Appamattuck
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 400 in 1608 (estimate) Now extinct |
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Eastern Virginia | |
| Languages | |
| Powhatan (historical) | |
| Religion | |
| Native | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Pamunkey, Patawomeck, Chickahominy, and other Algonquian peoples |
The Appomattoc (also spelled Appamatuck, Apamatic, and numerous other variants) were a historic tribe of Virginia Indians speaking an Algonquian language, and residing along the lower Appomattox River, in the area of what is now Petersburg, Colonial Heights, Chesterfield and Dinwiddie Counties in present-day southeast Virginia.
The Appomattoc were affiliated with the estimated 30 tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy, who controlled the area then known as Tenakomakah, present-day Tidewater Virginia. According to William Strachey, the Appomattoc were one of four subtribes within the original inheritance of Chief Powhatan, before he incorporated the other tribes into his Confederacy, and were said to be closely connected with the Powhatan royal line.
The Appomattoc first encountered English explorers on May 8, 1607, when a party led by Christopher Newport reached one of their villages at the mouth of the Appomattox River (it was shown as "Mattica" on the 1608 Tindall map). The English recorded that the foremost warrior among the Virginia Indians was bearing a bow and arrow in one hand, and a pipe with tobacco in the other, to signify the choice of war or peace. The English party soon settled some 30–40 miles downstream from there, on Jamestown Island.
On May 26, Newport led a second party of 24 Englishmen to Mattica. They were welcomed with food and tobacco. He noted the village was surrounded by cornfields, which the Indians cultivated. A weroansqua (female chieftain), Oppussoquionuske, led the village. Despite welcoming the English, some Appomattoc warriors took part in the sporadic raids on their fort until June 13, after which the paramount Chief Powhatan called a ceasefire. John Smith saw the weroansqua of Appomattoc again at Werowocomoco (the main residence of Chief Powhatan) during his capture in December 1607, where she was appointed to wash his hands; as well as on another expedition to Werowocomoco in February 1608, when Powhatan commanded her to serve him water, turkey and flatbread.
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