Existing comment:
Virginia Indian Fisheries:
Imagine standing here before the first Europeans arrived in America. You would have seen the Native men fishing in the river with nets and seines and spears. You also would have seen the fish weirs (traps) that they built between the boulders to catch migrating shad and other fish fighting their way through the shallow, rapid waters. Even today, you can still see traces of the weirs in the river when the water is low.
By the time the English arrived in 1607, this area -- the falls of the James River -- lay between two Virginia Indian territories. Downriver, the tribes spoke an Algonguian tongue and many of them paid tribute to the paramount chief Powhatan, whose presumed birth site is located downstream below the falls. The tribes there called the country Tsenacomoco. Upstream, west of Belle Isle, were eastern Siouan-speaking tribes, in particular the Monacan.
Today, descendants of the Monacan -- the Monacan Indian Nation -- live in Amherst County, part of their ancestral territory. Likewise, east of here, live seven state-recognized tribes descended from the Algonquian-speaking peoples: Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Nansemond, Pamunkey, Rappahannock, and Upper Mattaponi.
Virginia Indians fishing ca 1590. Those in the background are using spears; note the fish weirs and dams. Courtesy Library of Congress.
Virginia Indians roasting fish on a wooden grill, ca. 1590. Courtesy Library of Congress. |