Category: Indians

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

“A Dictionarie of the Indian Language”; an excerpt from The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia by William Strachey (1612, pub. 1849)

In this excerpt from “A Dictionarie of the Indian Language, for the Better Enabling of Such Who Shalbe Thither Ymployed,” William Strachey compiled what he believed to be words spoken by the Virginia Indians of Tsenacomoco who lived in the Tidewater when the Jamestown colonists landed in 1607. Appearing at the end of The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia , Strachey’s dictionary consisted of 400 words, of which 263 accurately represent Algonquian-language words or phrases, according to the linguist Frank T. Siebert Jr.

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

“An act concerning Indians” (October 1665)

In “An act concerning Indians,” passed in October 1665, the General Assembly, among other things, reserves to the governor the right to appoint tribal weroances, or chiefs, for Virginia Indians.

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

“An Act directing the trial of Slaves, committing capital crimes; and for the more effectual punishing conspiracies and insurrections of them; and for the better government of Negros, Mulattos, and Indians, bond or free” (1723)

In “An Act directing the trial of Slaves, committing capital crimes; and for the more effectual punishing conspiracies and insurrections of them; and for the better government of Negros, Mulattos, and Indians, bond or free,” passed by the General Assembly in the session of May 1723, Virginia’s colonial government establishes laws with regards to the punishment of slaves and the overall government of slaves, free blacks, and Indians.

PRIMARY DOCUMENT

“Concerning Indians” (1662)

In the following act, “Concerning Indians,” passed in its March 1662 (New Style) session, the General Assembly attempts to regulate various interactions colonists have with the neighboring Virginia Indians.

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