Lifeways

In some ways the Powhatan were more like the Southeast Indians. For example, they had a more autocratic system of government than the northern tribes. That is to say, their leaders had absolute authority, with power of life and death over their subjects. To the north, the Indian tribes were more democratic, with a council of leaders often making decisions.

The combination of hunting, fishing, gathering, and farming in and around Chesapeake Bay determines the Northeast classification for the Powhatan, ROANOKE, and other coastal Algonquians. The writings of Captain Smith describe in great detail how the Powhatan collected and prepared food. He speaks of how they hunted deer, beaver, opossums, otters, squirrels, and turkeys with various weapons, including bows and arrows, spears, clubs, snares, and rings of fire; how they dried acorns plus other nuts and fruits to keep for winter; how they made a milky drink from ground walnuts; how they fished in giant dugout canoes as much as 40 and 50 feet long, using spears and nets; how they planted their crops, making holes four feet apart with a digging stick and placing four grains of corn and two of beans in each; and how they roasted or boiled green corn to eat on the spot or soaked and pounded ripe corn to make cornmeal cakes.

Captain Smith also wrote about how the Powhatan usually located their villages along a river, near a spring of water. Their houses, anywhere from two to 100 per village, would be in the middle of their fields of 20, 40,

¦Powhatan digging stick for planting corn

100, or even 200 acres. The houses were made of saplings, bent and tied and covered with bark or woven mats. The structures had rounded roofs but were elongated, much like Iroquoian longhouses.

As with Indians all over the continent, there was a division of labor between men and women. For the most part, the men were the hunters, fishermen, gatherers, and warriors. They built the houses and boats and most of the tools and weapons. The women were the farmers and food-preparers and made clothing, pottery, baskets, mats, and wooden vessels called mortars that were used for grinding foods.

The Powhatan and other area Algonquians practiced the huskanaw, a rite of passage in which boys underwent solitary confinement and fasting in preparation for manhood.