Virginia Indian Archive from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities – The Virginia Indian Archive is a collection of images, documents, and audiovisual resources representing the history and cultural experiences of Virginia Indians since colonial times. Items in the collections were gathered from a wide range of sources, both historical and contemporary. A resource tool available to teachers, students, researchers, and the public, the archive is accessible to anyone interested in Native peoples in the region we now call Virginia.
Encyclopedia Virginia from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities – Encyclopedia Virginia is a publicly accessible online publication of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. With the mission to develop the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of the Commonwealth by creating learning opportunities for all Virginians, VFH brings together the resources and content to make the Encyclopedia a valuable tool for exploring the people, history, government, economy, and culture of Virginia.
Library of Virginia – Type in "Indian" for a list of items in the collection.
Library of Virginia Legislative Petition – Petitions to the General Assembly were the primary catalyst for legislation in the Commonwealth from 1776 until 1865. The database lists the name of the petitioner, locality, date of presentation, description, reel number, box number, and folder number.
Virtual Jamestown: First-hand Accounts by Date – The Virtual Jamestown Archive is a digital research, teaching and learning project that explores the legacies of the Jamestown settlement and "the Virginia experiment."
Lesson Plan Using Primary Sources
Teaching with Primary Sources from the Jamestown and Yorktown Settlement Victory Center – Students analyze a picture of a Powhatan object shown on the John Smith map in order to learn more about Powhatan Indian life.
Werowocomoco
Werowocomoco Ceremony: America didn’t begin in 1607 from the College of William and Mary – “One point was made over and over again at the June 21 ceremonial signing of a conservation easement to protect Werowocomoco: American history did not begin with the 1607 landing of the Jamestown settlers,” writes Joseph McClain.
Werowocomoco Research Project – This site describes the ongoing research about the historic village of Werowocomoco.
Werowocomoco: Seat of Power – Artifacts spanning 10,000 years from Werowocomoco – Virginia’s original “capital” city and the principal residence of Powhatan, paramount chief of approximately 30 Indian tribes in Virginia’s coastal region at the time English colonists arrived in 1607. These artifacts were shown for the first time in a museum setting in the Jamestown Settlement special exhibition “Werowocomoco: Seat of Power.”
Cactus Hill
Ice Age Discoveries – Recent archaeological digs have provided compelling evidence that humans inhabited Virginia at least 18,000 years ago, well before the Clovis culture and thousands of years before previously thought. For many years, evidence indicated that people arrived in North America approximately 13,500 years ago, but digs along the Nottoway River in south-central Virginia provide clues about earlier habitation in the Americas. These two, 30-minute programs present the most recent information about our earliest ancestors:
Ice Age Discoveries: New Evidence – learn how artifacts, charcoal, and soil, plant and animal remains have led archaeologists to reconsider the evidence and develop new ideas about where the earliest people came from and when they arrived.
Ice Age Discoveries: The Investigators – features the archaeologists – the “investigators” – and how they are solving history's mysteries. Learn how archaeologists use science and “lines of evidence” to piece history together.
Links
America in 1607: Jamestown and the Powhatan from National Geographic - This interactive site helps students learn the differences between the European settlers and the American Indians.
American Indian Resource Center from the College of William and Mary – The mission of the American Indian Resource Center located at the College of William and Mary is to serve the American Indian community, scholars interested in American Indian culture and history, and the public at large.
Of Two Worlds from the Mariners’ Museum, a single colonial-era canoe, an artifact that was discovered by fishermen in Powhatan Creek (James City County) in 1963 and housed at Jamestown Festival Park until it was gifted to the Museum in 1969.
Learning Center from the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation – This site offers teacher materials correlated with curriculum-based programs taught at Jamestown Settlement, Yorktown Victory Center, and through the Virginia’s Outreach program.
Encyclopedia Virginia from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities – This is an online reference work about the Commonwealth that brings together information on Virginia history, business, politics, and geography, plus the state’s heritage in the arts, religion, culture, and folklife.
First People: The Early Indians of Virginia from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources – People lived in Virginia for about 17,000 years before European contact. The native people had no written language. They recorded their historic events through storytelling and symbolic drawings. Through patient work in the field and in the lab, archaeologists have reconstructed some of the history and lifeways of these first people by uncovering buried clues of their unwritten past. The ancient times are divided into three periods: Paleoindian, Archaic, and Woodland. The years after the arrival of the English are referred to as "European Contact."
Historic Jamestowne Lesson Plans from the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities – This site features current research brought about through the work of the APVA-Preservation Virginia and their archaeology project,
"Indians" of Virginia - The Real First Families of Virginia from VirginiaPlaces.org – This website is an exploration of Virginia history and geography. History helps us understand things that have happened, and geography examines the places where things have happened . . . or will be happening.
Natives in the Landscape from the Charles City County Community – "Natives in the Landscape" tells the story of Charles City's Native people through the eyes of the landscape.
The Powhatan Indian World from the National Park Service – Learn about the Powhatan, the predominant Indian tribe when Jamestown was established.
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian – The National Museum of the American Indian is the first national museum dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans. Established by an act of Congress in 1989, the museum works in collaboration with the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere to protect and foster their cultures by reaffirming traditions and beliefs, encouraging contemporary artistic expression, and empowering the Indian voice.
The Story of Virginia: An American Experience from the Virginia Historical Society – This exhibition interprets 16,000 years of Virginia history and features more than 500 artifacts, maps, letters, and diaries. Objects in the exhibition are supplemented by images from the Virginia Museum of History and Culture's collection, soundscapes, video, and digital interactives.
Virginia Indians from the Virginia Department of Natural Resources – Archaeological evidence shows that people have been living in what is now Virginia as far back as 16-22,000 years ago. Virginia’s modern day tribes were firmly established in ancestral lands long before the English arrived to settle at Jamestown. These tribes contributed significantly to the newcomers’ ability to survive those first few years upon their arrival to present-day Virginia. Over the four hundred years since the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia’s native people have contributed greatly to the vitality of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the nation, and continue to do so.
Virginia Indian Program from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities - The Virginia Indian Heritage Program at VFH is helping to redress centuries of historical omission, exclusion, and misrepresentation. It creates opportunities for Virginians of all ages, as well as visitors to the state, to learn about the history and cultures of Virginia Indian people and communities, past and present.
Virginia Indian Heritage Trail (PDF) from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities – This online book was created by members of the Virginia tribes and reflects Virginia Indian perspectives on their own history and how that history is interpreted.
