To answer this question you would have to know the history of the powerful Powhatan Paramountcy on which most of the District of Columbia was built. Chroniclers of the time said that "The Tiber or Goose Creek (on today's Capitol Hill,) was Powhatan's favorite place to caucus" (the original Powhatan Algoaquian word is caucauasu), and that "Powhatan never left his area." His caucasau was with surrounding thibes to make future protective and organizational plans, and to continue the stabilization of his Paramountcy.
The Powhatan Paramountcy began with eight Algonquian tribes of the Chesapeake, who were organized around the early 1500s by Wahunsenacawh’s father, the first Powhatan, (meaning “Principal Dreamer”). Major tribal nations from the later 34 members of the Confederacy or Paramountcy, like the Pamunkey (Wahunsenacawh and his minor daughter, Pocahontas' tribe), are headquartered in King William County. Virginia on the Pamunkey Reservation (America's first reservation), also, according to Capt. John Smith in 1608, the Pamunkey had vilages in Washington, DC as well as in Maryland's Charles, Prince Georges, and St. Marys Counties), Later, the Dogue/Tauxenent's territory, the northern-most portion of the Paramountcy, included Northern Virginia across the Cohongorooton (river of the cohonks or noisey arriving Canadian geese) today's Potomac River, into DC proper.
Location of the Powhatan Paramountcy
Here is a historically laid out image of Washington. DC's boundary stones layout with the recorded Powhatan Paramountcy villages and a superimposed image of Opichancanough War Chief to his brother of Wahunsenacawh a.k.a. "Powhatan" meaning "Principal Dreamer". Below is the Washington Post's map of the Powhatan Paramountcy's extensive territory. Wahunsenacawh was the father of Pocahontas and like her father, was a member of the Pamunkey, the leading nation in the 34 Algonquian paramountcy. As America's first reservation, it is located next to the Pamunkey Rive in King William County, Virginia.
As you can see, Washington, DC is in the upper left hand corner of the spreading Paramountcy as the northernmost part of the Algonquian territory.
People of the First Encounter of 1607
The descendants of the Paramountcy began 477 years ago in their own tribes with specific identities sometimes tattooed on their bodies, as documented by John White's watercolors made into lithographs by Theodore DeBray.
These People of the First Encounter where "America Began" fought the encroaching British in three Anglo Powhatan Wars, the final in which, the werowance (Chief) Opichancanough, then around 100 years-old, was martyred be being shot in the back by an English serf after being. carried into battle on a liter, becoming America's first martyr. Some of his descendants are Old Wahingtonian members (shown in this blog) whom one would have to know surnames associated with the local tribes of the DMV.
What is interesting about these Powhatan heirs from the Paramountcy, is that over 30+ descendants in the DMV have been arts practitioners in various disciplines, from renowned visual artists, accomplished musicians, writers and published authors, HBO miniseries creators, to acting, biomedical illustrator, and arts law. Each generation has continued to produce excellent artworks.
Photos of the Powhatan Paramountcy's Descendants
Above: School children on the Pamunkey Reservation's school and their teacher to the far right.
Below: An early 1900s gathering of Virginia Indian chiefs and dignitaries.
