This month, Jamestown Rediscovery commemorates the 400th anniversary of a somber event that causes us to confront the difficult and complex history of Jamestown. On March 22, 1622, the English settlers awoke confident in the peace they had enjoyed with the Powhatan people since the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas eight years earlier. They had established families and increased the number of English colonists exponentially. To the English, there was a league of “peace and amity” between themselves and the native peoples of Virginia, a peace that Chief Opechancanough claimed would hold as the “sky should sooner fall.”

Yet that morning, the sky fell. Opechancanough had instructed bands of Powhatan warriors from among the core tribes to strike English settlements from the coast to the falls of the James River. Nearly one-quarter of the English colony was killed in a single day. The college, lands, and ironworks were destroyed and never rebuilt. The English cried “massacre” and felt betrayed by their former allies. But from the Powhatan perspective, this attack was a final attempt to drive English invaders from their lands. They saw the ever-expanding English colony as a threat to their hunting grounds, their religion, and their culture. Opechancanough was striking back against a colonial power that threatened his people’s existence.

The service of remembrance in this video, reflects upon the long series of events that led to this conflict and how 28 years of archaeology at Historic Jamestowne has provided insight into the First Peoples, the First Africans and the First English settlers in America.

0:00 - Welcome - Dr. James Horn, President and Chief Officer, Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation

9:15 - The Long Series of Events that Led to this Conflict - Mark Summers, Director of Public & Youth Programs, Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation

29:30 - Archaeology Finds at Historic Jamestown - David M. Givens, Director of Archaeology, Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation

41:50 - Jamestown Society Wreath Presentation - Bonnie Hofmeyer, Executive Director, Jamestowne Society

43:10 - Presentation of Eagle Feathers to the Visiting Tribal Chiefs (i.e., Chief Keith Anderson, Nansemond Indian Nation, Chief Walter "Red Hawk" Brown, Cheroenhaka Nottoway Tribe of Virginia, and Chief Charles Bullock, Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia) - Shane Shortt, Manager Buildings and Grounds, Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation and Member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior, Chippewa Indians