Chief Opechancanough (O-pech"un-kä'nO) of the Powhatan Confederacy. Part of the Powhatan Confederacy pages of the Native American topic found within the Va and Our Virginians Chapter of Volume I, Our American Immigrants, contained in the two Volume Within The Vines Historical Family Website. Opechancanough is relevant to the J.amestown Pages and specificallythe Piersey Family and Woodson family studies within the Howard and Allied Lines , which, with the Swope and Allied Lines, forms the basis of the Within The Vines Study. |
AKA Don Luis de Valasco. Younger brother and successor to Chief Powhatan (Wahunsonacock).
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The Natives of Va. Pages:
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Younger brother and successor to Chief Powhatan (Wahunsonacock). Openchancanough, Chief of the Pamunkey, and King of The Powhatan Confederacy [after the death of his half brother Wahunsonacock known to the English as Chief Powhatan], was responsable for the abduction of Captain Smith in 1608 and for both the massacre of 1622, occuring shortly after his ascendancy [which both John Woodson and his wife survived] and the massacre of 1644 in which John Woodson was killed. More militant than his older brother, Opechancanough is a complex, historically fascinating charactar and brilliantly adept strategist responsable for what is arguably the most succesful attack against white incursionists by any Native Americans in all of American history. Within the history of Spain is the remarkable story of a young American Indian abducted in the 1560s by the Spanish along the Virginia coast. He was well educated in Spain and travelled in Mexico. On return to his native peoples in the 1570s, and in the company of missionaries under Fray Segura [Father Juan Baptista de Segura] he assumed the position of power which was his birthright within his tribe. Some purport that this Don Luis de Valasco was Powhatan's father, or uncle, but many now feel Don Luis de Valasco was Powhatan's half brother Opechancanough, Footnote1 whose name meant "He whose Soul is White" in the Algonquin language. What is certain is that this Don Luis de Velasco gave to the Powhatan Confederation some background regarding the European civilizations, power and intent. The period of sleepy understanding that the natives around Jamestown were subservient was torn asunder by Opechancanough's suprise attack of 1622 igniting the Second Anglo Powhatan War and known in white history as The Good Friday Massacre [the suprise being partially but substantially mitigated through intelligence recieved the night before the attack from a Christianized Indian present in the colony in absence of which the entire colony would surely have been destroyed]. An uneasy peace ensued with the signing of the treaty of 1632, followed one decade later by Openchancanough's last meaningful act as Chief with the action of 1644, likewise known as the massacre of that year, which action was the cause for his capture, imprisonment and death, a very old man, and the beginning of the third and final Anglo Powhatan War. [To
Openchancanough
as Don Louis de Velaso]
Footnote1-
Emminent colonial historian Carl Bridenbaugh reveals Openchancanough as
Don Luis de Valasco in his book published 1980 entitled "Jamestown
1544-1699". The Jamestown Society itself tentatively supports this identification
in its webpages. See jamestowne.org page entitled Jamestowne
Ann Woodlief writes: "Robert Beverley [editors note,
wrote 1947] reports that the Indians called him 'a Prince of
a Foreign Nation' who came to the Algonquin Indians 'a great way from the
South-West.' He speculated that Opechancanough might have come from the
'Spanish Indians, somewhere near Mexico'..... Is Don Luis actually Powhatan's
father, who brought his Indian servant from Mexico (Opechancanough) and
recognized him as a foster son? There are several possibilities. Tradition
has it that Opechancanough, whoever he was, named little Pocahontas "Matoaka,"
a name thought to be of Aztec and not Algonquin origin."17
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While we have come to believe that Powhatan was the holder of the native power in Virginia, Carl Bridenbaugh in his book published 1980 and entitled "Jamestown 1544-1699" reveals his younger half brother Opechancanough as the formidable force behind the throne. A prince of "large Stature, noble Presence, and extraordinary parts, " Opechancanough's own history is fascinating and informative. Like his famous neice , Opechancanough travelled to Europe, having been taken there in 1561 by a Spanish ship appearing on the Chesapeake, and he remained 5 years in Spain. Apparantly homesick for his people, he was sent instead to Mexico where he remained three years and from which he returned to Spain for another three . In all he received 8 years of education from priests, and invaluable insight into the intent , methods and stregnth of the European powers. On his return to his people, and in company of Jesuit Missionaries under Frey Juan Baptista de Segura, he became again more Indian, taking on "multiple wives for which he was reprimaded and humiliated by the Jesuits. He eventually denounced Christianity, led a raid, and killed the priests. After that, he terminated all contacts with Europeans and Christianity" 1. The Jesuits involved are currently being petitioned to sainthood. On the death of his
brother in 1618, Opechancanough soon became chief and was already an ageing
man. Bridenbaugh discusses Opechancanough's strategies before his accensionFootnote
3, but, once chief, intent on halting both cultural deconstructionism
and loss of his homeland, he found in the english killing of a young brave
[Menatanou] for the alleged murder of a Jamestown resident the incident
to ignite his plans. He soon orchestrated the Good Friday Massacre of 1622
in which 347 colonists, men women and children, were victimsFootnote2.
It was only through the intelligence offered by a Christianized Indian
residing in the home of an Englishman and revealed on the eve of the attack
that the entire plan to destroy the fort and all of the Jamestown colony
was averted.
Footnote 2 To
excerpt from the Review by Roy W. Johnson of Jamestown 1544-1699
by Carl Bridenbaugh
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To Top of Page To Page Table of Contents [New York: Oxford University Press, 1980 ISBN 0-19-502650-0 ] . The reader is encouraged to access the primary text given in link for the following: Opechancanough, "Desiring to return to his people, he was placed on a ship to Mexico, but the Spanish governor refused to allow him to leave for the north. He spent three years in Mexico and undoubtedly observed that even those native Americans who were friendly to the Europeans were losing their culture and becoming second class citizens in their own former land. He then returned to Spain and furthered his education with the Jesuits for another three years. Eventually, he returned to his own land as a missionary and interpreter. However, he reverted to some Indian ways (such as multiple wives) and was severely reprimanded and humiliated by the accompanying Jesuit priests. He eventually denounced Christianity, led a raid, and killed his tormentors. After that, he terminated all contacts with Europeans and Christianity. "Opechancanough was, of course, correct in his belief that the English planned to seize Indian land. This was the whole purpose of the Virginia Company. Among the whites, there were two general groups. Most of the common men of the colony and some of theleaders had only contempt for the natives and saw them as an impediment to be destroyed. Other leaders, most of whom were Puritans, wanted to be kind to the Indians, "Christianize" them (which meant also teaching them English ways), and make them "loyal subjects" to their English overlords. Either way, their culture would be destroyed and they would lose control over lands their ancestors had ruled for centuries. "By 1613, Bridenbaugh believes, Opechancanough had concluded that the English colony was intended to be permanent and expand.His brother was the ruler, the tribes were not united and the other natives had to be convinced of the danger, so he had to work carefully. Opechancanough used every means to make the whites feel safe and secure while he was uniting the tribes, blending European and native American methods of diplomacy. In one instance, a neighboring tribe was reluctant to join his alliance. He encouraged the tribe to attack the whites , then warned the English of the attack, which therefore failed. The English thus thought of him as a friend, and the Indians became convinced that they could not go it alone. He attended the wedding of Pocahontas and John Rolfe and gave the bride away, possibly seeing the marriage as an additional way to buy time. "After Powhatan's death, there was a brief period of uncertainty, then Opechancanough himself became Paramount Chief, taking over the 'empire' of tribes that he had masterminded under Powhatan. By 1622, the influx of English was becoming alarming. He apparently believed the English to be so strong that only a telling and total blow would suffice to drive them away." From
Review
by Roy W. Johnson of the book "Jamestown
1544-1699" by Carl Bridenbaugh [New York: Oxford University Press,
1980 ISBN 0-19-502650-0 ]
To Top of Page To Page Table of Contents Much more information is available at that site. The English left
their homeland 1606 , arrived to Jamestown in 1607 and soon encountered
the Powhatan Confederacy and their Chief Powhatan
[so named by the English; his Indian name was Wahunsonacock].
Despite parlays and presents [ including an English bed] , and the exchange
of European goods [including coveted tools ] for desperately needed [vital]
food in the early years of the colony, uneasy testing of each other's
stregnth occured with the English ascertaining the Chief's power and possible
enemies and weaknesses, and the Powhatan Confederacy conducting several
small-scale raids against the new fort. Powhatan and English leaders
came to realize that they both could benefit from peace.
"On June 15, 1607, Powhatan, the paramount chief, issued an order to cease the raiding of the English. Peace reigned for a short period with Powhatan and his brothers occasionally sending gifts of venison to Jamestown. In September, the summer's first corn ripened enough to eat and some neighboring chiefdoms contributed to the colony's supplies. January 2, 1608... a fire destroyed all ...supplies and the remaining corn. This left the English without food again. Powhatan stepped in and supplied the English with provisions at regular intervals.......The spring of 1608 brought increased hostilities between the English and the Powhatans. Chief Powhatan lost patience with the English when they began drilling their men outside the fort at Jamestown, appearing to prepare an attack......Powhatan allowed his subjects to start harassing the English and stealing tools from the fort. The English took hostages in exchange for the stolen tools. The Paspaheghs, one of the local Powhatan tribes,captured a couple of Englishmen to exchange for the Powhatan hostages....By the time the colony was two years old, the major Powhatan settlements had been seized. The Powhatans were so fixed on retribution, that the colonists were safe only when inside the fort."19 In 1608 Powhatan's half brother, Openchancanough [his later succesor] , captured Captain John Smith and brought him back to Powhatan's main village where he was sentenced to death, so the story goes, until intercession by Pocahontas, the Chief's daughter. During The Starving Time of 1609-10, which threatened the Powhatans as much as the colonists, the Powhatans remained eerily elusive, hoping their own people would survive, and the colony would just starve to death, which it nearly did. Boats barely existed and trade, even if it could be had, was not accesable. "The English sold all of their tools to neighboring tribes, who after getting the tools would not give the English food. If the colonists tried to leave the fort to hunt or gather food, they were ambushed. When the colonists realized that Powhatan intended to starve them out of Virginia, all pretenses at being allies ended. ...It was at this time that Captain John Smith planned to capture Powhatan to force the people to trade with the English. The English believed that they had a right to trade, even if the Powhatans didn't want to sell. When Powhatan extended an invitation for John Smith to travel to Werowocomoco, {the Powhatan Capital} (present-day Gloucester), Smith readily accepted. Smith was warned of a planned ambush when he stopped at Warraskoyack to buy provisions....The foiled ambush on each side may have been the reason Chief Powhatan moved his capital to Orapax, in the headwaters of the Chickahominy. ...In September 1609, Captain John Ratcliffe was invited to Orapax, Powhatan's new capital. When he sailed up the Pamunkey River to trade there, a fight broke out between the colonists and the Powhatans. All of the English were killed, including Ratcliffe, who was tortured by the women of the tribe."19 In 1609 Lord de la
Warr's fleet arrived. "When Powhatan continued to attack the fort
and ambush stray colonists, de la Warr became aggressive and ordered Gates
to punish the Kecoughtans for killing the settlers the year before. After
Gates lured the Kecoughtans out of their town and ambushed them,
the surviving Kecoughtans fled and the land was claimed by the English.
On July 15, Lord de la Warr sent a message to Powhatan giving him a choice
of peace or war. The choice of peace would require the return of any stolen
goods and captives. Powhatan sent back a message to warn the English to
either stay in the fort at all times or to leave Virginia. Powhatan
also demanded that if de la Warr wished to talk to him again, he
needed to send a coach and three horses. (Powhatan had learned that this
was the mode of transportation for great lords in England and felt he deserved
the same consideration.)"19
In May 1610, after the arrival of the survivors of the Third Supply's flag ship from Bermuda where it had been shipwrecked, and in new boats built on that isle, "Gates decided to evacuate the colony. Once they were on their way out to sea, they met the remainder of Lord de la Warr's lost fleete and were ordered to return to Jamestown. "The
First Anglo-Powhatan War was the result of Lord de la Warr's
orders to George Percy on August 9, 1610. Percy and seventy men went to
the capital town of Paspahegh where the English killed or injured fifity
or more people and captured a wife of Wowinchopunch, the weroance, and
her children. After returning to their boat, the Englishmen killed the
children by throwing them overboard and shooting them in the water. The
killing of women and children was not tolerable in Powhatan warfare: it
greatly affected Powhatan and his people. The Paspaheghs never recovered
from this and appeared to have merged with other chiefdoms." 19
"Powhatan continued to observe the English warily. His warriors harassed the colonists with small-scale attacks. Although the colonists eventually planted their own corn, they remained dependent upon the Indians to ensure that they would have enough provisions, especially in the lean winter months. Powhatan continued to trade but the terms became more contentious. In 1614, the Englishmen kidnapped his daughter Pocahontas in order to get back some of their own people taken in the attacks. The settlers offered a prisoner exchange and Powhatan complied with this request. He refused, however, to return the stolen weapons that the colonists demanded."20 Pocahontas [Matoaca], was married to John Rolfe in 1614. The marriage of the chief's daughter to John Rolfe allowed for a period of relative peace and tranquility. In 1616, she , her husband, and infant son Thomas, in company with 10 other Indians, embarked to England where she died in 1617. In 1618 Thomas' grandfather Powhatan died. Thomas remained in England where he received education. Initially succeeded by ----------, Openchancanough, more militant and direct than his older half brother, became leader of his people; the fragile peace was weakened, and in 1622, entirely fractured. To Page Table of Contents |
To Top of Page To Page Table of Contents From 1618 there was a movement among certain of the company to incorporate the Indians into the society, to christianize them, and some were living in the town. Still the colonists in general disdained the natives. This in part no doubt led to Opechancanough's gathering fury, and his attempt to obliterate the colony can be seen as an attack at cultural deconstructionism as much as protection of territory. He had reason to object to the amalgamation of the natives into the Jamestown populace; His attack was thwarted by one so converted. Shortly after Powhatan's death, thereafter "Opechancanough, another brother, became werowance. Despite his Christian training under the Spanish, Opechancanoughís one goal was to drive the English from Virginia. Toward that end, he organized and executed the terrible massacre of Good Friday, 22 March 1622. Three hundred forty-seven men, woman and children were murdered and mutilated with their own weapons. This loss represented one-third of the colonyís population." 8 "Powhatan, the friend of the English, was dead, and his younger brother, the subtle, treacherous and truly Indian Opechancanough (the captor of Smith in the forest), was then wielding the sceptre of his empire. He could command fifteen hundred warriors to do his bidding. He hated the English intensely, and inspired his followers with the same passion; yet he feigned the warmest friendship for them, and deceived them with Satanic smiles. He believed that the English intended to seize the lands of his empire and exterminate his race, and his patriotism impelled him to strike a blow for his country and countrymen".7[ text from late 1800s] "For some reasons, best known to the English government, in March 1622 the King of England had to remind King Powhatan of the articles of the treaty of peace existing between them, in answer to which King Powhatan said that he would prefer seeing the country turned upside down rather than break a single article of the treaty, but, as will be proved later on, this conduct of the savages was nothing but hypocrisy and deceit, they only awaiting a favorable opportunity to kill out the English. "Several days before this bloodthirsty people put their plan into execution, they led some of our people through very dangerous woods into a place from which they could not extricate themselves without the aid of a guide, others of us who were among them to learn their language were in a friendly way persuaded to return to our colony, while new comers were treated in an exceedingly friendly manner. "On Friday before the day appointed by them for the attack they visited, entirely unarmed, some of our people in their dwellings, offering to exchange skins, fish and other things, while our people entirely ignorant of their plans received them in a friendly manner. "When the day appointed for the massacre had arrived, a number of the savages visited many of our people in their dwellings, and while partaking with them of their meal the savages, at a given signal, drew their weapons and fell upon us murdering and killing everybody they could reach sparing neither women nor children, as well inside as outside the dwellings. In this attack 347 of the English of both sexes and all ages were killed. Simply killing our people did not satisfy their inhuman nature, they dragged the dead bodies all over the country, tearing them limb from limb, and carrying the pieces in triumph around. " From contemporaneous account: "Two Tragic Events: 1. The Seafight of Capt. Anthony Chester, 1621 2. The Indian Massacre, 1622," 1620, 1622. Footnote:"Before
the attack on March 22, 1622, the Powhatan people were free to come and
go in the English settlements. They were free to
borrow tools and even boats. George Thorpe, an English minister and
new governor, believed that the Powhatans
were "of a peaceable and vertuous disposition" and treated the Powhatans kindly. This attitude spread to other colonists, giving the Powhatans mixed feelings. Opechancanough expected help from every warrior in every tribe in the planned attack. He did not anticipate that some of his people had developed mixed loyalties and would warn the English of the attack. The Powhatans who were torn in their loyalties were personified in a legendary figure known as 'Chanco.' "19 "Chanco, a Christian Indian,.. heard of the conspiracy in the evening before the massacre. He hastened to Jamestown to warn a friend of impending danger. The alarm spread, but it was too late to reach the more remote settlements. The people at Jamestown were prepared to meet the assassins, and so averted the blow which might have extinguished the colony. Those at a distance, who survived the carnage, beat back the Indians and then fled to Jamestown. In the course of a few days, eighty inhabited plantations were reduced to eight. But a large part of the colony was saved. ' " 7 "We read from a letter dated 4 April 1623, from the Governor and Council to the Company (in London), ' The great king sends Chanco ( a person that revealed the plot to divers the day of the massacre & so served them)' " 8 To Page Table of Contents To Top of Page To Page Table of Contents The Following is
fromîThe Pamunkey Davenport Chroniclesî by John Scott Davenport,
Ph. D. Margo McBride Editor. Crystal Lake, Il 60014.
"Pamunkey Neck, that long finger of land between the Mattaponi and Pamunkey Rivers above where they join to become the York River (in 2001 King William County, the southern half of Caroline county, and southernmost Spotsylvania County), was set off by Treaty between the Governor of Virginia and the King of the Pamunkey Indians in 1623. The Pamunkeys (of Pocahontas fame) were the largest and strongest of all the tribes in Powhatanís Confederation opposing English settlement and exercised the major role in the Massacre in the English Settlements on Good Friday, 1622. Their pacification was imperative if Virginia English settlement was to succeed. By the Treaty of 1632, Pamunkey Neck was declared to be an Indian reserve, protected from settlement or hunting trespass by the English. There was , in fact, a mandatory death sentnce in place until 1648 for any White Man caught settling or trespassing in the Neck. But the Pamunkey King himself began to make exceptions, needing help from the English and their muskets to drive off raiding Senecase from the North, the fierce Tuscaroras from the South, and other nomad tribes of Iroquoian stock who kept the Neck in turmoil (the Pamunkey and their allies were of Algonquin roots.) The Indian King allowed so mny White Men into his preserve-their only bar was that no English settlement be within three miles of an Indian town-that Virginia authorities recognized that the Pamunkeys bey their self serving allowances had made the death penalty a face.Then too, the tribeís repeated attacks upon settlers bordering the Neck had created a demand among settlers that the Pamunkeys and their allied tribes be pacified by being made civilized, which required close interface between the Indians and the English. The death sentence relative to settlement and hunting in the Neck was repealed in 1648. To Top of Page To Page Table of Contents To Top of Page To Page Table of Contents The Treaty of October 1677 "Opechancanough was succeeded by Necotowance [ed note : who signed the treaty of 1746 ending the third anglo powhatan war and severely restricting the territory of the Powhatan people by confining them to small reservations ], son of Powhatan's eldest sister, then by the Queen of Pamunkey who was reigning in 1676. In that year, when trouble with northern Indians was threatening, she was invited to Jamestown to confer with the governor and council. The chairman asked her how many men she could furnish the colony in the war that seemed impending. At first she declined to speak, but finally uttered vehement reproaches against the English for their injustice and ingratitude. Her husband, Totopotomoi, had been slain with many of his men while assisting the settlers against the Ricahecreans, and she had never had 'any compensation for her loss.' After further parley, she 'abruptly quitted the room.'" 13 "The treaty of October 1677 [ which
the
Queen of Pamunkey signed]
established an annual tribute
of twenty beaver skins to be paid to the colonists. The English also claimed
the right to appoint Necotowance's successors. This treaty made the English
the sole owners of the Lower Peninsula between the James and the York Rivers.
The Settlement Law gave the Powhatans freedom to inhabit land north of
the York River, but it did not restrict the English from also settling
there. The English were free to expand after notifying Necotowance,
or his successor, of their intentions. An agreement was made among
the English to wait until after the Powhatans had forgotten the recent
wars before moving northward."
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Top
of Page
Sources For This Page:ld 1.
Review
by Roy W. Johnson of "Jamestown 1544-1699" by
Carl Bridenbaugh [New York: Oxford University Press, 1980
ISBN 0-19-502650-0 ]
18. The Church of England, Diocese of Rochester, webpage entitled St George's Church Gravesend. The Story of Princess Pocahontas. 19. Native Americans Post Contact from The Mariners Museum, Newport News, Va pages 20. the Powhatan Pageof Virtual Jamestown Website To Page Table of Contents Within The Vines is Copyright Protected. See Terms of Use |
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