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The dotted line Property owners, Lynn and Bob Ripley sign the historic easem*nt deed as Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and Pamunkey Chief Kevin Brown look on. Photo by Suzanne Seurattan
Greater than Powhatan William & Mary archaeologist Martin Gallivan tells of the importance of Werowocomoco, which he said was a place of power and authority in eastern Virginia for centuries before the arrival of the Jamestown settlers. Photo by Suzanne Seurattan
'Great day in Virginia history.' Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell spoke on Werowocomoco's place in the history of Virginia and the importance of preserving and exploring the site. Photo by Suzanne Seurattan
Ceremonial gifts Pamunkey Chief Kevin Brown displays a bracelet of wampumpeag shell beads and copper. He presented bracelets to representatives of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and to landowners Bob and Lynn Ripley at the June 21 ceremony sealing an agreement to preserve the site of Werowocomoco. Photo by Suzanne Seurattan
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by Joseph McClain | June 24, 2013
One point was made over and overagain at the June 21 ceremonial signing of a conservation easem*nt to protectWerowocomoco: American history did not begin with the 1607 landing of the Jamestownsettlers.
The point was made by many of thespeakers at a gathering to witness the signing of a conservation easem*nt toprotect the site of Werowocomoco, the capital city of Paramount Chief Powhatan.The event sealed an agreement between the Virginia Department of HistoricResources and landowners Bob and Lynn Ripley, to preserve the site fromdisturbance or development.
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnelland U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman and other officials gathered at the site outsideGloucester, joining with archaeologists and representatives of the seven tribesof Virginia Indians that carry ancestral and cultural links to Werowocomoco totalk about the site as “a place of power” and to assert its proper place in thehistory of North America. William & Mary faculty were cited as majorcontributors to the new understanding of Werowocomoco’s importance.
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“The archaeological discoveriesand attendant interpretation of the Werowocomoco Research Group, led by Dr.Martin Gallivan, ripped to shreds the Anglo-centric term ‘pre-history’ as itrelates to the history of this land and its indigenous people prior to thearrival of the invaders in 1607,” Stephen R. Adkins, chief of the ChickahominyIndian Tribe, told the crowd that overflowed a large pavilion tent on theafternoon of the summer solstice. “Today we honor the polity, social order,economic enterprise, religious customs, agricultural prowess, engineering featsand craftsmanship of our ancestors.”
Gallivan, associate professor ofanthropology at William & Mary, led the archaeological examination ofWerowocomoco, the long-hidden capital city ofPowhatan and his ancestors. Several speakers at Coming Home toWerowocomoco praised the decision of the Werowocomoco Research Group, based atWilliam & Mary, to involve Virginia Indians in the excavation of the sitethrough establishment of the Indian Advisory Board.Several Indians participated in the excavation as well, including AshleyAtkins, a Pamunkey who was one of the speakers at the Coming Home toWerowocomoco event.
“Werowocomoco, unlike othersignificant native places in the country, has retained its indigenous character,”said Atkins, who is a Ph.D. candidate in William & Mary’s anthropologyprogram. “Creation of an easem*nt at this archaeological site will undoubtedlyensure that this character remains.”
Gallivan and VDHR archaeologistRandolph Turner gave overviews of the discovery and excavation of Werowocomoco.Turner noted that his first visit to the site was in the 70s, while Gallivanrecognized his fellow members of the Werowocomo Research Group, which includes Turnerand archaeologists Thane Harpole, Dave Brown and Danielle Moretti-Langholtz,director of the American Indian Resource Center at William & Mary.
Gallivan gave a rundown of thearchaeological discoveries at Werowocomoco, highlighted by evidence of a largelonghouse that he believes was the residence of Chief Powhatan himself. He explainedthat archaeological evidence such as carbon dating of posthole remains, the ageand the size—roughly four times the size of a normal Indian house of theperiod— corresponded with Colonial-era descriptions of the house.
“Chief Powhatan received theJamestown colonists several times in a house very much like this one,” Gallivansaid. “John Smith’s legendary rescue by Pocahontas evidently occurred there. Ofcourse the story of Pocahontas’s rescue of John Smith has become part of theAmerican origin myth. In fact, we don’t know whether the rescue story trulyhappened—but if it did occur, it probably took place within this house.”
He went on to say that hisinvestigations have led him to understand that Werowocomoco is more importantthan a location for part of the Pocahontas myth. Gallivan noted that site is greater thanPowhatan himself. The city was a place of power for hundreds of years beforethe birth of Wahunsenacawh, Powhatan’s real name.
The Virginia officials—whichincluded Virginia State Senator Tommy Norment and Virginia House Delegates M.Keith Hodges and Douglas Domenech, Virginia’s secretary of natural resources—allspoke of the historical and cultural importance of Werowocomoco, as did DHRDirector Kathleen Kilpatrick, who brokered the conservation easem*nt with theRipleys. Wittman drew applause from all Virginians in the overflow crowd—Indianand non-Indian alike—when he called for advancement of federal recognition ofthe Virginia tribes.
“We have a moral obligation,” hesaid, “to make this happen.”
McDonnell said that the ceremonymarked a wonderful day in the 406-year history of Virginia, as dated from thelanding at Jamestown.
“But the chiefs that are here, theseven of them, know it goes back for hundreds and perhaps thousands of yearsbefore that,” he said, nodding to the front row, where the Powhatan tribes wererepresented by their leaders, including Chief Kevin Brown, of the Pamunkey;Chief Mark “Falling Star” Custalow, of the Mattaponi; the Chickahominy’s StephenR. Adkins; Gene “Pathfollower” Adkins, of the Chickahominy Eastern Division; ChiefG. Anne Richardson, of the Rappahannock; and Chief Kenneth Adams of the UpperMattaponi. Members of the Nansemond were also present, although Chief BarryBass was unable to attend.
The governor asked the gatheringof more than 300 to try to become attuned to the sense of place of the site onwhat we now call Purtan Bay.
“Can you sense, as you sit here on the banksof this beautiful river, Chief Powhatan going out with members of his tribe tovisit one of those 30-some tribes that he was responsible for, from thiscultural and economic center?” Governor McDonnell asked. “Can you kinda seeJohn Smith coming off the boat to have his one and only meeting with the chiefback in December of 1607?”
The site was identified in 2003 as thepolitical center of Powhatan’s extensive Tidewater chiefdom, which stretchedfrom the Potomac to south of the James and from the Eastern Shore to the fallline near today’s I-95. Since 2003, archaeological work by Gallivan and othershas confirmed the site’s identity as Werowocomoco.
