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EASTERN SHORE VIRGINIA INDIAN HISTORY
OUR HISTORY IS EXTENSIVE.
Copper Colored American Indians on the Peninsula
The Powhatan Pumunkey and the Accawmackes were related, in fact, Pocahontas and Accawmacke Queen Metha (1589) were half-sisters. The famous Accawmacke King during the arrival of the English was inaccurately called Debedeavon. This is due to the fact that Indians seldom allowed their sacred true Indian names to be known. The Accawmacke King was also called the Laughing King, known to have a friendly and happy disposition.
The Laughing King bequeathed his thrown at first, to his brother Kiptopeake, due to the Laughing King’s need to hunt at leisure. Later upon his death, the Laughing King willed the Accawmacke throne to his daughter Nandua. Women played equal and lauded roles in American Indian society. Women were known for skilled sciences and arts, building homes, including teaching and medicine. Respect for the equality of women is part of the Accawmacke culture. The last known royal Accawmacke descendant was known as King Tom, who married Judith Cypress, also an Indian, while listed as King Tom in Court records and in connection to the Gingaskin Reservation.
History books falsely, imply that Ensign Tom Savage having come from England with John Smith as an Interpreter was Anglo. When in fact, the surname Savage itself reveals that the young could not have been Anglo English. First of all, an English person would not willingly call themselves Savage. Also, just the fact Savage was able to interpret American Indian languages as a very young man, denotes he must have been of American Indian Heritage. Recall that Columbus took American Indians to Europe as did Smith on his first voyage to America. It is an intelligent and logical estimation that Ensign Savage was an American Indian living in England who was brought as an interpreter by Smith to Virginia. Recall Smith took American Indian Boys with him to England to train as Interpreter AKA as Spies!
THE SPY WHO LIVED AMONG THE ACCAWMACKES
While Ensign Savage and John Smith resided with King Powhatan, the boy’s life was threatened and in danger. Wahunsenacawh’s brother did not trust Ensign Savage. Chief Powhatan and he sent Ensign SAVAGE over to the Eastern Shore with the Accawmacke Laughing King to protect his life. This Child American Indian Spy soon became the Support to the Jamestown settlement that Told of the Pamunkeys plan to poison Jamestown with the Herbal help from the Accawmacke. Historically, it is said the Accawmacke helped the settlers but in truth a spy was in our midst helping to protect the immigrants. Later the Accawmackes would have to fight the SAVAGE family in court for land theft and 650 acres of bayside land was granted via Land Patent.
Many Accawmacke engaged in the business of international trade for centuries .Some were forced by Virginia Slave Codes to adopt christianity. Others loved attending church with Europeans. We also engaged in leadership and politics along with immigrant. But in the 1600s our laws, politics and our own spirituality and dedication to God was in control.
HOW ADVANCED WAS OUR LIFESTYLE
Lifestyle of the Accawmackes
All early writings record that the Accawmackes had small towns, not camps. The towns were well civilized and developed. They had long houses made of bark and or reed/grass mats. They also had clay homes and homes that were several stories high. There were store houses for trade, sauna houses, and special holistic buildings for women.
There were also multi-family and single-family homes, hospitals and Temples for worship. The towns were landscaped, and roads were often covered in crushed shells. In addition, there were fences and bridges. The Accawmackes were isolating infectious patients and were hand washing to prevent disease thousands of years before the European understood their Indigenous American Indian science.
The Accawmacke Indians were famous as artists, builders, farmers, hunters and fisherman. Accawmackes are also, known as expert musicians’ artisans, healers and herbalists. To this day Accawmackes are noted to having skills in multiple areas. The Accawmakes are known to have utilized advanced agricultural techniques. The Accawmakes also taught the colonists how to fry and smoke meat. They Accawmakes also domesticated and raised turkeys. Contrary to history, there were horses on the Eastern Shore prior to European arrival. These horses were sometimes domesticated for farm use and ridden, although they were not in large numbers.
The most important aspect of the Accawmackes was and is; is their commitment to the Preservation of the Environment and Conservation of Nature and Wildlife. We did not deplete the forests or our wildlife; we maintained nature’s balance; hunting for only what was required. Using all portions of the animals because we honored the life and the blood that was spilled. Also never forget that we first contact American Indians created and believed in a system respectful of individual rights to protection and self representation in LAW!
Define a Freeman / Freedman
In, addition a Freeman is not an African according to this rare citation but an American called African who he or his forefathers were once slaves but are now free men. Freeman were free not owned by the Indians. Freeman Landowners were forced to go to Oklahoma along with never indentured / enslaved Indian kinfolk so immigrants could take their land.