Werowocomoco:  Seat of Power
Delegate Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum
 
Virginia's celebration of its quadricentennial several years ago along with the prominent role that the Commonwealth played in the early years of our country overshadow what historians Heinemann, Kolp, Parent and Shade term the period "Before Virginia" (Old Dominion - New Commonwealth, University of Virginia Press, 2007).  As important as the three small ships carrying 143 Englishmen arriving off the Virginia coast in April, 1607, was to the beginning of our state and nation, it does not represent the beginning of civilization in this part of the world.
 
Fewer than 50 miles from Jamestown at PurtanBay along the York River in GloucesterCounty is the Native American village of Werowocomoco.  Archaeological surveys in the area in the last several years have uncovered artifacts from the Late Woodland period (ca. A.D. 900-1607), Middle Woodland (ca. 1200 B.C. - A.D. 900) and Archaic (ca. 8000-1200 B.C.) periods.  At the time the English arrived, Werowocomoco was principal residence of Powhatan, paramount chief of 30 some Indian tribes in Virginia.  Captain John Smith met with Powhatan at Werowocomoco.  It was there that John Smith was supposedly saved by Pocahontas from being killed.
 
Until November 15, 2010, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, of which I am a member of the Board of Directors, is having a special exhibit at Jamestown Settlement museum on Werowocomoco where artifacts spanning close to 10,000 years are on exhibit for the first time in a museum setting.  For more information on the special exhibition, go to www.historyisfun.org.  Updated information on the archaeological investigations being undertaken by the College of William and Mary and others is available at www.powhatan.wm.edu.
 
The early settlement at Jamestown survived in large measure with assistance from the Indians.  By supplying food to the colonists and instructing them on how to farm, the Indians helped the colonists get a foothold in the New World.  For about a year John Smith traded with the Indians.  Conflict was inevitable as the Indians wanted to hold to their land, and the English wanted to take it for profitable gain.  The Werowocomoco Exhibition should make us think about the consequences had the English chosen to learn from the Indians and their ability to live in harmony with nature.  Certainly the Chesapeake Bay region would be a very different place than it is today.  But, most certainly, the exhibition should impress us with the advanced civilization that we are only now understanding that existed in Virginia before the English arrived.