HIS 200 Module 6

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Southern New Hampshire University *

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History

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Oct 30, 2023

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1 Kalen Anderson HIS 200: Applied History Southern New Hampshire University Aug 3 2023 Essay Progress Check 2 The English colonists in Virginia in 1607, the relationship between the indigenous communities and colonists was the start of a major social and cultural change that will lead into the beginnings of American society as we know it. With Great Britain wanting to expand their empire through colonies and the acquisition of natural resources, conflict and diplomacy between these two cultures will long shape the political and social theater in the United States. Positive and negative aspects of this relationship are still felt today such as loss of cultural identity, and displacement of people and lands here in Virginia and beyond. Exploring the history of this dynamic relationship between the Europeans and Powhatan, we can understand how societal change and politics between these nations have shaped the nation we now have. With tribal nations still being present in the 21st century, tribes have learned to be resilient in their own rights to preserve their cultural identity or at least what is left of it. Before 1607 European explorers were already in the Americas. They were met with diverse cultures very different from their own back across the Atlantic. The earliest conflict between these Algonquians and the colonizers occurred near the Chesapeake Bay . This region was home to the several hundred villages of the allied Powhatan tribes, a group that comprised many thousands of individuals (Britannica n.d). This change in power dynamic brought up and downs throughout Virginia and played a major role in how we tell the stories of individuals like

2 Captain John Smith, Chief Powhatan, John Rolfe, and Pocahontas.When the English arrived and settled Jamestown in May 1607, Pocahontas was about eleven years old. Pocahontas and her father would not meet any Englishmen until the winter of 1607, when Captain John Smith (who is perhaps as famous as Pocahontas) was captured by Powhatan's brother Opechancanough. Once captured, Smith was displayed at several Powhatan Indian towns before being brought to the capital of the Powhatan Chiefdom, Werowocomoco, to Chief Powhatan (National Park Service n.d). These individuals that contributed to the cultural exchange in Virginia would not knowingly set the stage for the continuation of European dominance later in the 17th and 18th century. Consequences brought upon the new world were the beginning stages of decentralizing a powerful culture in the Mid-Atlantic. With the power of military might and technologies of the Euriopeans, it was an uphill battle socially and politically for the Powhatan nation. Both conflict and disease will also prove to deliver devastating blows to the Indigenous communities of Virginia. Competition over land and resources will pin man against man to the point of greed and control. Today many Virginia tribes are still trying to piece together their culture or what little is left of it. Through cultural revitalization the Native culture of Virginia can be brought back to life. Even in today's culture,society highlights the Western Native cultures often leaving out the cultural impact of the first contact tribes of the East Coast. With new arrival to the shores of Virginia, how the colonists and natives interpreted each other in the bounds of their own social lens would be the start to a transformed society. We can now look back and piece together the events and people that laid the foundations of American politics through sheer desperation, survival, and loyalty to their own nations. The clash of two cultures would be the beginning pages of the building of a nation but not without its faults in history and a nation that is still working on itself today in the 21st century.

3 References Pocahontas: Her life and legend - Historic Jamestowne part of colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service) . (n.d.). NPS.gov (U.S. National Park Service).

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4 https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/pocahontas-her-life-and-legend.htm Native Americans and colonization: The 16th and 17th centuries . (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Native-American/Native-Americans-and- colonization-the-16th-and-17th-centuries