Draft Interpretive Plan Join the adventure! - Captain John Smith ...

• Although surveying in the 17th century was primitive by modern
standards, the maps Smith produced were highly accurate and facilitated
European colonization for decades.
• Smith’s spirited accounts and robust descriptions of an edenic landscape
with abundant resources inspired European migration.
• Smith’s maps and writings helped lay the groundwork for the plantation
economy that emerged in the Chesapeake region and eventually spread
throughout the American south.
Substantial and sophisticated societies of native peoples existed in the Chesapeake
region centuries before Smith arrived and although their communities were
disrupted and some were ultimately displaced by European colonization, many
descendant tribes sustain their identities and cultural values in the region today.
Before colonization, Chesapeake Bay Indians developed sophisticated societies
with governmental systems, political and military alliances, elaborate trade
routes, arts and architecture, and deeply held spiritual beliefs.
• The life-giving abundance of the Chesapeake attracted people to the
region thousands of years ago.
• Chesapeake Bay Indians likely shared the widespread Native American
view that human beings are required by their Creator to live with, rather
than dominate, the world around them. This belief would have brought
their surroundings – waters, land, plants, and animals – to life to a degree
that cannot be overestimated. Each tribe had/has its own distinct and
complex value system, distinct language, stories, and oral traditions,
which were/are heavily influenced by the environment.
• Several polities throughout the region organized the peoples, including a
large polity (with perhaps as many as 32 tribes) under the leadership of
paramount chief Powhatan. A vast network of waterways and footpaths
enabled Chesapeake Indians to form political, economic, and cultural
linkages with other societies in present-day Ohio, the Great Lakes,
Canada, and beyond.
Chesapeake tribes substantially influenced the fate of European explorers and
the ensuing colonization of the region.
• Some native communities and leaders provided knowledge and support
that helped sustain Smith, his crew, and the Jamestown colonists. Several
tribes interacted with the Europeans for the purposes of trade.
• Smith’s time in the region included both conflict and cooperation between
the English and the Chesapeake Bay Indians. Some of Smith’s exploits –
such as violating agreements and giving false impressions of rival tribes’
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