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Cockacoeske, Queen of Pamunkey: Diplomat and Suzeraine
- University of Nebraska Press
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Cockacoeske, queen of the Pamunkey Indians, donned the mantle of Powhatan ’s chiefdom in 1656 and governed her people for some thirty years. British archival records that have recently come to light suggest that she worked within the context of the Virginia colonial government in an attempt to recapture the power her people had wielded in the early seventeenth century , when Pamunkey leaders politically dominated the Indians of the Virginia coastal plain. Although Cockacoeske was a leader of considerable influence and political acumen, she has been largely overlooked by modern scholars. Yet colonial documents contain more personal detail about Cockacoeske than is perhaps available on any other Native American woman of her day, and her attempts to reverse the long decline of the Powhatan chiefdom warrant recognition. Cockacoeske was a relative of Powhatan, the Algonquian paramount chief who ruled the Indians of the Virginia coastal plain when English colonists arrived in 1607. Captain John Smith called Powhatan’s mode of government monarchical and described Powhatan himself as an emperor who controlled his territory by placing his brothers, progeny, and other close kin in positions of power within the various districts he ruled.1 According to Smith, Powhatan, a Pamunkey, governed six tribal territories through the right of inheritance and numerous others that he had acquired by conquest . He was said to have been born at a village called Powhatan, on the upper James River, but his principal residence was at Werowocomoco on the York.2 The Powhatan chiefdom’s leadership descended matrilineally among the sons of the eldest sister, then devolved to the progeny of younger sisters.3 By 1618, Powhatan’s brother Opitchapam assumed the leadership role, only to be replaced soon after by Opechancanough, another brother, the great war captain who masterminded the March 1622 Indian attack. This uprising , a concerted attempt by the Indians of the coastal plain to drive the English from their soil, led to the loss of nearly one-third of the colony’s population.4 Cockacoeske, Queen of Pamunkey Diplomat and Suzeraine martha w. mccartney cockacoeske, queen of pamunkey Opechancanough’s influence (if not necessarily his authority) reportedly extended north to the Potomac River and south to the lower side of the James, eastward to include Virginia’s Eastern Shore, and westward to the falls of the colony’s major rivers. According to at least one early explorer’s account, certain tribes in the region considerably south of the James River also were under his sway.5 Thus throughout the first half of the seventeenth century, first with Powhatan and then with Opechancanough, the Pamunkey Indians enjoyed dominance over the native groups in eastern Virginia. In April 1644 Opechancanough, who was then said to be almost one hundred years old, led a second major Indian uprising that claimed nearly four hundred lives. The assault focused upon the upper reaches of the York River but also extended to the south side of the James. The English, who called Opechancanough “that Bloody Monster,” captured him during the retaliatory expeditions that followed, and he was slain while imprisoned at Jamestown.6 After the death of Opechancanough, a Pamunkey warrior named Necotowance assumed leadership. Documentary evidence suggests, however, that the effects of the colonists’ reprisals against the Indians and the loss of their principal leader had exacted a severe toll, precipitating the disintegration of the once-mighty Powhatan chiefdom. One writer, describing the dissolution or scattering of the tribes that had previously been under common leadership , claimed that Virginia officials had made deliberate efforts to liberate the other natives from the control of the “house of Pamunkey,” employing the familiar “divide and conquer” approach in dealing with remnants of the once-powerful Powhatan chiefdom.7 In October 1646 Necotowance, “King of the Indians,” concluded a treaty with the Virginia government whereby the natives ceded much of their territory to the English and acknowledged that their right to the possession of the remaining land was derived from the English monarch. From that moment they formally became tributaries to the English government. The implementation , or imposition, of a tributary system, which can be likened to the way Powhatan and Opechancanough ruled the tribes under their control , was in fact a tangible symbol of the Indian’s political subservience to the English.8 In 1648 Necotowance, called “emperor,” presented his people’s first annual tribute to Virginia’s governor. Only “five more petty kings attended [3.235.199.19] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 13:54 GMT) martha w. mccartney...