The Powhatan People:A Journey to Discover My Heritage
As I continue on my spiritual journey to discover who I am and where I came from, my next stop has led me to the Powhatan people of Virginia. I have been told by my spirit guides that I have Powhatan heritage in this life, and I was Powhatan in a past life. Now I want to learn all I can about the Powhatan people who make up part of me.
The Powhatan People are also known as the Algonquin people of Virginia. Their land comprised all of Virginia and parts of Maryland and North Carolina.
The Powhatan language was an Eastern Algonquin language and they had several different tribes throughout their confederation who all reported to the chief who was given the name Powhatan.
The Powhatan people were partially nomadic, a little different than their ancestors who were all nomadic. They would develop mostly permanent villages for their people while others stayed in certain areas just for the season.
The Powhatan people were like most indigenous people in thinking that the Earth was a living being and would speak to them. They would let the Earth know their needs and then rely on it to sustain them.
The English arrived at Roanoke Island and Jamestown, establishing the first contact between the Powhatan and settlers. The famous stories of John Smith and Pocahontas emerge from the arrival of the English. Pocahontas was a Powhatan princess.
The relations between the two different groups started friendly. The 20,000 Powhatan residents wanted to have a peaceful relationship. Eventually war would come between them as the English population grew and expanded, taking over much of the Powhatan lands.
Today, there are about 3500 enrolled Powhatan's in the state of Virginia. Two of the Powhatan tribes still retain their reservations from the 17th century.
Finding out an overview of the Powhatan people, I am not surprised that they fall in line with all of the other indigenous populations of the world that have been killed, butchered, discriminated against and driven from their homes by European expansion.
Most people today do not give a thought that the land they live on actually was stolen from someone else. If someone would come and drive them from their home today, how would they respond?
There is a different part of the history of this Earth that we refuse to acknowledge and teach. Why, because the same people who drove the indigenous peoples from their homes and slaughtered them, are the same people in charge now.
Finding out about my Powhatan heritage has caused me to step back and evaluate more of my life and what my focuses are. It has helped me find out more about who I am. It encourages me to stand with the people who are continually discriminated against and still being denied fundamental rights today. It encourages me to write for the voices of the unheard.
By Michael Walters
The Ancestor's Fire
Writing the voices of the unheard
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