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Algonkian
The Algonkian word for chief.
Werowance Quotes in Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma
The Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma quotes below are all either spoken by Werowance or refer to Werowance. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4 Quotes
Namontack convinced Powhatan to accept the gifts… […] “But a fowle trouble there was to make him kneele to receave his crowne.” Smith asserted that this was because the Indian did not know the “meaning of a Crowne,” but in fact he probably understood only too well the gesture of kneeling to receive a crown at the hands of another. He himself, after all, liked the practice of anointing tributary werowances who were bound to do his bidding. “At last by leaning hard on his shoulders, he a little stooped, and Newport put the Crowne on his head.”
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In this passage, Camilla Townsend describes a politically significant—and darkly foreboding—interaction between Captain Christopher Newport of the Virginia Company and chief Powhatan. After a supply trip to London, Newport returned to Jamestown and visited Powhatan in his village, accompanied by Namontack—a young Powhatan man who was given to the English as a hostage ward in exchange for the custody of an English boy, Thomas Savage. Though Powhatan knew that to accept gifts from Newport (other than the guns and weapons he wanted) meant tacitly admitting that Newport had a kind of power over him, Namontack convinced him to do so Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Du
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Werowance Term Timeline in Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma
The timeline below shows where the term Werowance appears in Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Amonute’s People
...territory, where the Rappahannock tribe lived. They seized many Rappahannock men and left, and the werowance (chief) and Powhatan fretted together over whether they’d return with more men. Now, as the...
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...to Powhatan’s village: one of his kinsmen, a warrior named Opechankeno, has caught the strangers’ “werowance” and is bringing him to Powhatan. This man’s name, the messengers says, is John Smith.
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Chapter 3: First Contact
By December of 1607, John Smith has been captured by the Pamunkey tribe, whose werowance is Opechankeno. After days of being dragged from village to village and presented to local...
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When Smith is brought before Powhatan, he likely finds the werowance adorned in pearls and furs, his wives all around him. Later in life, Smith claims...
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...about his experiences in Werowocomoco, two things are certain: Powhatan made him a kind of werowance in his own right, and while he lived at the village before returning to Jamestown,...
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...priests or gods or trading for goods of “ceremonial or spiritual value.” Powhatan and his werowances wanted guns and metal, and to get them, they wanted to put the English in...
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Chapter 4: Jamestown
...likely recognizes as a power play. He himself has used the practice of “anointing tributary werowances who were bound to do his bidding” to signify his own power in the region.
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...and his men raid a nearby village, killing many and taking more prisoners. The tribe’s werowance conveys a message shortly after, threatening to flee to the forest (as the Powhatan did)...
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Chapter 5: Kidnapped
...that Pocahontas is stationed at the nearby village of Pasptanzie, the home of a Patowomeck werowance named Yapassus. Argall tells the chief that if he does not accept the exchange of...
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