Tsenacommacah

Tsenacommacah (variously spelled as Tenakomakah, Attanoughkomouck, and Attan-Akamik) was a territory in present-day eastern Virginia that was controlled by the Powhatan Confederacy in the late 16th and early 17th century. Its area extended roughly 100 miles inland from Cape Henry to the west and north, and included the areas east of the fall line on the rivers emptying into the southern Chesapeake Bay which are defined in modern times as the geological Tidewater region of Virginia.

The Powhatan (also spelled Powatan and Powhaten) were a powerful confederacy of Native American tribes speaking an Algonquian language, and united under Chief Powhatan (c. 1547 - c.1618) — whose proper native name was Wahunsunacock.

When Wahunsunacock created a powerful empire by unifying much of eastern Virginia, he called his lands "Tsenacommacah" and himself the "Powhatan". Besides the capital town of Powhatan, at the fall of the James River, present-day Richmond, another capital of the Powhatan Confederacy was called Werowocomoco and was located in Gloucester County on the north bank of today's York River. This was only 20 miles as the crow flies from Jamestown where the English established their first permanent settlement of the Virginia Colony in 1607.

Around 1609, Wahunsunacock shifted his capital from Werowocomoco to Orapakes, located in a swamp at the head of the Chickahominy River, near the modern-day interchange of Interstate 64 and Interstate 295. Sometime between 1611 and 1614, he moved further north to Matchut, in present-day King William County on the north bank of the Pamunkey River, near where his brother Opechancanough ruled at Youghtanund. After the death, of Wahunsunacock in 1618, the Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy for many years was his younger brother Opechancanough {c 1548 - c.1644), who was violently opposed to the ever-expanding English settlements on what had been Indian lands, and sought in vain to eradicate them. He led the Indian Massacre of 1622 and another in 1644. These attempts saw strong reprisals from the English, ultimately resulting in the near destruction of the Powhatan Confederacy, which had been largely decimated by 1646.

External links

* [http://www.virginiaplaces.org/nativeamerican/anglopowhatan.html The Anglo-Powhatan Wars]
* [http://www.powhatan.org/ Powhatan Renape Nation - Rankokus American Indian Reservation]