This year marks 400 years since the establishment of Chippokes. But if we were to go back in time even further, before the English landed at Jamestown, we would encounter the native inhabitants.

Enormous trees, fertile fields, and a river teeming with life characterized the ancestral lands of the Quiyoughcohannock* people. Four thriving towns dotted the roughly 100 square miles they occupied between what is today Upper Chippokes Creek and Lower Chippokes Creek.

College Run Creek, part of the bountiful lands of the Quiyoughcohannock

As part of the Powhatan paramount chiefdom, the Quiyoughcohannock recognized their own chief, or weroance**, who in turn paid tribute to Powhatan, the paramount chief or mamanatowick.

Every part of the land, from the beech forests to the tidal marsh, was vital to the yearly cycle of life for the Quiyoughcohannock. Their calendar, like the rest of the Powhatan people's, comprised five seasons. The new year began with cattapeuk, the blossoming season when fields were planted, women built houses, and men caught fish migrating upriver. During this time, the Quiyoughcohannock enjoyed roasted turkey and fish in addition to the soft dumplings made from tuckahoe, a marsh tuber, that had been eaten throughout the winter. As the woodlands sprung to life, women began to harvest edible plants, teaching their daughters the dos and don’ts of foraging.

Large stands of tuckahoe, a tuber which must be cooked before being used, provided food when not much else was available

As temperatures rose and days grew longer, cattapeuk turned to cohattayough. This was the warm season when the Quiyoughcohannock focused a great deal of time tending their agricultural fields. Men hunted deer, squirrels, rabbits, and other animals to keep their families well-fed during this labor-intensive season. Young boys kept watch over the fields in elevated guard houses, throwing or slinging rocks at birds who tried to eat the young plants. Women and girls did most of the field work, in addition to harvesting the wild bounty of summer. Blackberries, cherries, and wild strawberries were the simple delights of the season, and among the few sweets in the Quiyoughcohannock diet.

Sunflowers were widely cultivated among Powhatan peoples

Nepinough came next when the corn, squash, and beans were ready for harvest. This season was labor-intensive and often oppressively hot. During nepinough, families cooked differently, utilizing a near-constant cooking fire that kept a giant pot of stew bubbling all day. As family members worked, they would add whatever they caught, killed, harvested, or foraged to the stew. Rather than sit down for formal meals, people could eat from the pot as they got hungry. Such a stew might include quail and wild rice at the beginning of the day, and have grown to include squash, beans, and cornmeal dumplings by the evening.

Corn was an important staple crop for the Quiyoughcohannock

As the harvest drew to a close, a chill entered the air and the leaves began to change. This signaled the beginning of taquitock, the feasting season. With plentiful food, the Quiyoughcohannock entertained ambassadors from neighboring tribes, and sometimes even their mamanatowick, Powhatan. Men would go on communal hunts, often with neighboring tribes, and wage war if politics demanded it. Taquitock was also the season for beginning the sacred ritual of the huskanaw, through which boys became men.

Migratory waterfowl, like these Canada geese, were hunted in late taquitock and early popanow

The coldest, longest months of the year made up popanow, the final season of the Powhatan calendar. Quiyoughcohannock men took this time to hunt the abundant migratory waterfowl that overwintered in the area. If food was running low, women might dig tuckahoe tubers in the marshes, although this was cold and time-consuming work. Generally, tuckahoe was less palatable than corn, so it was not the first choice, but its tubers could be baked or dried and ground into flour. Dishes eaten during popanow typically included stews made with dried meats, smoked oysters, pumpkin, and beans, as well as baked or boiled breads.  

Cold and snowy, popanow could be a lean time of year for the Quiyoughcohannock

The Quiyoughcohannock lived many generations on their home land but were forced to cede their lands to English colonists by 1619. With no access to their ancestral lands, their whole way of life was disrupted, and the knowledge tied to that land could no longer be passed down. 

The Quiyoughcohannock have now become a name relegated to the history books, though perhaps a little of them remain in the bloodlines of the surviving tribes of the Coastal Plains. The land they left behind became a plantation, and is today a State Park named for early 17th-century weroance Chippoke.

This is the first in a series that tells the story of Chippokes State Park through the eyes of the people that have called the park and the surrounding area home. Visit Chippokes State Park to learn more.

*A member of a Virginian Algonquian group which was part of the Powhatan Confederacy, and which spoke a lect sometimes identified with Tapehanek. Reference here.

**Weroance is an Algonquian word meaning leader or commander among the Powhatan confederacy of the Virginia coast and Chesapeake Bay region. Weroances were under a paramount chief called Powhatan. Reference here.