New maps show how fragmented our regional politics were, even at the beginning of colonialism – Greater Greater Washington

There was a time when the Potomac River was a political divide that divided two great powers. Shifting alliances, political maneuvering, betrayals, and upheavals—this was not the Civil War, but the time of the Powhatan and Piscataway supremacies and the tribes loyal (or not) to them. It was a time of kings and emperors, ambition and fall. The English, when they landed at Jamestown in 1607they were entering a political quagmire, which challenged and then helped their colonization and conquest.

But this is not a story we normally think about. Maps of indigenous North America often weave together decades of history or merge language, culture, and political affiliation. The widespread myth that Native Americans had no concept of ownership or land rights is often repeated without question, which leads non-Natives to think that colonial borders were the first borders drawn on land.

In 2016, an anonymous blogger named Chlopodo, but who prefers GS (named after the name of his blog Gesta Septentrionalis or “Deeds of the North” in Latin), grew tired of poorly made or frustratingly confusing maps of indigenous North America. “I remember first looking for other people who had already done this. After searching for a long time, I finally had a ‘Okay, I’ll do it myself’ Thanos moment,” he said in an interview.

The “it” in this situation is to make the political map of North America in 1600 as accurate as you can. After facing Texas It is the relationship between Biloxi and Ofohe started on the Chesapeake Bay. While not complete, what he has created so far is absolutely stunning:

In the accompanying posts – Part 1 deals with the west coast, Part 2 with the Delmarva Peninsula, and Part 3a with the North Carolina coast – GS cites its sources thoroughly, teaching the reader what we know about these policies and how we know them. His full posts are worth reading, but to summarize:

The area around the Chesapeake Bay was dominated by algonquins: the Algonquians of Virginia, focused on Powhatan’s Paramountcy; the Carolina Algonquians were concentrated around Pamlico Sound, Albemarle Sound, and the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay; and the Nanticoke was concentrated on the Delmarva Peninsula. To the north were the Susquehannock, an expansionist Iroquois nation, and to the west were the Iroqouian and Sioan speakers, which GS has not yet been able to map. (Almost none of these names would have been recognizable to the people they describe, but they describe people related by language and culture, a bit like discussing “Turkish” people.)

For Virginia, most of what we know is based on direct observations by John Smith and other settlers and explorers who were trying to better understand what land they lived on. They needed to play the political game, so maps and detailed accounts were essential for their survival.

Dominating the political scene was Powhatan’s Paramountcy, more properly known as Tsenacomoco. This empire – and it was in fact an imperial project of its ruler, Wahunsenacawh – grew to approximately the size of Belize, dominating more than 30 different tribes when the English landed. Wahunsenacawh held the title of mamanatowickand he was able to name a bravery (or, if a woman, a weroansqua) about each tribe.

(Furthermore, to English colonists accustomed to living under hereditary rulers, each tribe was clearly a kingdom and Tsenacomoco was clearly an empire. Therefore, rather than calling these leaders bossesthey translated weroance as king and mamanatowick like emperor. Only later did Western historians call them bosses.)

The other supremacies on the GS map have similar political structures, although with different titles. Above the District of Columbia, for example, was Piscataway, governed by a Tayac instead of a mamanatowick. Its capital was Moyaone, located in what is now Accokeek. The local war was over the Nacotchtank kingdom, labeled “Anacostan” on the map. (As a side note, Georgetown was built on top of another trading city, Tohoga, which was part of this kingdom and loyal to the Nacotchtank resistance.)

While Virginia has been well documented, the history of the Delmarva Peninsula is a bit more confusing. GS writes: “Normally, in any given region, I can find at least a few previously published maps to complain and complain about being wrong, but which I can still use as a basis for repair. But with Delmarva, I have yet to find a single map that attempts to incorporate published information from the last century or more.” However, he finds and maps political boundaries using mainly secondary sources, identifying seven distinct domains: Tockwogh; Wicommiss; little Matapeke on Kent Island; Choptico; the Paramountcy of Nanticoke; the Pocomoke-Assateague Paramountcy; and Greater Syconese, a Lenape rather than Algonquian government.

In North Carolina, things are even less clear. Here, colonization took place in two periods: a failed effort in 1585 and a more successful effort that began around 1655. During neither period was there much effort made by colonists to document the politics, cultures, or languages ​​of the local, so GS delves into what can be found in archaeology, linking known locations to those that have been recorded by a handful of available 400-year-old maps and accounts, and linking them to their tribe. The constant flux of borders and disintegration of polities over the next century meant he had to “[balance] uncertainties from one side to the other, different uncertainties from the other.”

For DC residents, whose city is built on politics and power, it is important to understand that Europeans were not the first to look to this land with ambition and statecraft.

Today, although these countries have disappeared, their people and tribes have not disappeared. The Chickahominy, Piscataway, Nansemond, Pamunkey, Rappahannock, Mattaponi, Nottoway, and Patawomeck people live and work in our region, and all have or are seeking state and federal recognition for their tribes.

Better maps of yesterday produce a clearer picture of today

Maps and posts like those from GS bring to light the complex history of these people and inscribe a piece of it directly into the landscape of our region. Political dramas of borders, rivalries, tragedies and wars played out along the banks of these rivers and on the slopes beyond. GS’s maps will hopefully inspire some curiosity about whose land it was, what they wanted then, and what they want now.

What comes next for GS is unclear. “After Virginia, I might move to the Northwest and do some things in the Great Lakes area because that involves some groups that are not talked about much these days: Massawomeck, Erie, Neutral and so on. But it just depends on how I feel at the moment. I still see my blogging project as a hobby that I practice whenever I can and want. I don’t consider it a really important thing, and if I can just get 20 regular readers, then, I swear to God, I’d be happy with that.”