Their territory included the tidewater section of Virginia from the Potomac River south to the divide between the James River and Albemarle Sound and extended into the interior as far as the falls of the principal rivers about Fredericksburg and Richmond. Wahunsunacawh came to be known by the English as “Chief Powhatan.” Though all of the tribes within the Confederacy had their own chief, all paid tribute to Chief Powhatan. This organization was known as the Powhatan Confederacy. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a paramount chief named Wahunsunacawh created a powerful organization by affiliating 30 tribes, including not only the Powhatan but also the Arrohateck, Appomattoc, Pamunkey, Mattaponi, Chiskiack, and others. They were also known as Virginia Algonquian, as they spoke an eastern-Algonquian language known as Powhatan. ![]() Their name means “falls in a current of water.” At the time European settlers arrived in the Chesapeake Bay, the region was occupied by approximately 14,000-21,000 Powhatan Indians, concentrated in some 200 villages along the rivers. ![]() The Powhatan tribe, also spelled Powatan and Powhatan, are a Virginia Indian tribe that dominated eastern Virginia when the English settled Jamestown in 1607.
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