The location of the actual historical site of the Jamestown Settlement is an archaelogical dig without buildings. The Jamestown Settlement Living History Museum is located about a mile from the original site. It includes a replica of the settlement, and a recreation of a typical nearby Powhatan village. The Indians at the village didn’t seem very authentic.
The houses and sundries in the village appeared authentic to my my untrained eye. The round shape of the Powhatan houses is ideal for the local conditions. To me, what it demonstrates is that the Indians of the Eastern Woodlands were not the nomadic tribes that we often think of when we picture an “Indian.” They did not live in teepees and chase buffalo, but rather lived in long-established permanent communities. We didn’t find roving bands of horse-riding hunters, we found sophisticated, peaceful, and permanent, communities.
The colonists had, right in front of them, an effective example of how to live plentifully and harmoniously in the new land, yet, rather than learn something, they set right to building a giant wall. Sound familiar?
I think it it fascinating that the colonists would arrive in the wilderness and start building fences, and housing that would be suitable for downtown London, and not figuring out how to gather food for the impending winter.
The Indians that lived next door to Jamestown had mastered their environment, and were by all accounts healthy and well-fed, while the colonists stuck stubbornly to their white ways, and ultimately would have succumbed to starvation were it not for the compassion of some of their neighbors.
To this day, we do not have the common sense of a Powhatan child when it comes to living in harmony with our world. We lost a great deal of information when we wiped those people out.
When you leave the Powhatan village, you next come upon the gates of the Settlement, which must have caused some consternation to Indians. Why did the white men need those walls with pointy tops? What was up their sleeves? Relationships between the colonists and Indians detiorated quickly, with devastating consequences for the former. Pocahontas famously saved Jamestown from starvation by bringing food every four days.
You can also tour and view the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and the Discovery; the vessels that landed in Jamestown on May 14, 1607.
A final note about Jamestown is that it was not the first time white people settled in North America. The French and the Dutch had been settling farther north for more than 50 years prior. The English were relative late-comers to the continent.
The English had tried a prior settlement at Roanoke Island, but that failed mysteriously. The only clue the colonists left behind was the word CROATOAN carved into a tree.
Jamestown Settlement Museum is a mixed bag. One would imagine that if you were a Powhatan native, that you would have a greatly different narrative than the one offered at Jamestown. It is a good example of history written by the victors. For me, the place held the same bitter sweetness as seeing a lion in a zoo. I’m glad to be able to see a lion, but there is shame there too for having a lion in a cage.