Chesepian

Chesepian were a Native American tribe who inhabited the area now known as South Hampton Roads in the U.S. state of Virginia prior to their social annihilation by the Powhattan Confederacy about the end of the 16th century. The Algonquian word "Chesepioc" means "Great Shellfish Bay", a reference to the Chesapeake Bay. They occupied an area which is now the Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, and Virginia Beach areas. To their west were the members of the Nansemond tribe.

The main village of the Chesepians was called Skicoak, located in the present independent city of Norfolk. The exact location of Skicoak in unknown. It may have been near the junction of the eastern and southern branches of the Elizabeth River in downtown Norfolk. Other evidences suggest it was located in the Pine Beach area of Sewell's Point. At that location, a large Native American burial mound was discovered in close proximity to a 20th century community named Algonquin Village.

The Chesepians also had two other towns (or villages), Apasus and Chesepioc, both near the Chesapeake Bay in what is now the independent city of Virginia Beach. Of these, it is known that Chesepioc was located in the present Great Neck area. Archaeologists and other persons have found numerous Native American artifacts, such as arrowheads, stone axes, pottery and beads in Great Neck Point. Several buried remains of the indigenous people have been found in this area as well.

Although they were eastern-Algonquian speaking as were members of the Powhatan Confederacy across Hampton Roads, the archaeological evidence suggests that the original Chesepians belonged to another group, the Carolina Algonquian. According to William Strachey's "The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britanica" (1612), the Chesepians were wiped out by Chief Wahunsunacock, better-known as Chief Powhatan, the head of the Virginia Peninsula-based Powhatan Confederacy, some time before the arrival of the English at Jamestown in 1607. The Chesepians were eliminated because Chief Powhatan's priests had warned him that "from the Chesapeake Bay a nation should arise, which should dissolve and give end to his empire." After eliminating the original Chesepians, loyal Powhatans occupied their lands and villages and assumed their tribal name as well.