There were Founding Fore-fathers and Fore-mothers of America.
The United States of America would not have come into being without Wahunsenacawh.
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Above: The artist’s sculptural interpretation of Werowance (Leader) or Emperor Wahunsenacawh or Powhatan II, ruler of Attan Akamik or “Our Fertile Country”.
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GENDER and ETHNIC CLEANSING
Why is there only one gender and ethnic group on Mount Rushmore when the United States of America was not just created out of the ether? Only Europeans and their male descends were eligible for this honor. Being here first, some Native Americans also seem bothered by this notion so the Mount Rushmore replacement design below made the following visual statement.
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| Above: Western Native American dream of the real Four Founding Fathers. |
Although I admire this sentiment, in addition to Powhatan II, the other real missing founding candidates are: Pocahontas(Pamunkey), Cockacoeske the Queen of Pamunkey. And the other Algonquian, Massasoit, chief of the Pokanoket of Massachusetts who allowed the Pilgrims to later set up camp and survive in a foreign land where they also met the Algonquian, Squanto who, among other things, helped the Pilgrims to survive in America by teaching them to plant corn.
[“Corn” is the Old English word for wheat, the English staff of life, as maize or “Indian” Corn was to the American Indian.]
The Case for the Enigmatic Pocahontas
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Above: Caption under the etching by Simon van de Passe (English), is
titled “Matoaks alias Rebecka daughter of the mighty Prince
Powhatan Emperor of Attancug Akomouck [Attan Akamik] Alias Virginia converted
and baptized in the Christian faith, and wife to the widower Mr. John Rolff.”
It is interesting to note that the Queen had publicly frowned upon the marriage of a commoner, Mr. Rolff, to royalty, Princess Pocahontas.
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Although thought of as a “traitor to her people” by some, the controversial minor daughter of Powhatan II who is loved by many non-Natives, looms as a heroine among many non-Indians. So much so, that a large painting of her holds a hallowed place in the Rotunda of the Capitol building.
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Above: Giant 12’x 18’ painting by John Gadsby Chapman in 1839 hangs in the Capitol Rotunda and is titled, “The Baptism of Pocahontas.” The Rotunda is called “The Heart of America.”
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| Above: Detail of an idealized and very Eurocentric interpretation of Pocahontas' baptism. Notice the "Savages" sitting on the ground, etc. |
The first example of the Stockholm Syndrome is revealed in the Chapman painting (where the kidnapped victim begins to identify with the captors), Pocahontas nevertheless paved the way for the flooding of the Colony with fortune-hunting Englishmen and their progeny who became the foundation for the creation of the United States of America.
The Case for Cockacoeske
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Above: A likeness by the author of Cockacoeske the Queen of Pamunkey. She was the main signatory to the 1677 Treaty of Middle Plantacion that brought an end to the Powhatan wars of expulsion. The model for this computer graphic was the late Pamunkey artist, Georgia Mills Jessup, a Cockacoeske family member and a descendant of Opichancanoe, Pocahontas’ uncle. -(See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockacoeske).
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Without the Treaty of Middle Plantation the English could have been exterminated or driven into the Chesapeake Bay. The European colonization of America would have been slowed or stopped in its tracks.
Her ancestor, Opichancanough, brother and successor to Powhatan II, tried three times to eradicate the English, even up to his death in his 90s when he was captured and shot in the back while in custody by a grieving Englishman who had lost relatives during one of the attempted expulsions.
“The Middle Plantation Treaty of 1677
[ 70 years after The English arrival and 55 years after Opicancanoe’s last war]
The Treaty was between Virginia's Indian Head Chiefs [Kings, Princes and a queen] and Charles II (The King of Great Britain, France and Ireland)
With the several Indian Kings and Queens and Assignors and Subscribers hereunto made and Concluded at the Camp of Middle plantation, the 29th day May, 1677; being the day of the most happy birth and Restoration of our said Sovereign Lord, and in the XXIX year of his said Majesties Reign.” - http://www.powhatanmuseum.com/Historic_Documents.html
THE ATTEMPT TO CROWN AN EMPEROR
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Above: CULTURAL CLASH
Etching of the Crowning of Powhatan. Notice the expressions. Misrepresented here is
that Powhatan II was over six-feet tall whiled the average Englishman at that time was closer to five feet tall. Powhatan reportedly didn't want to lower himself to the political
level of the English and he resisted the Englishmen's attempt to crown him. |
The Royal personages Pocahontas and the descriptions of Cockacoeske in the Treaty of 1677, plus the caption by van de Passe, described the current English impression of the political reality of Powhatan II and his family’s position as Royal persons. His power was that of an emperor over nations that had varying positions of autonomy, an interpretation not shared by the current official US point of view and baffled the English. At the time English royalty had absolute power over their subjects. Ironically, this divergence of views between the English who were present in 1607 and the Americans who were not, begs the question, why was Powhatan II demoted by the American Revolutionaries? Who are we to believe? Those who lived in a world of empires and royalty, or those whose stated revolutionary aim was to destroy, abandon and replace those political notions of kingship? The prevailing Revolutionary actions were to also extend their ideas of Royal extermination to the indigenous Amerindian forms of government. Did Powhatan II’s government in North America compare to those in Spanish America whose interpretation of empires is still in place in the history of Mesoamerica?
The English would have said “Yes”. Especially since the Powhatan Empire consisted of 34 kingdoms.
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POWHATAN “CONFEDERACY”: Kingdom or Empire?
Today, writers label Powhatan II’s form of government as a diminutive “Confederacy” or "Chiefdom" since it was not a European entity. A kingdom is ruled by a queen or king whose vassals are lords or ladies. While an Empire is ruled by an emperor over kingdoms.
Powhatan II’s domain was estimated to be 19,250 square miles. While the largest Amerindian empire, the Triple Aztec Alliance was 80,000 square miles. North America’s empire consisted of 32-34 kingdoms, while the Aztec Empire in the Americas was made up of three city states.
According to the 17th century English, Powhatan’s domain was ruled by kings who lived in a “king’s house” with many villages whose inhabitants identified themselves under a common self-identifying name, some with identity tattoos and associated national pride. In early Virginia, each kingdom remained so. The concept of “tribal” identity is common among today’s Native Americans. For example, some Virginia Pamunkey crossed the Potomac River (they called Cohonkarutan or the River of the Cohonks, i.e. Canadian geese, the source of the noise associated words, honk, honky-tonk and honky). These Pamunkey retained their identity when some relocated to the Maryland side of the river.
Although the US Government insists on using “tribe” for those entities, by English legal edict, they were originally conceived as “nations”. Some insistent Native Americans also use the latter term to refer to their political group as nations.
If historians were capable of writing the truth, these Royal personages would have been the true Founders of America! However, the promoted Founding Fathers decreed that the US would not be a kingdom and in doing so, they dismissed the British colonial masters’ established Powhatan Kingdom as a "Confederacy".
