E22 - America Takes Root: Jamestown and Colliding Cultures

**TRIGGER WARNING: discussion of torture/execution around minute marker 58:00-59:30.

Today we dive straight into 1607 Jamestown… again– this time focusing less on fort drama and more on those first, messy, fascinating encounters between the English and the Powhatan. Through a mix of curiosity, confusion, and occasional audacity, the English explore nearby villages, attempt diplomacy (sometimes sincerely, sometimes… not), and slowly start to grasp the complex political landscape they’ve stumbled into. Along the way, cultural misunderstandings, language barriers, and wildly different worldviews lead to both moments of cooperation and the seeds of future conflict. Despite early gestures of friendship, things begin to unravel—food shortages, violence, and increasingly aggressive English tactics push relationships to the brink and lead to the capture of John Smith. Oh no… poor baby…

The main sources for this episode are:

• Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America, written by Benjamin Woolley, and published in 2007 by HarperPress UK
• Jamestown, The Truth Revealed, written by William Kelso, and published in 2017 by the University of Virginia Press
• Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma, written by Camilla Townsend, and published in 2004 by Hill and Wang

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, gentle folks, whenever and wherever you happen to be listening. My name is Alex Jones, not that one, and I am intensely curious about generally everything, especially right now, American history. Consider me the girl in your study group that actually did the reading and explains everything you need to know to pass the exam. I'm a former high school English teacher with a master's in secondary ed and a bachelor's in both English and art history, so I'm pretty well versed in research, critical thinking, and fostering curiosity. If you've been wanting to learn more about the things in history you didn't learn in high school, I'm here to share the process of my own learning with you. I'm not a career academic or historical expert, but I am a pretty well-educated and intelligent person with a knack for learning and teaching. So come with me if you're ready to get curious. Welcome back to my learning journey, folks. Sorry for ghosting last week in the spirit of transparency. It was a tough week. I believe in being open about grief because we all experience it, and like the title of the book by Megan Devine, it's okay to not be okay. Basically, a couple of years ago, my mom passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly, and her birthday was last week, so yeah, a lot of feels were coming back up, and I knew pushing through them just wasn't what I needed, so I took a short break. But I'm back, and I am now ready to push on. So, we've been deep diving into the dramatic details of the very first year of the Jamestown colony. Two weeks ago, we got an overview of the entire year of 1607, and today we're zooming in on the expeditions of that year and the English's interactions with the groups of people who inhabited the area. If this is the first episode of mine you're listening to, or the first Jamestown-specific episode you're listening to, make sure you pause, go back, and listen to the first two or three America Takes Root episodes before this. In fact, I think you should also listen to the whole Pocahontas series, the making of Jamestown episodes, if you haven't already. Last episode in particular covered mostly the general events and people causing or involved in the most drama at the fort. I'm not going to review it right now because we have a lot to get through, honestly, and if we're focusing on the Powits and English relationships, the Game of Thrones style side-taking, backstabbing, and faction forming comes in much less compared to events back at the fort. But don't worry. We'll be back at it next week, hopefully covering both 1608 and 1609. Basically, I'm anticipating that after the first maybe five to seven years that we cover, it'll start going quicker and quicker because the colony becomes a lot more established and there's a lot less drama. Today is all about understanding how they interacted in the very beginning with the people who got left out of the story the most. The cultural misunderstandings and how they overcame them, as well as how they caused conflict. We want to immerse ourselves in the lives of all people involved in this historic endeavor and how they experienced the most important events in history that led to the creation of the country we Americans experience today. So buckle up, Buttercup, because we're about to launch into some learning. Captain Christopher Newport was leading a small expedition of men up the Powaton River. The new arrivals, the soon-to-be Jamestown settlers, were scouting a suitable location to build their new colony. After a couple days of only spotting signs of native life, five men were spotted running along the riverbank following the shallop. After a few hand gestures to indicate peace and friendship, like, I don't know, a hand over the heart or laying down their weapons, the two groups from vastly different worlds met on shore to communicate. No one in their party, in either party, spoke the other's language. But the explorers, including the broken sickly aristocrat George Percy, who recorded much of their experiences, followed their new acquaintances to their village of Cecoten. There, the English encountered a scene similar to what many of them may have already heard or read about the Sekitan people, that the now lost Roanoke colony less than 50 miles south had spent time with 20 years earlier. What they witnessed was a people whose way of life had been thriving and developing and evolving for millennia. Their lives, their technology, their dress, their buildings may have been simpler, but were no less sophisticated or civilized. Not that these English explorers thought that way. The Cacotan homes were dome-shaped structures with 20 or so of these dwellings interspersed among the trees. On the second expedition, they finally get a more detailed tour of the homes and gardens and parts of the villages they hadn't yet seen, so we'll go into more detail on that stuff in a little bit. But if any of these explorers had seen the faded Roanoke governor John White's paintings of the Sekatan and Croatoan people, they would have found the Cacatan to look familiar, though probably still very jarring next to the English in their metal breastplates and helmets. While the English would have been sweating in the building humidity and heat of May in Senecomaca or coastal Virginia, the Cecaten moved easily and coolly in their deerskin clothing, breech cloths for the men and skirts for the women, really just covering the most essential bits. They'd seen children running around in the nude, but for now they saw and interacted by and large only with men, most of whom shaved the right side of their heads and wore the rest of their hair long but usually tied in a knot and decorated with some feathers. Some painted their bodies black, others red. And I have to finally add, every time I see a quote from the primary sources describing the men, they always use the word lusty, which I find absolutely hilarious. If anyone ever complains about how language is changing and we can't use certain terms anymore because political correctness, or why do we have to emphasize pronouns, or they isn't a singular pronoun, if that person complaining is a dude, especially like a tall buff dude, call him lusty. He's gonna feel awkward, right? Well, 400 years ago, it simply meant healthy, strong, vigorous. Now it's associated with sexual attraction. Because language changes. It's natural. You ever try to read a book even like written even a hundred years ago, let alone two hundred or three hundred years ago? It's often tough because the language is so different. So, side note, stop complaining about having to drop old or learn new terms. That's just life. But anywho, George Percy, a man of what author Benjamin Woolley calls quote insecure religious convictions, wrote of their arrival in Cacatan and how some men emitted a quote doleful noise, meaning like mournful or sad, and they threw themselves at the feet of the English, scratching the earth with their nails. Percy called this, quote, idolatry. John Smith would call this heathenism and proof of the need for the English to subjugate them. I can't find in my non-expert research what this act would have signified, I would love to know, but Percy's freaked out. Everything he had grown up being taught told him that this was devilish and evil. However, he also noticed the sophistication of their dancing. The English have this idea at the time that everyone native to the American continent or Turtle Island were wild, but these men exploring and colonizing are starting to see that this is not entirely true. Not that it completely changes their view of them. The elders in Kekatan had them sit on mats with them, and while they ate cornbread and passed around a clay tobacco pipe, some villagers put on a dance. And Percy wrote about how he picked up on how their feet kept tempo just like all the formal dancing aristocrats would participate back in England. Dancing and music and tempo is cross-cultural. It was simply what they did with the rest of their body that was different. Like, it seems obvious to us today. Like, yeah, of course, it's just as like beautiful, just as sophisticated, just as civilized. Like well, you have to remember that back then these biases, these prejudices, these misunderstandings, misconceptions are beyond deeply ingrained in the English psyche, in the European psyche. But before they left, Newport gifted the elders with some beads and some jewels, and the English went on their merry way. A few days later, they came upon the Paspahague, one of whose elders gave a long speech they were apparently bored by, because of, I mean, obviously not being able to understand a word, but it was here that they were told about the promontory slash peninsula almost island they ended up settling on. Essentially being like, oh yeah, that's a good spot, you can use it, but probably not thinking they were planning to stay forever. But also while there, the Werawants, or leader of the village across the river, popped in to be like, yo, you should come see my village, like, screw these guys. Because they apparently didn't like the Pass Bahague much, which is a bold move, by the way, like just waltzing right into another village and stealing their visitors right from under them when you know that you and that other village don't get along. Honestly, pretty badass. But it's their first experience of beginning to understand a little bit of the politics of this area, Senecomaca. But the following morning, they ditched the Paspah Hague, whom I can imagine viewed this as a bit of a snub. And maybe it's why they later attacked the English settlement periodically. I don't know. That's just me making an inference. They visited the other Werawants that came to see them in Paspahague at his village, which at first they had the name of wrong, so I'm not going to say the wrong name. Um later on they learned that this village was Cuyocahannock. The following day they came upon the Appomattoc, and then on May 12th, they sailed back down the river to choose their settlement site. These last couple visits are really, really short and not much occurs. Um, if anything, they're just very similar, like a repeat of what happens in Kikatin, so there's not really a lot of detail to go in there. But yeah, these the visits are just very short. Um, but they do mention about the Appomattox that like they had approached the English with their bows drawn and just like presented as the most warlike. In reality, like in my mind, I'm wondering, they were probably just the most suspicious of these new arrivals. I doubt they were any more or less warlike than any of the other tribes in the Powton Confederacy. Remember, these groups of people have seen their fair share of European explorers over the last hundred, hundred and fifty years or whatever. Um, they're coming and they're going plenty. They're just not staying. But the Appomattoc are the furthest inland that they've encountered so far. So it is possible they're likely to have had fewer interactions with them than the groups that live closer to the coast. So yeah, they're a little bit more suspicious at first. But they head back downriver, um, they argue a little bit about which specific island they want to settle on, and they end up settling and choosing the one that Paspahague told them about. And afterwards, as they're starting to build some of their structures, but remember not a palisade yet, like no defensive structures. They don't want the Powaton to know that they are actually planning on staying permanently. Like that's very manipulative, first of all, but that's why they don't build anything yet. But yeah, so the Paspahague start visiting while they're getting set up, uh, mostly just to kind of like see what they were up to. Like they're on Paspahague land, so they're probably just kind of scoping out their intentions, um, especially after the snub of ditching them for the Cuyocahannock. And as manipulative as it is, it is probably a very good idea that they didn't actually build defensive structures yet, because the Paspahague would have started getting very suspicious. This is also when, as mentioned last episode, the Paspahague visit, but the English won't put down their arms, and eventually they do, but a kerfuffle ensues over a potentially stolen hatchet that was returned, violence avoided. But the Paspahague returned a couple days later with a deer carcass, and they did a weapons demonstration where the Poweton arrows go straight through the wooden board, but the English musket balls don't. Um, that has a little more detail in the previous episode. But thinking about how the newly elected council president, Edward Mariah Wingfield, didn't want a palisade or other defensive structures because he was like, wow, these people are so friendly. I must note, when we look back at history and the interactions between the English or other Europeans and the vast array of different groups of people native to Turtle Island or the American continent, it's easy to forget the deeply ingrained beliefs about people and culture and religion that all walks of life in history have had. We can look back now and see how problematic the language they used was, how clouded their judgment was, but that's because we know how history unfolded. A good critical thinker takes those experiences and beliefs and uses them to analyze what experiences and beliefs we have now that might be having a similar effect. Are we still doing similar harm? Are there other groups whose beliefs or culture we look down on simply because they're not ours? It's something to think about. The English truly believed that Christianity, specifically Protestantism, I'm never gonna be able to say that word by the way, Protestantism. Protestantism, specifically the Anglican faith of the Church of England, to the English, that is the only true religious belief. Remember, the Puritans in 1620 go to Massachusetts for religious freedom because the Church of England won't let them practice that Protestant religion. The English believed wholeheartedly that they were coming to America to improve the lives of the people they called savage. They were so blinded, they, or most of them, could not see how sophisticated and civilized they actually were. And honestly, in many ways, more so than the English, at least in terms of our standards of treating people with equality, fairness, and kindness today, seeing women as equals, even with the gendered separation of responsibilities, all work was of equal importance. But we're all blinded by our own culture and beliefs until we've immersed ourselves in someone else's. That's the part of history we don't teach enough in school. If you can analyze how the beliefs of one group in history influenced events in their own time, you can start analyzing how our current beliefs are influencing our own time and maybe start identifying which of those beliefs are dangerous. That's how you learn pattern recognition. That's how you learn to identify problematic policy that oppresses others. For example, this is the language that was used, I think, in the Virginia Charter for the Jamestown colony, where King James like approved, yes, you can go. King James I approved the charter specifically because of the religious language that was inserted. He approved it so that the colonizers, and I quote, may in time bring the infidels and savages living in those parts to humane civility and to a settled and quiet government. End quote. Highly problematic. But to them made absolutely total sense. And men on this mission, especially men like John Smith, bought into that thinking a hundred and fifty percent. And as events unfold, we'll see how Smith's specifically, Smith's buying into this propaganda nearly came to ruin them multiple times. Not that Smith would have seen it that way. Like Disney paints him as such a friend of the Powhatan, and honestly, it was completely exactly the opposite. But he would have seen any retaliatory attack on their part, on the part of the Powhatan, they would have seen a retaliatory attack for something the English did simply as more evidence of their savagery. As if they weren't enacting the same level of violence. But stepping off my soapbox, because this is gonna be a long episode and we need to loot uh move on. Moving on. Shortly after construction of the settlement began, instead of returning immediately to England, Newport led a second expedition, this time to find natural resources to turn a profit on, as well as a potential route to a northwest passage. All of this in the hopes of opening lucrative trade routes to Far Eastern Asia that wouldn't involve the Silk Road and passing through Muslim territories. Since before Roanoke, there had been rumors of a great salt lake to the west, past a mountain range that they had heard of that they called Appalachi, which supposedly contained rich veins of copper. Now, the Appalachi, obviously the Appalachian Mountains, I'm from New England, I say Appalachian, I'm sorry, were very real and actually very rich in copper. But what about this Great Salt Lake? Is that true? Well, the only true salt lakes, I had to do some Googling, the only true salt lakes are in the west, like far west. And the very few, somewhat salt or brackish lakes that exist east of the Mississippi are much, much further north. Like upstate New York, Canada, or I think there's one like in Louisiana. So are they referring to any of those? Or was Great Salt Lake just a term for the Pacific Ocean? I mean, trade across Turtle Island at this point was impressively extensive. It's very likely the peoples of the East Coast were well aware of some of the geographical features of the far western lands, not just through their own oral histories that they may have had about the migration of their ancestors, but also through tales that got passed along trade routes. Newport and everyone in Europe, really, obviously had no idea the distance this continent spanned. If you Google like 16th century, 17th century maps of North America, you will see shapes I never would have been able to come up with on my own. Like, they're crazy. But on this second journey, the first group they came upon this time were the Weyenoc, on the same side, the south side of the river as the Quyocahannock, but a little bit further down. Um, they also claimed to be hostile toward the Paspahague, even though all three of those tribes are part of the Powhatan Confederacy. Remember that the 30 or so tribes that made up the Powhatan as a nation, just like the 70 or so that made up the Wampanoag in southeastern New England, answered to one paramount wereowants, or Mamanoic. But each tribe had their own Werawants, as well as their own Kyokros, or spiritual leaders, who arguably had even more authority than the Werawants, all who didn't necessarily have to follow everything the Paramount Werawants, the Mamanotawic, commanded. It's kind of like the idea of states' rights. We have a president, but we also have governors. And all the states are free to a certain extent to do their own thing. At this point in their journey, though, the English don't know any of this, or they know very, very little of this political makeup. The following day, after leaving the Wainoak, is when they meet the man they would call the kind consort. They never seem able to get him to provide a name, or maybe he did, and they just like didn't know what it was, so they just call him the kind consort. He was in a large canoe with like seven other men and appearing to be friendly, they all met on shore, and Newport indicated that they were exploring and wanted to know how far the river went and what was along it. So the kind consort starts drawing a map in the dirt. And Newport was like, wait, hold on, like we got something for this. Gives him a piece of paper and a pen. And to the English's surprise, he figures out how to use it really quickly. Newport demonstrates, like, this is how it works, and he's just like, oh yet. Like, the English don't need to be surprised by this. Native Americans were not dumb. Like, oh, all that stuff just always makes me roll my eyes so hard. But the kind consort drew a map of the river, um, its falls, how it split in two after like a day's march further west beyond the falls, each branch coming down from the distant mountains. That area, however, the kind consort indicated, was home to two other quote kingdoms, to use the contemporary English translation, but Confederacy is probably more accurate. The Kind Consort also indicated that the mountain range that was beyond the falls was called the Quirank or Quironk. And beyond that, the fabled Great Salt Lake. But again, at what distance? We don't know. And again, apologies if you hear scraping or purring. One of my cats is saying hello. But the mountain range was called the Quirank or Quironk, and beyond that, the fabled Great Salt Lake, but at what distance, we don't know. And again, we don't know what they truly actually knew about a salt lake. But the Queerank can be figured out. It is uh basically understood as the Blue Ridge Mountains. Uh the Blue Ridge Mountains are a large section of the Appalachians, so it's all the same mountain range. Um, but this section runs from southern PA, south, cutting through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, ending at Mount Oglethorpe in Georgia. That name should sound familiar to you if you listened to my Travel Notes episode about Savannah, Georgia. Just fun little side note. They also bought or traded with this group of men as well, who offered them oysters and fruits and other abundant wild food of the area, but they moved on, and the next day they encountered the Arohaddock, who provided them with apparently their most lavish welcome yet. They didn't seem to catch the name of the Werawance, again, so they kept calling him King Arohaddock, but I'm not going to do that. He's the Arohaddock Werawance. Um, the Arohatdock Werawance put a crown made from deer hair that was dyed red on Newport and informed them a little bit more about the Palatin Confederacy, the Mamanotawic, and finally the English explorers are starting to put some of the pieces together of how the politics of this area worked. Um, how the people they'd encountered were related to each other and interconnected. Um, the Arohattic Werowants had just been telling them about the Mamanatauic Powhatan when a man arrived at the village that the rest of the village stood for with like some pomp and circumstance. And because of this welcome, they thought he was the Mamanatowic, when he was in fact his son, Parahunt, who was the Werawants of the individual Powhatan tribe. Remember, Wahunsenica, the Memanoic, was from the Powhatan tribe, and that's how the Confederacy of tribes ended up called the Powatan Confederacy. I don't know how long this misunderstanding of Parahunt not being the Memenotawic lasted, but for at least part of this expedition, they assumed Parahunt was the Memenotawic. They would eventually learn differently. They were invited 10 miles upstream to the village of Powatan, which sat near, but not directly at the falls of the Powhatan River. Uh, this is like the general area of where Richmond is today. Parahunt and the Arohattic Warawants were waiting for them, sitting apart from the others on reed mats, ready for diplomatic discussion. Like they're serious. Um, probably this is when they learned Parahunt was actually the son of Wahenseneca, but again, I'm not entirely sure. They explained the power structure in a lot more detail which tribes were part of the Confederacy and which, like the Chesapeake, weren't. Kind of like the Croatoan, not actually being part of the Sekatan down in the uh outer banks. They told the English it was the Chesapeake who likely attacked them the first day they landed, which does make sense because that village was the closest to that area. So, um, in a diplomatic gesture, Pear Hunt placed his own cloak over Newport's shoulders and said Wingapo Shimuse, which means a sort of welcome, like welcome, kind friend, I think. That comes from the Virginia Department of Education website. So, yeah. But this is also where Disney gets their idea for Wingapo. Um moving on, the English left one man with the Powhatan as a gesture of trust. Like we're gonna leave this guy here as a gesture of trust and friendship, and they leave to go explore the vicinity of the falls. Um, and they have one Powhatan man named Navarron's accompanying them. Kind of like they just did a little trade. Um, Navarron's asked to spend the night on board the shallop with them. Basically, each night they've been sleeping on their little small ship, small boat, called a shallop. And they agreed again as a sign of trust. During this time, Navarron's and Archer specifically, but Navarron's and everybody, um, start becoming friends. Archer is there as like the official recorder of the expedition. Remember, he's super salty about not being appointed to the council, but he's still very important. Um, so Navarron starts making friends with everybody, especially Archer, and Navarron's agreed to accompany them on the rest of their journey as a guide. He's starting to figure out some things and he can sort of translate. So the following morning, the plan was to continue beyond the falls on foot. They couldn't take the ship up the waterfalls, obviously, so they were going to continue to look for natural resources. But first, Parahunt and the Arohattic Werawants arrived with a big group of warriors to return the Englishmen that stayed in their village and joined them for a big feast. Like they had like a big breakfast, like, you know, think of it like a big brunch party or something. And this is where we get the flashback to Ralph Lane's Silver Cup incident 20 years earlier with the Sekatan when a village was burned to the ground after a cup went missing. This time, thank God, no violence ensued. It seems like, hopefully, they actually learned from the experiences of Roanoke. And when it was discovered that two bags of bullets were missing, both Werawances jumped into action to make sure they were returned, and they were, along with a knife that no one had even noticed was missing. And the English were very patient about it, so they were able to restore the feast to a joyful mood. They offered the two leaders beer and aquavita, which is a spirit or liquor, uh, which they're obviously not very used to. And after drinking some booze, Pear Hunt became a little less inhibited and began disclosing more and more and more information on the copper and iron and other rich mineral deposits and natural resources that were beyond the falls and in the mountains. But he begged the party not to continue their journey in that direction. Whether it's for their own safety or his people's own safety is up for debate. But one of the two quote kingdoms that lived there was called the Monikans, who were a sworn enemy of the Powhatan, who every autumn would come down from the mountains and attack the Western Powhatan tribes. Also, food was harder to come by on the other side of the falls. So they're like, dude, don't do it, don't go, it's not safe. And this part feels, again, a little manipulative on the part of the English. Hearing this, Newport vows to Parahunt that the next time this happened, the next time the monikans came down from the mountains, he would provide 500 men to fight the monikans with the Powaton. Which obviously has the desired effect of like pleasing Parahunt greatly, um confirming their relationship, but obviously would never happen. Like, dude, you don't even have 500 men by the autumn, they wouldn't even have a hundred men, and Newport himself wouldn't even be there. But they agree not to go further, he vows 500 men to help protect the Powhatan, which is impossible. And at this point they separated. But Parahunt promised to meet back up with them at the bottom of the falls later that day. So the English start in that direction, and as they were approaching the falls, the kind consort randomly appears again. Like he just pops up and he starts urging them to shout. Which they interpreted as like a kind of welcome gesture to Parahunt, but apparently may have actually been something the Powatan did as a way to honor the spirit or spirits they believed dwelled within the falls, called Pakwakang. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. Um, but add an islet there, like a little tiny island, they decided to rename the river the James River, which it's still called today. And they also erected a giant wooden cross. Remember, Navarroans is with them, and he doesn't like this. The Powatin don't really have a firm understanding of what the cross means, and Navarroans is like pretty sus. And because they don't have a super good understanding of what the Christian cross is, the English are able to bullshit them and tell them that the two arms were symbols for him and Parahunt. So, like one arm of the cross is for Navarron's, one arm is for parahunt, and the center pole, or maybe it's one arm is Newport and the other one is Parahunt, I forget. And the center pole, the vertical uh beam, is a symbol of unity and friendship, which is obviously a bold-faced lie. Again, the manipulation. And when Parahunt arrives, he's also upset. But the explanation seems to pacify both of them. After this, they begin their return back downriver, and they go back to Arrowhaddock, where the Werawances pissed at them because, uh, well, he's hungover. Obviously, he's never had what he called the English's quote hot drinks before. So he's rightfully concerned at how shitty he feels. Like, how does he know they're not trying to poison him? But the English assure him he'll feel better the next morning, which he does. Um, but while visiting, this is where they finally get to explore the village and see how the people of Senecomaka lived. Like one of the village women ends up just kind of like grabbing them and just giving them a tour. I mentioned in my Mayflower episodes that you can visit a reconstructed Wampanoag village, in air quotes, at the uh Plymouth Patuxent museums, though honestly, most effort has been put into reconstructing the original Plymouth settlement, so you don't really get what I imagine as the full effect of seeing what a Wampanoag village would have looked like. I would give anything to go back in time and see the real thing because it sounds beautiful. So, again, their homes were similar dome-shaped structures to the Sekitan and the Wampanoag, built out of sapling archways covered in depending on the season, woven reed mats or panels of bark with wooden framed, like single-person beds kind of like surrounding the inner edge, the inner walls. Um, each person basically slept like head to foot. Underneath was used for storage, and in the center there was a fire that had to be kept lit 24 hours a day. The people of this area believed that if it went out, evil spirits would enter their home. But that also meant that inside it was nice and cozy and warm, but also smoky. This wasn't in Woolys or any of the other books I've read for some reason, um, but the Virginia Algonquian dwelling structure was called a Yehaken. So we commonly know the word wigwam, but that's a broad overgeneralization. The Wampanoag called them Wetus, the Powhatan called them Yehaken, we don't know what the Sekatan called them, but Wigwam wasn't recorded until the 1620s, so I'm not sure its exact origin, but despite the difference in terms, there's little difference in these structures physically. Beyond the homes, which are all scattered among a like wide grove of tall trees, um, they also toured the gardens and the common spaces. It's the first time they get to see the Powatan women's experiences. The women did the planting, the weeding, the harvesting, the weaving, cooking, foraging for medicinal herbs and wild foods, raising the children. Between Archer Percy and Smith, there's a lot of description of the women and how they appeared more natural and comfortable in their own skin, and they were strong. They wore makeup just like English women, but in a very different way. English women at this time are using toxic powders and other concoctions to cover or hide imperfections. Powatin women were using natural substances to enhance beautiful features. They also had tattoos. Their arms, legs, and breasts were on full display because the native peoples of Turtle Island didn't sexualize women's bodies the way white Western society, among other cultures, does. The women maintained a self-respect and modesty, along with the full respect of the men, that apparently annoyed these English explorers because it's the first female company they've really gotten or will get in God knows how long, and they don't respect women in the same way the Powhatan do. Like, in their eyes, women are property. That's not that's not an exaggeration. Like, women truly were legally property of a man, first their father or whatever man is the head of their family, then their husband. So men see women as submissive. Like, you should do what I want you to do. And these women are not like that because their culture is not like that. So the English men seeing these women bare breasted are obviously feeling some kind of way. I don't think I need to elaborate. But again, the English don't respect women in the same way the Powhatan do, and this stark reality ends up leading to some horrible sexual assault later on. And people wonder why women would choose the bear. But this is also where Smith starts to criticize their farming practices. Smith, ever the elitist, ever the, you know, he he just has the biggest superiority complex of all of the English, apparently. He thought that the way they farmed, each family clearing, planting, and farming their own plot to produce what they need, and all excess food would be stored for common use, tribute to the Memanotawic, stored for winter consumption. He saw all this as wasteful. Like they're smaller plots with one family farming one plot, and he doesn't think that's right. Technically, there are arguments to be made for both the Powhatan and English ways of farming, but the Powhatan technique was sustainable. It worked for their specific lifestyle, and it required less destruction of the natural landscape. England has like no timber at this time because they've cut so much of their forests down for vast agricultural lands or animal grazing to produce food to feed growing towns and cities where people have jobs that mean they can't work their own fields or grow their own foods. And they're not rotating crops yet, so they're stripping their land of the nutrients needed to sustain years and years and years of growing. That's a contributing factor to famines. But again, the English think their way is the only correct way. I hope you notice like the importance. I I'm spending so much time on talking about the differences in culture and how they're interacting, because I don't think people talk enough about that human experience in history of how personal or cultural beliefs and ideas. ideas shaped the events and their actions and their decisions. And it's important to compare the two to see how they are going to clash. Um but before leaving, there's a confusing incident that leads to each leader, Newport and the Aerohaddock Werowants, disciplining each one of their own men. It's confusing, like someone leaned up against the boat, which was a problem for some reason, and Newport thought it was one of his guys' fault, but the Aerohaddock Warawants thought it was one of his guys' fault, and both end up like punishing, like physically punishing one of their own men. Um which was interesting. But they kind of like they're trying extra hard to show that like we will discipline one of our men who do something wrong. But honestly it feels entirely for show because we know what ends up happening. But this confusing incident ends they're fine uh except for the two people that got beat up um but again there's just so much effort to build a trusting relationship that makes so much of what later happens to them seem so stupid. So why try so hard to be friends when you are going to later let your guys forcefully extract food from the Powatin or sexually assault their women it's beyond the grasp of my 21st century mind, I know. They have two more very quick visits before heading back which end up having near disastrous consequences. Visiting the Appomattocill they sat waiting for the Werowants only for a Werawan squaw to arrive. This is the first female leader they've encountered and they're thoroughly impressed. Her name was Opusekwanuske and she appeared to them more stately than any leader yet. She didn't even flinch at the weapons demonstrations when all of the other werewances did. They essentially equate her to their recent female monarch Elizabeth whose reign would end up being called Gloriana. They put her on a pedestal so after meeting this very impressive Werowansqua, encountering Opikankino, the Werowans of the Pomunki and chief military officer so to speak of the Powhatan and heir to Wah and Seneca, they found him to be showy, foolish, ridiculous like why does this guy think he's so important? Like that Werowan squaw was she had it together. Archer calls the longhouse that they meet him in Pamunkey's Palace, even though Navaran is like dude, dude, don't that's so inappropriate and that is the wrong move bro he has reason to think highly of himself. Again heir to Wahenseneca chief military officer but they don't know that I don't think they understand that he is actually that important and after departing they're slowly making their way home when Navaran suspiciously dips. He's just gone. And rightfully they're worried by this up we gotta get back and they hasten their journey home to find that the day before they arrived back the Pamunkey. One young boy was killed 17 men were injured and after that periodic assaults by them and the Paspahague would continue. So they built their fort palisade and two additional bulwarks but they're still surrounded by tall grass and forest at one point one man is outside the fort when he's hit by like eight arrows and he miraculously makes it back to the fort screaming arm before collapsing. It's like a dramatic movie scene but like that's actually what happened. He died within a week or two but soon the kind consort pops up again. He comes by like a guardian angel to say like so here's what's happening it's these tribes that are attacking you. I think this is why and he advises them to cut down the tall grass that's immediately surrounding the fort so that the attackers would have to stay within the cover of the forest which is a further distance from the palisade walls and they wouldn't be able to get close enough to attack without being seen. I feel like that would have been like military engineering 101 but for some reason nobody thinks of that until the consort tells them to do it. And around this time is when men start dying every day sometimes multiple a day of disease, hunger um the infighting is exacerbating the circumstances and the first renegade as they are called abandons Jamestown and goes to live with the Queokahannock. This man William White provides deeper insight into the daily lives of the Powhatan or at least the tribe he lived with one of the experiences he shared when he got back to Jamestown you'll see later why he goes back to Jamestown he talks about how every day at dawn everyone got up or like got up before dawn went down to the river to bathe and wash and they would sit on the bank of the river awaiting the rising sun within a circle of tobacco to greet the sun celebrate the new day every day then they would go off and all do their things. The women prepared breakfast surrounded by the younger children who hadn't gone through their coming of age ceremonies yet the boys who had would go off with the older men to hunt, prepare fishing wheel weirs, uh butcher their game, using every piece of the animal so as not to waste the life they've taken White was the first to notice the Powhatan concern at the lack of deer. The deer population is not what it used to be. And the corn harvest is not what it used to be. And he's the first to notice that like something's going on they're worried they didn't know yet but they had already entered the worst years of drought in over a hundred years and that would have serious consequences for both the English and the Powatan white claims to have seen after this realization claims to have seen an elaborate days long ceremony or ritual that involved I'm not going to go into super detail because I have no idea the validity of this if it's a real real ritual if he made it up if he exaggerated if he added details I didn't learn anything about this kind of ceremony um in the book written uh based on Matapanae's sacred oral history. Matapanai is a Powhatan tribe um so I'm just gonna give you like a super super brief overview but according to him this ritual involved um like a dozen or so boys painted I think white and between it started with just like ceremonial dancing chanting singing that went on for like two days and then there was a point where he says the boys were tied to a tree and then I think led one by one through like a path lined with the village men standing along it. Again I don't want to go into too much detail but ultimately he ends up thinking that the boys were sacrificed. Because I guess he sees what he thinks is like the dozen boys like their bodies piled up but he doesn't really see a lot he's like being ushered away at this point. Um so we don't know if that's real if they did actually sacrifice the boys as he seems to think they did perhaps because of their concerns about famine but assuming details were exaggerated or misinterpreted I keep thinking maybe it was a coming of age ceremony. We know that the coming of age ceremonies for boys according to Mata Panai Sacred Oral History were more elaborate and longer than the ones for girls. So maybe that was just all like a symbolic like them traveling into manhood. I don't know. That is like entirely conjecture. I don't want to speculate too much because I don't come from that culture and I don't know that history. So he has this experience where he thinks to himself like oh crap they just killed 12 of their own boys as a ritual to save themselves from hunger but more importantly to him he also witnesses the gruesome torture and execution of another Englishman named George Cason or Cazen. At this time it's late November, early December 1607 Newport has returned to England for provisions, but they have no guarantee when he'll be back. Like two dozen men have died of disease attack or hunger. They need food. And John Smith is now newly appointed the Cape merchant which means it's his job to try and secure provisions maybe trade with the local Native Americans and he's been going out on brief expeditions to nearby villages to ask I say in air quotes for food. Let me be clear he's using the threat of violence to forcibly extract stores of corn these villages desperately need to feed themselves because of this drought. And he goes back and he brags about his success of being able to quote trade with each village pointing guns at the heads of Weroances demanding food and then like throwing some beads on the ground before he left is not trading. Like yeah dude you were so successful but he goes out on a final fateful expedition and on this one he and two men separate from the rest of the expedition party I forget why and in a surprise attack on those three men one of the other men is killed the other kidnapped and brought to one tribe and Smith was taken to Opiquankano. We're gonna start next episode with a review of his experience with Opiquankino and later Wahan Seneca because it leads into 1608 but we are going to finish with renegade William White's witnessing the other kidnapped man's death this is George Kaysen Kaysen was brought to the Cuyoka Hannock where White is living where according to White he was tied up and this is a little graphic just heads up he was tied up and slowly carefully one by one each limb was cut from his body and thrown into the fire while they're trying to get information from him. Kaysen provides the Kyoka Hannock with as much information as he has including the name of the expedition leader, John Smith, why they were out there, you know what they're planning to do with Jamestown, etc Now I don't necessarily dispute this event. Again, we can't always trust one man's one white man's description of something happening in a Native American village. But the way he describes this one I'm kind of like yeah that that sounds like it could have happened. But again like every culture has a history of punishments we now find horrific we don't behead people anymore we don't hang people anymore for a reason but all of this for hundreds or even thousands of years was seen as completely acceptable. So every culture has a history of punishments we now find horrific and in fact this torture and execution of George Casein is extremely similar to an English form of punishment being practiced back home at that same time. In fact it isn't put to a stop until the 19th century like the 1860s dude and that punishment is hanging drawing and quartering and it's just as if not more horrific it was reserved for the worst committers of treason and like official trigger warning it's potentially nightmare inducing so fast forward like 60 seconds if you want to avoid hearing about it but I'm trying to make a cultural comparison clear so fast forward about 60 seconds if you don't want to hear this but with hanging drawing and quartering first came the drawing you would be drawn by a carriage like you're you have rope around you and you're being pulled at first they would pull you by your neck so that you were literally dragged but sometimes that would kill the person too quickly and they wanted you alive as long as possible. So they switched to tying you by the wrists and just having you be like walked but dragged to your execution spot. And like people would be lined along the way throwing things at you calling you names etc then at the execution spot you would be hanged by the neck but not until dead only until the moment you might pass out. Then you're cut down and the quartering begins. But not before your stomach is cut open your bowels pulled from your body while you're alive aware and watching and thrown into a fire. And then each limb would be cut from your body for example a few hundred years earlier William Wallace you know Braveheart had his head dipped in tar and placed on a spike on London Bridge and his four limbs were sent to four different locations across the Isle of Britain from north to south as a warning. So who's more uncivilized? Again William Wallace was centuries before but in the age of Jamestown up until the 1860s it still happens. So let's not be hypocritical and see the Crayannic and the Powhatan as any less civilized than the English or any less or more violent. But wrapping up what a great place to wrap that up on um wrapping up I want to impress upon you how important all these details are to the survival of Jamestown. It nearly failed numerous times not just in 1607 but for years after the drama and infighting we went into detail on last episode and the tense and manipulative interactions with the Powatin of this episode makes 1607 and the fact that Jamestown did eventually actually survive all the more unlikely at any moment during any one of these interactions with the Powaton things could have gone wrong. And even with superior weaponry just based on numbers the English could have been wiped out what would have happened if Newport, Archer, Smith, and so many other leaders didn't go back to the fort from their expeditions? Whether they were on the council or not Archer like these guys are important. What if they went on out on an expedition and never came back to the fort? What would everybody back at the fort do? How seriously would order have broken down? Would the men have left the fort or be attacked and wiped out or would they have hopped in the pinnace and made a break for England like Kendall tried to do and coming up next episode I'm gonna try and fit 1608 and 1609 to one episode that's all the events that lead up to the starving time arguably their lowest point. But before that point before the starving time we'll see temporary peace with the Powaton and Pocahontas's visits uh a fire uh Newport's return with provisions thank God there's another new president of the council there are more settlers that arrive and then even more settlers that arrive including the first couple of women there's deteriorating relationships and the start of a war with the Powhatan and more so we've got a lot to cover next episode as well but until then keep the spirit of discovery and stay curious my friends don't care by me out of the I think