Chief powhatan facts
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Powhatan (Native American leader)
Leader of the Powhatan Confederacy (c. 1547–c. 1618)
Powhatan (c. 1547 – c. 1618), whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh (alternately spelled Wahunsenacah, Wahunsunacock, or Wahunsonacock), was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans living in Tsenacommacah, in the Tidewater region of Virginia at the time when English settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607.
Powhatan, alternately called "King" or "Chief" Powhatan by English settlers, led the main political and military power facing the early colonists, and was probably the older brother of Opechancanough, who led attacks against the settlers in 1622 and 1644. He was the father of Matoaka (Pocahontas).
Name
[edit]In 1607, the English colonists were introduced to Wahunsenacawh as Powhatan and understood this latter name to come from Powhatan's hometown near the falls of the James River near present-day Richmond, Virginia.[2]
Seventeent
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Powhatan
(-1618)
Who Was Powhatan?
Born sometime in the 1540s or 1550s, Chief Powhatan became the leader of more than 30 tribes and controlled the area where English colonists formed the Jamestown settlement in 1607. He initially traded with the colonists before clashing with them. The marriage of his daughter, Pocahontas, to a colonist led to another period of peace that was still in effect when Powhatan died in Virginia in April 1618.
Leader of the Powhatan
The future Chief Powhatan was born Wahunsenacawh (sometimes written as Wahunsunacock) sometime in the 1540s or 1550s. Very little is known of his early life growing up in a Powhatan settlement. The Powhatan were a matrilineal society, so his right to be chief was inherited from his mother.
When he first became chief, Powhatan ruled about six tribes. In addition to the Powhatan, these were the Pamunkey, the Arrohateck, the Appamattuck, the Youghtanund and the Mattaponi. Using both alliances and war, Powhatan would expa
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Powhatan
Indigenous Algonquian tribes from Virginia, U.S.
This article is about the Algonquian people in Virginia. For the individual, see Powhatan (Native American leader). For other uses, see Powhatan (disambiguation).
Ethnic group
The Powhatan people ([1]) are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who belong to member tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy, or Tsenacommacah. They are Algonquian peoples whose historic territories were in eastern Virginia.[2]
Their Powhatan language is an Eastern Algonquian language, also known as Virginia Algonquian. In 1607, an estimated 14,000 to 21,000 Powhatan people lived in eastern Virginia when English colonists established Jamestown.[3]
The term Powhatan is also a title among the Powhatan people. English colonial historians often used this meaning of the term.[4]
In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a mamanatowick (paramount chief) named Wahunsenacawh forged a Paramoun