Virtual Jamestown on the web states : “As the English saw him, Powhatan was ‘a tall well proportioned man, with a sower looke’ who ruled with an iron hand. They sometimes are also called the Virginia Algonquin. Powhatan Confederacy, group of Native North Americans belonging to the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages ).Their area embraced most of tidewater Virginia and the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay. Last Modified Date: August 22, 2020 . Powhatan had inherited the leadership of a group of six tribes in the sixteenth century and expanded his authority to more than thirty tribes by 1607. Wahunsonacock, or Powhatan, as the English called him, was the leader of the confederacy when Jamestown was settled in 1607. The confederacy had been formed by and named for a powerful chief, Powhatan, shortly before the colonial settlement of Jamestown in 1607. Relations improved for a number of years following 1614, when John Rolfe married Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas. The original six tribes were the Powhatan, the Arrohateck, the Appamattuck, the Pamunkey, the Mattaponi, and the Chiskiack.

The Powhatan Confederacy is the name of a group of Native American tribes that was a powerful force in 17th century Virginia. The Powhatan Confederacy got its name from him.
The Powhatan Confederacy was where the English made their first permanent settlement in … the name of a group of Native American tribes that were very powerful during the 17th century in the area now known as Virginia However, her death in 1617 and Powhatan’s own demise the following year enabled the more aggressive Opechancanough to exert control over the confederacy. POWHATAN CONFEDERACY, a paramount chiefdom in the coastal plain of Virginia, named for its leader at the time of English colonization. Much of this expansion was by conquest. Powhatan, confederacy of at least 30 Algonquian-speaking North American Indian tribes that once occupied most of what is now tidewater Virginia, the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, and possibly southern Maryland.


The new chief feigned an interest in Christianity and issued invitations to settlers to move farther onto native lands.

Powhatan, also called Wahunsenacah or Wahunsenacawh, (died April 1618, Virginia [U.S.]), North American Indian leader, father of Pocahontas.He presided over the Powhatan empire at the time the English established the Jamestown Colony (1607).. Powhatan had inherited rulership of an empire of six tribes from his father.