Chickahominy People - History

History

The Chickahominy ("The Coarse Ground Corn People") were an autonomous Algonquian-speaking tribe when the first permanent English settlement was founded at Jamestown in 1607. They were led by mungai ("great men"), who were part of a council of elders and religious leaders. The Chickahominy's original territory consisted of the land along the river that was eventually named after them, the Chickahominy River, from the mouth of the river near Jamestown to what is now New Kent County.

The tribe's proximity to Jamestown meant they had early contact with the English. The tribe helped the English during the first few winters by trading food for other objects. They also taught them how to grow and preserve crops in local conditions. By 1614 the tribe had signed a treaty with the colonists that said the tribe would provide 300 warriors to fight the Spanish.

Over time, the English began to expand their settlements and crowded out the Chickahominy from their homeland. Following the Anglo-Powhatan War of 1644-46, the tribe were forced to cede their land to gain a peace treaty. The tribe resettled on reservation land set aside by the treaty in the Pamunkey Neck area, alongside another Virginia Algonquian tribe, the Pamunkey, between the Mattaponi and Pamunkey rivers. They stayed there until 1661, when they moved to the headwaters of the Mattaponi, where their reserved holdings continued to be encroached on.

The people lost title to the last part of their reservation lands in 1718, but continued to live in the area for some time. Those who did not merge with the Pamunkey and other tribes, migrated to New Kent County and Charles City County, closer to their original homeland. Descendants of these people formed the current Eastern Chickahominy] and Chickahominy tribes, respectively. The migrations happened before the end of the eighteenth century. Few records survive that enable defining the date of the migration.