research to learn more about the cultures and lives of Native Americans in the region. Contemporary historians have also learned how to use the Native American oral traditions to explore their history. According to colonial historian
William Strachey, Chief Powhatan had slain the
weroance at
Kecoughtan in 1597, appointing his own young son Pochins as successor there. Powhatan resettled some of that tribe on the Piankatank River. (He annihilated the adult male inhabitants at Piankatank in fall 1608.) In 1670 the German explorer
John Lederer recorded a
Monacan legend. According to their
oral history, the Monacan, a Siouan-speaking people, settled in Virginia some 400 years earlier by following "an oracle," after being driven by enemies from the northwest. They found the Algonquian-speaking
Tacci tribe (also known as Doeg) already living there. The Monacan told Lederer they had taught the Tacci to plant
maize. They said that before that innovation, the Doeg had hunted, fished, and gathered their food. Another Monacan tradition holds that, centuries prior to European contact, the Monacan and the Powhatan tribes had been contesting part of the mountains in the western areas of today's Virginia. The Powhatan had pursued a band of Monacan as far as the
Natural Bridge, where the Monacan ambushed the Powhatan on the narrow formation, routing them. The Natural Bridge became a sacred site to the Monacan known as the
Bridge of Mahomny or
Mohomny (Creator). The Powhatan withdrew their settlements to below the
Fall Line of the Piedmont, far to the east along the coast. Another tradition relates that the Doeg had once lived in the territory of modern
King George County, Virginia. About 50 years before the English arrived at Jamestown (i.e. c. 1557), the Doeg split into three sections, with one part moving to what became organized as colonial
Caroline County, one part moving to
Prince William, and a third part remaining in King George.
Houses village at
Jamestown Settlement Another expression of the different cultures of the three major language groups were their practices in constructing dwellings, both in style and materials. The
Monacan, who spoke a
Siouan language, created dome-shaped structures covered with bark and reed mats. The tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy spoke
Algonquian languages, as did many of the Atlantic coastal peoples all the way up into Canada. They lived in houses they called
yihakans/yehakins, and which the English described as "longhouses". They were made from bent saplings lashed together at the top to make a barrel shape. The saplings were covered with woven mats or bark. The 17th-century historian
William Strachey thought since bark was harder to acquire, families of higher status likely owned the bark-covered houses. In summer, when the heat and humidity increased, the people could roll up or remove the mat walls for better air circulation. Inside a Powhatan house, bedsteads were built along both long walls. They were made of posts put in the ground, about a foot high or more, with small cross-poles attached. The framework was about wide, and was covered with reeds. One or more mats was placed on top for bedding, with more mats or skins for blankets. A rolled mat served as a pillow. During the day, the bedding was rolled up and stored so the space could be used for other purposes. Wildlife was abundant in this area. The
buffalo were still plentiful in the Virginia Piedmont up until the 1700s. The Upper Potomac watershed (above
Great Falls, Virginia) was once renowned for its unsurpassed abundance of
wild geese, earning the Upper Potomac its former Algonquian name,
Cohongoruton (Goose River). Men and boys hunted game, and harvested fish and shellfish. Women gathered greens, roots and nuts, and cooked these with the meats. Women were responsible for butchering the meat, gutting and preparing the fish, and cooking shellfish and vegetables for stew. In addition, women were largely responsible for the construction of new houses when the band moved for seasonal resources. More than 30 Algonquian tribes were associated with the politically powerful
Powhatan Confederacy (alternately Powhatan Chiefdom), whose homeland occupied much of the area east of the
Fall Line along the coast. It spanned 100 by , and covered most of the tidewater Virginia area and parts of the Eastern Shore, an area they called
Tsenacommacah. Each of the more than 30 tribes of this confederacy had its own name and chief (
weroance or
werowance, female
weroansqua). All paid tribute to a paramount chief (
mamanatowick) or
Powhatan, whose personal name was
Wahunsenecawh. Succession and property inheritance in the tribe was governed by a
matrilineal kinship system and passed through the mother's line. Below the fall line lived related Algonquian tribes, the
Chickahominy and the
Doeg in
Northern Virginia. The Chickahominy did not immediately join the Powhatan Confederacy, and, instead of being led by a weroance, they were led by a council of elders. If Powhatan wished to use them as warriors, he had pay them in copper as mercenaries. The
Accawmacke (including the
Gingaskin) of the
Eastern Shore, and the
Patawomeck of Northern Virginia, were fringe members of the Confederacy. As they were separated by water from Powhatan's domains, the Accawmacke enjoyed some measure of semi-autonomy under their own paramount chief,
Debedeavon, aka "The Laughing King". The
Piedmont and area above the fall line were occupied by Siouan-speaking groups, such as the
Monacan and
Manahoac. The Iroquoian-speaking peoples of the
Nottoway and
Meherrin lived in what is now
Southside Virginia south of the
James River. Other tribes occupied mountain and foothill areas. The region beyond the
Blue Ridge (including West Virginia) was considered part of the sacred hunting grounds. Like much of the Ohio Valley, it was depopulated during the later
Beaver Wars (1670–1700) by attacks from the powerful
Five Nations of the Iroquois from New York and Pennsylvania. French
Jesuit maps prior to that were labeled showing that previous inhabitants included the Siouan "Oniasont" (Nahyssan) and the
Tutelo or "Totteroy," the former name of
Big Sandy River — and another name for the
Yesan or
Nahyssan. When the English first established the
Virginia Colony, the Powhatan tribes had a combined population of about 15,000. Relations between the two peoples were not always friendly. After
Captain John Smith was captured in the winter of 1607 and met with Chief Powhatan, relations were fairly good. The Powhatan sealed relationships such as trading agreements and alliances via the kinship between groups involved. The kinship was formed through a connection to a female member of the group. Their competition for land and resources led to the
First Anglo-Powhatan War. , the daughter of
Chief Powhatan and an ancestor of many of the
First Families of Virginia through her marriage to
John Rolfe, was romanticized by later artists. In April 1613, Captain
Samuel Argall learned that Powhatan's "favorite" daughter
Pocahontas was residing in a
Patawomeck village. Argall abducted her to force Powhatan to return English prisoners and stolen agricultural tools and weapons. Negotiations between the two peoples began. It was not until after Pocahontas converted to Christianity and married Englishman
John Rolfe in 1614 that peace was reached between the two peoples. As noted, matrilineal kinship was stressed in Powhatan society. Pocahontas' marriage to John Rolfe linked the two peoples. The peace continued until after Pocahontas died in England in 1617 and her father in 1618. After Powhatan's death, the chiefdom passed to his brother Opitchapan. His succession was brief and the chiefdom passed to
Opechancanough. It was Opecancanough who planned a coordinated attack on the English settlements, beginning on March 22, 1622. He wanted to punish English encroachments on Indian lands and hoped to run the colonists off entirely. His warriors killed about 350-400 settlers (up to one-third of the estimated total population of about 1,200), during the attack. The colonists called it the
Indian massacre of 1622. Jamestown was spared because
Chanco, an Indian boy living with the English, warned the English about the impending attack. The English retaliated. Conflicts between the peoples continued for the next 10 years, until a tenuous peace was reached. . Black: Treaty of Camp Charlotte (1774). Area west of this line in present-day Southwest VA was ceded by the Cherokee in 1775. The 1646 treaty delineated a racial frontier between Indian and English settlements, with members of each group forbidden to cross to the other side except by special pass obtained at one of the newly erected border forts. By this treaty, the extent of the Virginia Colony open to patent by English colonists was defined as: All the land between the
Blackwater and
York rivers, and up to the navigable point of each of the major rivers - which were connected by a straight line running directly from modern Franklin on the Blackwater, northwesterly to the
Appomattoc village beside
Fort Henry, and continuing in the same direction to the Monocan village above the falls of the James, where Fort Charles was built, then turning sharp right, to Fort Royal on the York (Pamunkey) river. In 1658, English authorities became concerned that settlers would dispossess the tribes living near growing plantations and convened an assembly. The assembly stated English colonists could not settle on Indian land without permission from the governor, council, or commissioners and land sales had to be conducted in quarter courts, where they would be public record. Through this formal process, the
Wicocomico transferred their lands in
Northumberland County to Governor
Samuel Mathews in 1659. Necotowance thus ceded the English vast tracts of uncolonized land, much of it between the James and Blackwater Rivers. The treaty required the Powhatan to make yearly tribute payment to the English of fish and game, and it also set up reservation lands for the Indians. All Indians were at first required to display a badge made of striped cloth while in white territory, or they could be murdered on the spot. In March 1662 New Style, this law was changed to require them to display a silver or copper badge with the name of the native town or else be subject to arrest. Likewise, extreme penalties, including two hours in the pillory with written shame letters on court date and 5,000 pounds of tobacco for the public use, were imposed on any Englishman who took away such identification badge to make a lawful visitor appear to be guilty of breaking the law. Around the year 1670,
Seneca warriors from the New York
Iroquois Confederacy conquered the territory of the
Manahoac of Northern Piedmont. That year the Virginia Colony had expelled the Doeg from Northern Virginia east of the fall line. With the Seneca action, the Virginia Colony became
de facto neighbours of part of the Iroquois Five Nations. Although the Iroquois never settled the Piedmont area, they entered it for hunting and raiding against other tribes. The first treaties conducted at Albany between the two powers in 1674 and 1684 formally recognized the Iroquois claim to Virginia above the Fall Line, which they had conquered from the Siouan peoples. At the same time, from 1671 to 1685, the
Cherokee seized what are now the westernmost regions of Virginia from the
Xualae. In 1677, following
Bacon's Rebellion, the
Treaty of Middle Plantation was signed, with more of the Virginia tribes participating. The treaty reinforced the yearly tribute payments, and a 1680 annexe added the Siouan and Iroquoian tribes of Virginia to the roster of Tributary Indians. It allowed for more reservation lands to be set up. The treaty was intended to assert that the Virginia Indian leaders were subjects of the King of England. as it seemed to make the Blue Ridge the new demarcation between the Virginia Colony and Iroquois land. But the treaty technically stated that this mountain range was the border between the Iroquois and the Virginia Colony's
Tributary Indians. White colonists considered this license to cross the mountains with impunity, which the Iroquois resisted. This dispute, which first flared in 1736 as Europeans began to settle the
Shenandoah Valley, came to a head in 1743. It was resolved the next year by the
Treaty of Lancaster, settled in Pennsylvania. Following this treaty, some dispute remained as to whether the Iroquois had ceded only the Shenandoah Valley, or all their claims south of the Ohio. Moreover, much of this land beyond the Alleghenies was disputed by claims of the Shawnee and Cherokee nations. The Iroquois recognized the English right to settle south of the Ohio at
Logstown in 1752. The Shawnee and Cherokee claims remained, however. In 1755 the Shawnee, then allied with the French in the
French and Indian War, raided an English camp of settlers at Draper's Meadow, now
Blacksburg, killing five and abducting five. The colonists called it the
Draper's Meadow Massacre. The Shawnee captured
Fort Seybert (now in West Virginia) in April 1758. Peace was reached that October with the
Treaty of Easton, where the colonists agreed to establish no further settlements beyond the Alleghenies. Hostilities resumed in 1763 with
Pontiac's War, when Shawnee attacks forced colonists to abandon frontier settlements along the
Jackson River, as well as the
Greenbrier River now in West Virginia, the associated valleys on either side of the Allegheny ridge, and the latter just beyond the Treaty of Easton limit. Meanwhile, the Crown's
Proclamation of 1763 confirmed all land beyond the Alleghenies as Indian Territory. It attempted to set up a reserve recognizing native control of this area and excluding European colonists. Shawnee attacks as far east as
Shenandoah County continued for the duration of Pontiac's War, until 1766. Many colonists considered the Proclamation Line adjusted in 1768 by the
Treaty of Hard Labour, which demarcated a border with the Cherokee nation running across southwestern Virginia, and by the
Treaty of Fort Stanwix, by which the Iroquois Six Nations formally sold the British all their claim west of the Alleghenies, and south of the Ohio. However, this region (which included the modern states of Kentucky, and West Virginia, as well as southwestern Virginia) was still populated by the other tribes, including the Cherokee, Shawnee,
Lenape, and
Mingo, who were not party to the sale. The Cherokee border had to be readjusted in 1770 at the
Treaty of Lochaber, because European settlement in Southwest Virginia had already moved past the 1768 Hard Labour line. The following year the Native Americans were forced to make further land concessions, extending into Kentucky. Meanwhile, the Virginian settlements south of the Ohio (in West Virginia) were bitterly challenged, particularly by the Shawnee. The resulting conflict led to
Dunmore's War (1774). A series of forts controlled by
Daniel Boone began to be built in the valley of the
Clinch River during this time. By the Treaty of Camp Charlotte concluding this conflict, the Shawnee and Mingo relinquished their claim south of the Ohio. The Cherokee sold
Richard Henderson a portion of their land encompassing extreme southwest Virginia in 1775 as part of the
Transylvania purchase. This sale was not recognized by the royal colonial government, nor by the
Chickamauga Cherokee war chief
Dragging Canoe. But, contributing to the revolution, settlers entered Kentucky by rafting down the Ohio River in defiance of the Crown. In 1776, the Shawnee joined Dragging Canoe's Cherokee faction in declaring war on the "
Long Knives" (Virginians). The chief led his Cherokee in a raid on Black's Fort on the
Holston River (now
Abingdon, Virginia) on July 22, 1776, launching the
Cherokee–American wars of 1776–94. Another Chickamauga leader
Bob Benge also led raids in the westernmost counties of Virginia during these wars, until he was slain in 1794. In August 1780, having lost ground to the British army in South Carolina fighting, the
Catawba Nation fled their reservation and temporarily hid in an unknown spot in Virginia. They may have occupied the mountainous region around
Catawba, Virginia, in Roanoke County, which had not been yet settled by European Americans. They remained there in safety around nine months, until American general
Nathanael Greene led them to South Carolina, after the British were pushed out of that region near the end of the revolution. In the summer of 1786, after the United States had gained independence from Great Britain, a Cherokee hunting party fought a pitched two-day battle with a Shawnee one at the headwaters of the Clinch River in present-day
Wise County, Virginia. Cherokee prevailed, although losses were heavy on both sides. This was the last battle between these tribes within the present limits of Virginia. and spoke only English. The U.S. Department of the Interior accepted some of these "non Indians" as representing all of them when persuading them to cede lands. The 1924 law institutionalized the "
one-drop rule", defining as black an individual with any known black/African ancestry. According to
the Pocahontas Clause, a white person in Virginia could have a maximum
blood quantum of one-sixteenth Indian ancestry without losing his or her legal status as white. This was a much more stringent definition than had prevailed legally in the state during the 18th and 19th centuries. Before the Civil War, a person could legally qualify as white who had up to one-quarter (equivalent to one grandparent) African or Indian ancestry. In addition, many court cases dealing with racial identity in the antebellum period were decided on the basis of community acceptance, which usually followed how a person looked and acted, and whether they fulfilled community obligations, rather than analysis of ancestry, which most people did not know in detail anyway. In the late 1960s, two Virginia organizations applied for federal recognition through the BAR under the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The
Ani-Stohini/Unami first petitioned in 1968 and the
Rappahannock filed shortly thereafter. The Rappahannock tribe was recognized by the State of Virginia. Today, at least 13
tribes in Virginia have petitioned for
federal recognition. With the repeal of the Racial Integrity Act, individuals were allowed to have their birth certificates and other records changed to note their ethnic American Indian identity (rather than Black or white "racial" classification), but the state government charged a fee. After 1997, when Delegate
Harvey Morgan's bill HB2889 passed, any Virginia Indian who had been born in Virginia could have his or her records changed for free to indicate identity as Virginia Indian.
21st century The population of Powhatan Indians today in total is estimated to be about 8,500 to 9,500. About 3,000 to 3,500 are enrolled as tribal members in state-recognized tribes. The
Monacan Indian Nation has tribal membership of about 2,000. The
Pamunkey and the
Mattaponi are the only tribes in Virginia to have maintained their reservations from the 17th-century colonial treaties. These two tribes continue to make their yearly tribute payment to the Virginia governor, as stipulated by the 1646 and 1677 treaties. Every year around Thanksgiving they hold a ceremony to pay the annual tribute of game, usually a deer, and pottery or a
ceremonial pipe. The Rappahannock tribe purchased back a part of their ancestral homeland April 1, 2022. The tribe substantially increased their holdings January 2023. == Unrecognized organizations ==