The Chesepian (Chesapeake) were a

Native American tribe In the United States, an American Indian tribe, Native American tribe, Alaska Native village, Indigenous tribe, or Tribal nation may be any current or historical Tribe (Native American)#Other uses, tribe, band, or nation of Native Americans in ...

who lived near present-day

South Hampton Roads South Hampton Roads is a region located in the extreme southeastern portion of Virginia's Tidewater region in the United States with a total population of 1,177,742 as of 2020. It is part of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA ( M ...

in the

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Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. They occupied an area which is now in the independent cities of

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

and

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach (colloquially VB) is the List of cities in Virginia, most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in southeaster ...

(formerly Norfolk County and Princess Anne County).

Name

The name ''Chesapeake'' is an

anglicisation Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

of the Algonquian word, ''K'che-sepi-ack'', which translates as "country on a great river." The name for the Native American tribe is spelled many different ways, "Chesapian" is commonly used. In 1585, Ralph Lane used both "Chesapians" and "Chesapeaks",. John Smith's charts and writings also show variety but most frequently used "Chesapeaks". John White's illustrations used "Ehesepiooc".

Settlements

They occupied an area which is now the

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, Chesapeake and

areas. The main village of the Chesepian was Skicoak on the peninsula east of the Elizabeth River either on that river citing Smith (1629)
Virginia
' I, 87 or near the

Lynnhaven River The Lynnhaven River is a tidal estuary located in the independent city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the United States, and flows into the Chesapeake Bay west of Cape Henry at Lynnhaven Inlet, beyond which is Lynnhave ...

. citing Jefferson ''

Notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...

'' 138 (1809) Two other Chesepian towns were Apasus and Chesepioc (Chesepiuc), both on the same peninsula in what is now the city of Virginia Beach. Chesepioc lay on

Great Neck Point Great Neck Point is a point of land and neighborhood on the Lynnhaven River in Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States. It is home to the Adam Keeling House and the Keeling family cemetery. Before the area was settled by the English colonists, Ches ...

east of the Lynnhaven River. Archaeologists and others have found numerous Native American arrowheads, stone axes, pottery, and beads in Great Neck Point. Several native burials were found as well.

Language and affiliation

Although they spoke an Eastern Algonquian language like many tribes within the Powhatan Confederacy, archaeological evidence suggests that the Chesepian people originally belonged to another group, the Carolina Algonquian.

History

The culture of the Chesapians is called "Late Woodland" and they depended heavily on the resources of the Chesapeake Bay, notably the fish and shellfish. There is evidence that some of the survivors of the

Roanoke Colony The Roanoke Colony ( ) refers to two attempts by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The first colony was established at Roanoke Island in 1585 as a military outpost, and was evacuated in 1586. ...

settled with the Chesapians after the failure of their settlement. In 1607, after the decimation by Powhatan, the Chesapians had about 100 warriors and a total population estimated at 350. By 1669, they ceased to exist as a tribe.

Demise

According to

William Strachey William Strachey (4 April 1572 – buried 16 August 1621) was an English writer whose works are among the primary sources for the early history of the English colonisation of North America. He is best remembered today as the eye-witness reporter ...

's ''

The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia ''The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia'' is a 1619 historical book by William Strachey, one of the most prominent primary sources on the earliest English colonization efforts in North America. He was a settler at Jamestown, and wrot ...

'' (1618), the Chesepian were wiped out by the

Powhatan Powhatan people () are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who belong to member tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy, or Tsenacommacah. They are Algonquian peoples whose historic territories were in eastern Virginia. Their Powh ...

, the paramount head of the Virginia Peninsula–based Powhatan Confederacy, sometime before the arrival of the English at Jamestown in 1607. The Chesepian were eliminated because Powhatan's priests had warned him that "from the Chesapeake Bay a nation should arise, which should dissolve and give end to his empire". Though historians of the period express little doubt that the Powhatans eradicated the Chesapeake tribe, Strachey's belief that these rumored prophesies indicated the Christian God's intervention on behalf of the Jamestown Colony against "The Devil's Empire" appears, in hindsight, rather eccentric. : Judge all men whether these maye not be the forerunners of an alteration of the devill's empire here? I hope they be, nay, I dare prognosticate that they usher great accidents, and that we shall effect them; the Divine power assist us in this worke, which, begun for heavenly ends, may have as heavenly period.

References

Sources

* Helen C. Rountree. ''The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture''. Norman, Univ. of Oklahoma Press (1989). * Helen C. Rountree. ''Pocahontas's People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia through Four Centuries''. Norman, Univ. of Oklahoma Press (1990). * Shi, David, E. ''America: A Narrative History'' (6th edition), (2004) W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. * {{authority control Algonquian ethnonyms Algonquian peoples Extinct Native American tribes Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands Native American history of Virginia Native American tribes in Virginia Powhatan Confederacy Pre-statehood history of Virginia