Pre-1611

Pre 1611Archaeological evidence indicates that Native Americans were living in what are now Chesterfield and Henrico counties at least 10,000 years ago.  Known as Paleo-Indians, these early inhabitants of the area were loosely organized into bands in which people were related by kinship ties.  Leadership was acknowledged on the basis of ability.  Being few in number, they typically occupied small, seasonal camps, subsisting by hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants. 

By the Woodland Period (1000 B.C. – A.D. 1600), major changes were taking place in the lives of local Native Americans.  Most importantly, agriculture first appeared and gradually became increasingly important.  Plants cultivated included corn, beans, squash, pumpkins and gourds.  Because an agricultural way of life produces far more food, semi-permanent villages, occasionally containing as many as several hundred persons, appeared for the first time.

Pre 1611In A.D 1607, the Native Americans living in the area near today’s Henricus Historical Park were known as the Arrohateck and numbered perhaps 250.  Captain John Smith’s famous 1612 Map of Virginia shows one major village and five smaller settlements situated on both sides of the James River. 

The Arrohateck were one of over 30 groups in the Powhatan Chiefdom whose population exceeded 13,000 and occupied most of coastal Virginia.  According to early accounts written by the English, the paramount chief Powhatan inherited six to nine groups along the James River and York River basins, including the Arrohateck.  He acquired the remaining portions of the chiefdom through warfare or threat of warfare during the late 1500s and early 1600s.

By 1607, the Powhatan Chiefdom had developed into one of the most complex societies then existing in the Middle Atlantic region of North America.  One of the original groups, the Arrohateck undoubtedly occupied a privileged position.  They were named for their head chief, Arrohateck, who met the English during their initial exploration of the James River in 1607 and who was described as treating the English with much courtesy.