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Historical Highway MarkersHeadquarters of OpechancanoughOC-30
Near here stood the town of Menmend, home of the paramount chief Opechancanough. During Powhatan's reign, Opechancanough was a king of the Pamunkey and a war chief of the Powhatans. He became paramount chief about 1629 when his brother Opitchipam died. Opechancanough organized the attacks of 1622 and 1644 against the English in an attempt to punish them for encroaching on Indian land. He was nearly 100 years old when he was captured after the conflict of 1644. Imprisoned at Jamestown, he was killed when a prison guard shot him in the back. The site of Opechancanough's home on the Pamunkey River has long been called The Island.
Department of Historic Resources, 2005 See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov. |
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References/Bibliographic Citation: Frederick W. Gleach, Powhatan's World and Colonial Virginia: Conflict in Cultures (Lincoln and London: The University of Nebraska Press, 1997), 146-158, 174-183; Helen C. Rountree, Pocahontas’s People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia Through Four Centuries (Norman, Ok. and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990); Martha McCartney, “The Draft of the York River in Virginia: An Artifact of the 17th Century,” Southeastern Archaeological Conference Journal 3(2): 97-110; Helen Rountree, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005). |