Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
The Powhatans and other Woodland Indians as Travelers (17 pages)
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 17
One
HELEN CC, ROUNTREE
THE POWHATANS AND OTHER
WOODLAND INDIANS AS TRAVELERS
Tue INDIANS of the Eastern Woodlands were cosmopolitan people, and the
Powhatans, or Virginia Algonquians,'’ were no exception. Indian people of
both sexes often traveled not only around their own territories but also into
the territories of others; moreover, they heard accounts of peoples living yet
farther away.
The Europeans who invaded North America paid little attention to Indian
movements, unless they found those movements threatening in some way.
Explorers’ questions to Indian people usually seem to have been, “What's out
there?” rather than “What have you yourself seen?” Consequently the historical documents that have come down to us often give the impression that
most Indians remained within their own home areas, except in times of war,
and that they only heard—somehow—about more distant regions. That impression is misleading. Native people did in fact travel about a great deal on
a variety of errands.
The aim in this chapter, therefore, is to correct the misunderstanding of
the Eastern Woodlands in general and the Powhatans in particular. First we
see what the historical record tells us directly of Indian visits to or knowledge
of distant peoples. Then follows a reconstruction of what it was like to travel
with Native Americans: traveling companions, equipment taken, routes,
means of transport, lodging, and food. Next comes a list the aboriginal commodities that Woodland Indians are known to have traded, which tells us
still more about where they journeyed. A discussion of warfare as it affected
Woodland Indian communications follows. Last, there is a summary of the
ways in which the Powhatans and other Woodland peoples can justly be inferred to have been cosmopolites.
21