Pamunkey Tribe – Legends of America
Okay, folks, let’s dive into the story of the Pamunkey Tribe! These guys are seriously cool, with a history that stretches back way further than your average family tree. They’re a federally recognized tribe, which means the U.S. government acknowledges their unique status and rights. You can find them chilling at the Pamunkey Indian Reservation in King William County, Virginia.
Now, historically, they spoke the Pamunkey language, but sadly, not much of it has survived the test of time. But hey, they’re one of eleven Native American tribes still kicking it in Virginia, and they’re part of the bigger picture of Indigenous peoples from the Northeastern Woodlands.
A History That’s Seriously Old
We’re talking 10,000 to 12,000 years old! These guys were around long before your great-great-grandpappy even thought about immigrating. Back in the day, the Pamunkey were part of the Powhatan Confederacy, a group of Algonquian-speaking nations.
When the English showed up in 1607, the Powhatan Confederacy was a pretty big deal, with over 30 nations and an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people. The Pamunkey? They were a significant chunk of that, maybe about a tenth to a fifteenth of the whole shebang, which would be around 1,000 people.
Life on the River
These folks were resourceful, making a living by fishing, trapping, hunting, and farming. The Pamunkey River was their lifeline, providing food, transportation, and access to hunting grounds and other tribes. Basically, it was the Amazon Prime of its day.
Their villages weren’t exactly permanent. Every ten years or so, they’d pack up and move to let the land recover from all that farming. Their homes, called yihakans, were like long, narrow versions of what the English colonists called "longhouses." Imagine bent saplings lashed together to make a barrel shape, then covered with woven mats or bark.
In the summer, they could roll up the mats to let the breeze in – kinda like primitive air conditioning! Inside, they had these cool bed frames made of posts and poles, covered with reeds and mats for bedding. At night, they’d unroll their mats and skins for blankets, and a rolled-up mat served as a pillow. Comfy! And during the day, the bedding was rolled up to create space to do other things.
First Contact
So, the Pamunkey started bumping into European colonists around 1570. Over time, they met Spanish, French, and English explorers. But things got real in 1607 when the English set up shop at Jamestown. At that point, the Powhatan Confederacy was a force to be reckoned with, numbering somewhere between 14,000 and 21,000 people.
The Pamunkey were the biggest and one of the most powerful tribes in the Confederacy. They hung out on the coastal tidewater of Virginia, north of the James River, near the Chesapeake Bay. Oh, and get this: Chief Powhatan and his famous daughter Pocahontas? Yep, they were Pamunkey!
Jamestown Drama
The English settlement at Jamestown had a complicated relationship with the local tribes. In the winter of 1607, Opechancanough, the Pamunkey chief, captured Captain John Smith and brought him to his brother, Chief Powhatan. This meeting actually led to an alliance! Powhatan sent Smith back to Jamestown in the spring of 1608 and started sending the colonists food. Seriously, without Powhatan’s generosity, those settlers wouldn’t have made it through the first winters.
But, even though the colonists respected Powhatan, they weren’t exactly friendly to all the tribes. They called some of them "naked devils." Yikes! But they did notice that the Pamunkey weren’t thieves, which was a plus in their book.
Growing Tensions
As Jamestown grew, things got tense. The colonists wanted land and resources, and that led to conflict with the Virginia tribes.
Opechancanough, who succeeded Powhatan, wasn’t happy about the English encroaching on their lands. So, he launched attacks in 1622 and 1644. The first one, known as the Indian massacre of 1622, wiped out colonial settlements like Henricus and Wolstenholme Towne and nearly destroyed the colony. Jamestown was spared because someone warned them.
In each attack, around 350 to 400 settlers were killed. In 1622, the population was 1,200, and in 1644, it was 8,000 before the attacks. Opechancanough was eventually captured in 1646 and killed by a settler who was supposed to be guarding him. His death marked the beginning of the end for the Powhatan chiefdom.
Treaties and Reservations
In 1646, Opechancanough’s successor, Necotowance, signed a treaty with the English. This treaty set boundaries between the lands of the Virginia tribes and the English colonists, established reservation lands, and required the tribes to pay yearly tribute in fish and game to the English.
The Pamunkey reservation, established by this treaty, is possibly the oldest continuously inhabited Indian reservation in North America. It’s 1,600 acres on the Pamunkey River in King William County.
Bacon’s Rebellion
In 1675, Bacon’s Rebellion broke out. Nathaniel Bacon led a group of white and black former indentured servants against Governor Sir William Berkeley because he refused to defend the colonists from raids and murders by local tribes. Bacon’s overseer was actually killed by raiding Indians.
Cockacoeske, who took over as chief after her husband died fighting for the English, sided with Berkeley against Bacon. The Pamunkey practice of matrilineal succession (passing leadership through the female line) confused the English, but eventually, they recognized her as the "Queen of the Pamunkey" after Bacon’s Rebellion ended.
More tribal leaders signed the Treaty of Middle Plantation in 1677, reinforcing the annual tribute payments and adding the Siouan and Iroquoian tribes to the list of Tributary Indians. More reservation lands were established, but the treaty required Virginia’s tribal leaders to acknowledge that they and their people were subjects of the King of England.
While Bacon’s Rebellion didn’t completely succeed in driving the American Indians away from Virginia, it did lead to Governor Berkeley being recalled to England, where he died soon after.
The treaty gave Queen Cockacoeske authority over the Rappahannock and Chickahominy tribes, which hadn’t previously been under Pamunkey control. The treaty ushered in a period of peace between the Virginia tribes and the English colonists.
Tribal Governance
Like other tribes in the Powhatan Confederacy, the Pamunkey had a chief and a tribal council of seven members, elected every four years. The chief and council were responsible for all tribal government functions, as defined by their laws. In 1896, a study noted that tribal laws covered land use, theft, and fighting. Instead of punishment, people who broke tribal law were fined or banished.
Tribal laws govern all civil matters. In criminal matters, outside authorities can notify the Tribal Chief before serving a warrant, but they’re not legally required to. The tribe doesn’t have its own police force or jail. Most tribal members follow the laws out of respect for the chief and the council. The tribe has strict slander laws and discourages verbal attacks against its members.
The chief still pays an annual tribute to Virginia’s governor, usually a game animal, pottery, or a peace pipe. The Pamunkey have been paying this tribute since the treaty of 1646, and the tradition continues today.
Education and Pottery
The Pamunkey Indian School House was established in 1909. Before that, Pamunkey children went to school in a log cabin near the reservation entrance. The school taught students from 1st through 7th grade. After that, students had to attend boarding schools run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, like Bacone College in Oklahoma or Haskell Institute in Kansas.
The Pamunkey have been making pottery since before the English settled Jamestown. They’ve been using clay from the Pamunkey River for ages, and many still use traditional methods.
During the Great Depression, most Pamunkey Indians relied on non-salaried labor like fishing, hunting, and farming. In 1932, the Commonwealth of Virginia helped the Pamunkey develop their pottery as a source of income. The state set up a pottery school program, provided a teacher, and furnished materials for a building the tribe erected. Tribal members learned faster manufacturing methods, including firing pottery in a kiln and using glazes. They also incorporated designs and pictographs based on Southwestern Indigenous traditions and stories about the tribe, like the story of Pocahontas and the treaty that set up payments of game.
In 1948, the Pamunkey School closed due to low attendance, and the remaining children were transferred to the Mattaponi Reservation School.
The Pamunkey Today
In 1979, the Pamunkey tribe opened the Pamunkey Indian Museum with the help of a federal grant. The museum looks like a traditional yehakin and gives visitors a glimpse into the tribe’s long history and culture. It displays artifacts from over 10,000 years of Indigenous settlement, replicas of prehistoric materials, and tribal history. The museum also has a variety of Pamunkey pottery, showing the different construction methods, types of temper, and decorating techniques.
In 1983, a joint resolution formally recognized the Pamunkey Tribe and several other Virginia tribes.
Federal Recognition
Although the Commonwealth of Virginia had always recognized the Pamunkey tribe, the federal government hadn’t. So, in 1982, the Pamunkey started the process of applying for federal recognition. But they faced opposition from MGM Casinos, who were worried about competition, and from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who pointed out that the tribe had historically forbidden intermarriage between its members and black people.
The interracial marriage ban, which hadn’t been enforced for a long time and was officially rescinded in 2012, was a way for the tribe to get around Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which only recognized "White" and "Colored" people.
Finally, on July 2, 2015, the Bureau of Indian Affairs formally recognized the Pamunkey, stating that they had occupied a land base in southeastern King William County, Virginia, since the Colonial Era in the 1600s.
Now, as a federally recognized tribe, the Pamunkey have access to services from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, including medical, housing, and educational benefits.
By holding on to their reservation lands, they’ve been able to keep their traditions alive. Men still use old fishing methods and continue hunting and trapping on reservation lands.