Harold Titus's Blog - Posts Tagged "dasemunkepeuc"

First, a few factual statements.

Algonquian-speaking tribal groups in the 16th Century ranged from coastal North Carolina to Canada and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. English explorers/colonizers encountered them at Roanoke in 1584, Jamestown in 1607, and Plymouth in 1620. Algonquians in North Carolina inhabited land that extended northward from the Pamlico River to the northern shore of Albemarle Sound and westward from the Outer Banks to the banks of the Chowan River. Farther south and west lived Iroquois tribal groups.

“Tribal boundaries cannot be established beyond doubt. Allied but independent groups were sometimes regarded as single tribes by the European observers. Thus, the Roanoke, Croatoan, and Secotan tribes are frequently referred to as one tribe … Uncertainty about locations of villages makes assignments to tribes difficult. This applies particularly to the Weapemeoc, Chawanoke, and Moratuc, and to the Algonquian boundary with their [hostile] Iroquoian neighbors. … There is evidence for precontact hostilities between the Secotans and their allies, and the Neusioks and Pomouiks. The Chawanokes were generally on good terms with Virginia Algonquian … but they -- probably like most Algonquian groups of the region--were frequently at war with the [Iroquois] Tuscaroras” (Feest 1).

The Carolina Algonquians called the land and waters they inhabited Ossomocomuck. Their villages can be found on this map.

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.co...

Original Sources

Almost all that we know about the coastal North Carolina Algonquian people comes from reports written by five Englishmen.

Arthur Barlowe, the captain of one of two ships Walter Raleigh sent to North America in 1584, wrote this report:

https://web.archive.org/web/200212231...

The voyage to Pamlico Sound, the visits to the villages of Pomeiooc, Aquascogooc, and Secotan and the delayed return to Roanoke in 1585 was described by Richard Grenville, commander of the fleet of ships sent by Raleigh to establish a colony. Grenville’s account may be read here:

https://web.archive.org/web/200212231...

Ralph Lane, the governor of the colony begun in 1585 and abandoned in 1586, wrote the following:

https://web.archive.org/web/200212231...

Thomas Harriot and John White were members of Captains Arthur Barlowe and Philip Amadas’s contact with Roanoke Algonquians in 1584. More importantly, they were major players in Raleigh’s attempt to found a colony at Roanoke under Governor’s Lane’s authority (1585-1586). Most of what we know about the Carolina Algonquians is due to these two men’s efforts. A young man, perhaps 24 years old in 1584, Harriot would become a leading scientist of his time. Studying the Algonquian people like an anthropologist, Harriot learned much of their language and much about their culture, behavior, and religious beliefs. John White was a skilled artist. His water color paintings provide us invaluable visual representation. You may read Harriot’s report to Raleigh here:

https://web.archive.org/web/200212231...

Governor Ralph Lane and his settlers/soldiers returned to England in 1586 on ships commanded by Sir Walter Drake. Richard Grenville, assigned to resupply the colony that year, arrived at Roanoke after the colony had left. Here is what Grenville wrote:

https://web.archive.org/web/200212231...

In 1587 Raleigh authorized a second attempt to establish a colony in North America. He appointed John White to be its governor. Here is what White wrote about this attempt.

https://web.archive.org/web/200212231...

White returned to Roanoke in 1590, hoping to find the people he had been forced to leave in 1587. He wrote the following:

https://web.archive.org/web/200212231...

The Weroance

The leader of Roanoke, Dasemunkepeuc, and possibly Croatoan, Pomeiooc, Aquascogooc, and Secotan and the weroance that Governor Lane eventually killed called himself, initially, Wingina. He was a man of middle age, which meant – even though Thomas Harriot found the Indian population to be remarkably healthy – that he was probably in his mid to late thirties. White’s painting shows him to be muscular, with large eyes and full lips. Not typical of his elite class, he is understated in decoration.
http://myweb.rollins.edu/jsiry/JohnWh...

According to the historian Michael Leroy Oberg, Wingina “spent most of his time at the village of Dasemunkepeuc … Here there was access to the great variety of resources in the area, including fertile soil for maize agriculture. Wingina and his people could have moved easily back and forth from Dasemunkepeuc to the village on the northern shore of Roanoke Island. … It is unlikely that the island’s thin soil could have supported a large population, and the majority of Wingina’s people must have spent most of their time across the sound on the mainland. Wingina’s followers also interacted closely with Indians” (Oberg 6, 8) from Croatoan suggesting that the three villages were unified under Wingina’s authority.

Oberg explains well the role of a weroance. “Wingina could not command completely, nor could he rule alone. English comparisons of the powers of a weroance with those of a king are misleading. … Linguists have interpreted the word to mean ‘he is rich,’ or ‘he is of influence,’ or ‘he is wise.’ Other weroances limited or influenced Wingina’s actions, and he relied as well on the advice of high ranking counselors who had earned their status through display of bravery or heroism. Priests and ‘conjurors’ also provided counsel that he could not ignore” (Oberg 18).

A weroance was expected to preserve balance and order. In return, his followers paid him tribute. Weroances and their advisors were considered an elite class to whom followers were required to show great deference. According to Thomas Harriot, those who committed offenses against other followers were punished harshly: forfeiture of property, beating, banishment, death. By inflicting such punishment, a weroance sought to restore peace and balance in the community. Those who were dissatisfied with a weroance’s performance could always quit the community.

A weroance was expected to protect his followers from belligerent communities not under his authority. He was expected to lead his followers in battle.

He was expected to secure trade agreements and allies. Overseeing the exchange of trading goods, he was “the conduit through which items from outside flowed into and were diffused throughout the community. The success of the weroance as a leader was predicated at least in part on his ability to secure the objects his people needed and desired. By establishing and overseeing the system, the weroance created reciprocal bonds connecting his community with others in Ossomocomuck and beyond, a major impediment to conflict” (Oberg 21).

To reiterate, weroances oversaw their followers’ major community concerns: its wars, trade, and diplomacy. Balance and order was “the critical core of his people’s values.” He was expected to maintain this balance. “His followers would stick with him so long as he met the needs of his community and the individuals within it.

“After Ralegh’s colonists arrived, Wingina found it difficult to maintain balance and order within his community. Consensus became increasingly difficult to find. A leader whose power rested on the respect of his people and his own ability to persuade, and as well a man curious and honest, he moved cautiously after the newcomers arrived. He found himself caught between Algonquians who saw the English as potentially useful allies, and others who saw the newcomers as a mortal threat to his people’s way of life” (Oberg 21).

John White painted scenes of life in Secotan and Pomeiooc.
http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/lewisan...

We witness two ceremonial activities.
http://www.artexpertswebsite.com/page...

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/files...

We see fishermen at work.
http://ncpedia.org/sites/default/file...

Fish roasted
http://web3.encyclopediavirginia.org/...

A man and woman eating
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/uploa...

White painted portraits of villagers.

A hunter/warrior
http://www.firstcolonyfoundation.org/...

A weroance’s wife and her child, who carries a doll given to her by the English
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia...

A woman asked to pose
http://www.firstcolonyfoundation.org/...

A priest

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/thumbn...


Work cited:

Feest, Christian F. “North Carolina Algonquians, Part 1.” 1978. Rootsweb. http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.co.... Net.

Oberg, Michael Leroy. The Head in Edward Nugent’s Hand. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2008. Print.




Unlike my Revolutionary War novel "Crossing the River," most of the events that occur in "Alsoomse and Wanchese" are fictitious because I have had very little historical information to utilize. What historians know about events in the lives of North Carolina coastal Algonquians prior to 1584 (the year that my novel concludes) comes from a single source, Captain Arthur Barlowe, who with Captain Philip Amadas was sent to America in 1584 to find a suitable location to establish a colony. In his report to his employer Walter Raleigh, Barlowe made sketchy references to two important events that occurred prior to his and Amadas’s arrival: the first having occurred several years earlier and the second a month or two earlier. These are major events in my novel.

As you read this post, you will need to refer to a map. Click this link and scroll downward.
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.co...

The 1584 expedition to Roanoke took back to England two natives: Manteo and Wanchese. They were taught English at Walter Raleigh’s residence in London and returned to Roanoke in 1585 to act as interpreters. During their education in London they told their tutor, Thomas Harriot, about an attack committed apparently against the village of Secotan by the Pomouik Indians. In his report Arthur Barlowe provided this information.

“Adjoyning to this countrey aforesaid called Secotan begginneth a countrey called Pomovik, belonging to another king whom they call Piamacum, and this king is in league with the next king adjoyning towards the setting of the Sunne, and the countrey Newsiok, situate upon a goodly river called Neus: these kings have mortall warre with Wingina king of Wingandacoa: but about two yeeres past there was a peace madde betweene the King Piemacum, and the Lord of Secotan, as these men which we have brought with us to England, have given us to understand: but there remaineth a mortall malice in the Secotanes, for many injuries and slaughters done upon them by this Piemacum. They invited divers men, and thirtie women of the best of his countrey to their towne to a feast: and when they were altogether merry, & praying before their Idol, (which is nothing els but a meer illusion of the devil) the captaine or Lord of the town came suddenly upon them, and slewe them every one, reserving the women and children: and these two have often times since perswaded us to surprize Piemacum his towne, having promised and assured us, that there will be found in it great store of commodities. But whether their perswasion be to the ende they may be revenged of their enemies, or for the love of they beare to us, we leave that to the tryall hereafter” (Virtual 1).

Historians interpret differently Barlowe’s account of what either he or Harriot had been told.

Historian David Beers Quinn wrote: “Toward the southern limits of Pamlico Sound Indian groups were at war with each other, the “Pomouik” and the Secotan, on the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers, respectively; they also were alleged to be hostile to Wingina. Wingina may have attempted to assert some degree of hegemony over the Secotan, though this is conjecture, but they [reference to the second major event?] had recently repelled him. His influence seems to have extended at least as far south as Pomeioc on Wyesocking Bay and perhaps also comprised the Hatarask [Croatoan] Indians from which Manteo came (Quinn 44).

About the extent of Wingina’s control historian Lee Miller wrote: “The King’s name, he [Barlowe] said, was Wingina and the country called Wingandacoa. … Later, he tells us that Secotan (Secota) was the westernmost town of Wingandacoa and that a country called Ponouike (Pomouik) adjoined it to the west, whose King maintained ‘mortal war with Wingina, King of Wingandacoa.’ … On John White’s map the entire area now known as the Albemarle Peninsula … is labeled ‘Secotan,’ implying that White and Hariot understood Wingina’s country to encompass the area including, at the very least, the towns of Secota, Aquascogoc, Pomeioc, Dasamonquepeuc, and Roanoke” (Miller 265-266).

About the attack, Miller has a different slant. “”Barlowe tells a story that he heard from Manteo or Wanchese while in England. The Secotan, he said, once revenged themselves upon the Pamlico by inviting thirty of their women and divers men to Secota for a feast, and slew them every one, reserving the women and children. That was how wars were conducted; women and children survived” (Miller 234-235).

Historian Michael Leroy Oberg believes that the Pomouik Indians were actually the people of Pomeiooc. “Indians from Secotan, some time before the English arrived, had traveled to Pomeiooc on [weroance] Piemacum’s invitation for a feast to celebrate a peace agreement between the two towns. When the Secotans arrived, and ‘were altogether merrie, and praying before their Idoll,’ Piemacum and his warriors ‘came suddenly upon them, and slew them every one, reserving the women and children,’ who probably became either slaves or adoptees. This story, recorded ambiguously in Barlowe’s account and repeated with no more clarity by John Smith nearly half a century later, raises difficult questions about the relationship between Secotan and Pomeiooc, and of both with Wingina and his people at Dasemunkepeuc and on Roanoke Island” (Oberg 12, 14).

Provided such disagreement among historians, I was forced to decide for myself what might have happened.

I date the year of the Pomouik attack to be 1579. Wingina’s dominion of “Wingandacoa” – which the English later learned meant “Welcome, friend” – includes the villages Roanoke, Dasemunkepeuc, Croatoan, Pomeiooc, Aquascogooc, Cotan, and Secotan. Wingina’s uncle in 1579 is the mamanatowick (chief ruler) of the territory. He is killed during the Pomouik attack and Wingina succeeds him. By 1583 the southern territory of Wingina’s rule is beginning to break away. This gradual rejection of Wingina’s authority is lead by the weroance of Pomeiooc, an aggressive upstart named Piemacum.

Here are two excerpts from the first chapter of “Alsoomse and Wanchese” that illustrate how I am utilizing this first event.

***

Many summers ago his [Wanchese’s] father Matunaagd, a young brave, had traveled to Secotan with his weroance Wematin and seven high-born, lusty braves to attend the village’s first-harvest corn festival. The purpose of the visit was to impress the villagers of Wematin’s power. Secotan and Aquascogooc had recently accepted Wematin as their chief protector. Secotan lay across the great river from its fierce enemy, the Pomouik. It was important to Wematin that he emphasize his commitment and display his strength. Matunaagd had seen a lithe, graceful beauty dance about a ceremonial post. He had spoken to her during the subsequent festival. She had been demure, but her eyes had been welcoming. He had remained at Secotan for four moons, she had agreed to be his wife, and he had moved into her parents’ long house.

Two moons later Wematin had sent his nephews Wingina and Granganimeo to Secotan to retrieve him. At Dasemunkepeuc Nadie had given birth first to Wanchese -- twenty summers ago -- then Alsoomse, then Kitchi, and then Kimi. The youngest, Kimi, had died of a fever nine summers ago after four turning-of-the-leaves. Matunaagd, and Wematin, and Nadie’s brothers-in-law Rowtag had been slain by the Pomouik four summers ago eight sleeps after Secotan had celebrated its final corn harvest. Nadie, Wanchese, Alsoomse, and Kitchi and Nadie’s sister Sooleawa and her son and daughter had afterward moved to Roanoke.

***

And, later …

***

Wematin had taken Kiwasa’s statue with him to Panauuaioc, after his brother Ensenore and the priests had bestowed ceremonial offerings to Kiwasa and sprinkled sacred tobacco on the great river’s waters. The priests had persuaded Wematin that the Pomouik weroance was sincere in his invitation to celebrate peace! Wematin had had his doubts, Wanchese had long ago concluded. Wematin had left behind at Secotan his grown nephews, Wingina and Granganimeo, and his nephew-in-law Eracano. But he had taken Matunaagd and Rowtag and Askook’s father Matwau, they -- Wanchese later surmised -- having been similarly skeptical, all having chosen to leave behind their wives and children.

Hours later, the women and children that had attended the great feast had paddled back across the river. Their husbands and fathers had been slain. While they had been praying to their idol, Pomouik braves, hidden in the woods, had fallen upon them. The wicked god Kiwasa had chosen to favor Wematin’s enemy.

Four summers had passed. Wingina had not retaliated.

It was not enough to send emissaries such as he [Wanchese] and his elders to the Weapemeoc, the Chowanoc, and the Moratuc to maintain peaceful trade relations and to pretend that the villages across the waters from Croatoan were not slipping away from his grasp. It was not the Real People’s way to attack their enemy, with large numbers. Victory was achieved in small measure by subterfuge, by ambush. Because of the foolishness of Wematin’s priests the Pomouiks’ victory had been large! With Wingina’s enemy expecting retaliation, such a victory could not be replicated. Revenge, however, was essential. Wanchese believed that Wingina should take ten braves (Wanchese included) across the river above Panauuaioc during a moonless night and wait in cattails for the sun’s first light. Pomouik hunters seeking deer taking water would appear. But Wingina had attempted nothing. Braves, including Wanchese, were questioning his leadership.

So also were the weroances of Aquascogooc and especially Pomeiooc and the people who had remained at Secotan. Every villager accorded privileges to his leader in exchange for his protection. Piemacum, the weroance of Pomeiooc, had become defiant. Wingina had received messages from allies in Secotan that Piemacum had come to their village vowing to protect them. During the past two moons, Pomeiooc braves had encroached on Dasemunkepeuc hunting grounds. Tetepano, Cossine, and Andacan had been driven away by a volley of arrows.

***

The second event occurred one or two months prior to Captains Amadas and Barlowe’s arrival in 1584.

Lee Miller, interpreting Barlowe, wrote: “Wingina had been wounded in a fight ‘with the King of the next country’ and was recovering ‘at the chief town of the country,’ which was ‘six day’s journey off.’ Or roughly sixty miles from Barlowe’s landing at Wococon [on the Outer Banks]. Later, he [Barlowe] tells us that Secotan (Secota) was the westernmost town of Wingandacoa and that a country called Pomouike (Pomouik) adjoined it to the west, whose King maintained ‘mortal war with Wingina, King of Wingandacoa.’ We might conclude, therefore, that Wingina was wounded by the Pomouik and was recovering at his own capital of Secota” (Miller 266).

Michael Oberg addressed this event somewhat differently. Wingina was in Dasemunkepeuc, not Secota, when Captains Amadas and Barlowe arrived. “He had been wounded in battle, sometime before the English arrived, ‘shotte in two places through the bodeye, and once clean thorough the thigh’” (Oberg 31).

I have accepted Lee Miller’s interpretation, but I will have Wingina recovering in Dasemunkepeuc when the Englishmen appear. I have not yet narrated this event. Wanchese will be directly involved.

I will adhere to all events that occurred involving English contact with the Roanoke natives in 1584. My story will end with Manteo and Wanchese’s leave-taking for England. If I have sufficient time and energy, I will consider writing a follow-up novel.

My next post will be about my characters (including who were real people and who were not) and, especially, what drives my two protagonists.


Works Cited:

Barlowe, Arthur. "The first voyage made to the coasts of America, with two barks, where in were captains M. Philip Amadas, and M. Arthur Barlowe, who discovered part of the Country now called Virginia." Virtual Jamestown: First-Hand Accounts by Dates. 1575-1599. http://www.virtualjamestown.org/fhacc.... Net.

Miller, Lee. Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony. New York, Arcade Publishing, 2000. Print.

Oberg, Michael Leroy. The Head in Edward Nugent’s Hand. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. Print.

Quinn, David Beers. Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1985. Print



As I stated in my last post, most of the Algonquian characters in the novel that I am writing are fictitious. This is because historians know very few of the names of the natives with whom Englishmen interacted at or near Roanoke Island in the 1580s. Most of the names actually reported by explorers or colonizers come from one source: Ralph Lane, governor of the English colony on Roanoke Island from August 1585 to June 1586, when he and his colony left for England. Lane almost single-handedly destroyed the tentative friendship that Captains Arthur Barlowe and Philip Amadas had developed with the local natives during their brief stay on the Outer Banks in 1584. Delusional, paranoid, Lane came to believe that a great alliance of coastal Algonquian tribes was being organized to exterminate his colony. He named at least 14 natives in his report to Walter Raleigh following his return to England. All of these named individuals are characters in my novel.

First and foremost was Wingina, the chief weroance of the villages of Roanoke, Dasemunkepeuc, Croatoan, and, probably, Pomeiooc, Aquascogooc, and Secotan. (See the map provided by this link: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.co.... It was Wingina with whom Lane contested to obtain food during the winter and spring of his tenure as governor. It was Wingina who, he believed, was organizing an alliance to destroy him.

Lane mentioned two leaders of other confederations of villages: Okisko of the Weapemeoc and Menatonon of the Choanoac. When Lane took an exploratory party to Menatonon’s primary village, Choanoac, in April 1586, he confronted Menatonon to obtain information about the location of valuable mineral deposits. He took Menatonon’s young son, Skiko, back to Roanoke as a hostage. Skiko had been captured by the fierce, Iroquois-speaking Mangoaks west and southwest of Choanoac but had escaped.

Arthur Barlowe, a co-leader of the first expedition to Roanoke (1584), mentioned information told to him about Piemacum, weroance (chief) presumably of the village of Pomeiooc. Some historians believe that Piemacun was the leader of the non-Algonquian speaking Pomouik, which through trickery had murdered many braves of Secotan, a village that may have been under Wingina’s authority. (See my October 16, 2015, post: “Two Major Events”) Historians do agree that Wingina and Piemacum had a hostile relationship.

Lane also indentified individual Algonquians who were related to or were important subordinates of Wingina. There was Granganimeo, Wingina’s brother and weroance of Roanoke. There was the two brothers’ father, Ensenore, Dasemunkepeuc half-priest and influencial advisor. Lane also listed principal subordinates. Tetapano, Eracano, and Cossine guided Lane’s party (and probably acted as Wingina’s spies) to Choanoac in April 1586. We are told that Eracano was married to Wingina’s sister. She was not identified. Osacan was a brave who attempted to rescue Skiko (Menatonon’s son) from Lane’s fort prior to Lane’s departure to England. Lane wrote that Tanaquincy and Andacon were going to lead a party of twenty braves across Pamlico Sound from Dasemunkepeuc to “attack Lane’s house at night, set its reed thatch on fire, and kill Lane as he ran from the burning building. Other parties would do the same for Thomas Harriot’s house, and for the remaining individual houses in the ‘town’ (the only case where we hear the word used). At the same time larger parties, presumably, would attack and overwhelm the guards at the defensive works of the settlement” (Quinn 126). Historian Michael Leroy Oberg identifies Taraquine and Andacon as the two leaders that Lane believed would lead the assault on his house. He places Tanaquincy with Osacan and Wanchese as principal men advising Wingina to take hostile action.

All of these identified Indians appear in my novel.

When Arthur Barlowe returned to England in the summer of 1584, he brought back with him two natives: Manteo and Wanchese. Manteo was the son of Croatoan’s weroansqua (female chief). Her name was never reported. All that historians know about Wanchese prior to Barlowe’s and Philip Amadas’s appearance in 1584 was that he was from Roanoke. These two individuals were to be taught English so that they could be interpreters when Lane’s men built a fort and settlement at Roanoke in 1585. Wingina’s choice of them had to have been self-serving. Manteo was probably very intelligent. Indeed, he took to English culture readily and upon his return to America behaved more like an Englishman than an Algonquian. He was Ralph Lane’s interpreter, participated in Lane’s destructive acts, and became Governor John White’s closest native ally in 1587 when White’s colonists were especially fearful of an Algonquian attack led by Wanchese. Wingina probably chose Wanchese to go to London because Wanchese must have been a highly regarded warrior. A weroance’s principal men were almost always experienced, esteemed hunters and warriors. Wingina would have wanted such a man to learn everything he could about England’s far superior weaponry. Wingina was in particular need of such information given the apparent fact that his authority was being challenged within his own sphere of influence. (In my novel I have a rebellion beginning to occur in 1583 led by Piemacum of Pomeiooc) Historians tell us that while Manteo flourished during his instruction in London Wanchese was resistant and sullen. When the two natives were returned to the Carolina coast in 1585, Manteo stayed with the English and worked for Lane; but Wanchese immediately reported to Wingina and disassociated himself from the English. During his year’s tenure as governor Lane suspected repeatedly Wanchese’s desire to see the colony and Lane destroyed.

I am certain that Manteo and Wanchese never liked each other. I indicate this in an early scene of my novel. Both men are attending a council meeting called by Wingina during a corn festival at Dasemunkepeuc.

***

Inside his long house Wingina was conducting an informal council. Attending were his brother, Granganimeo; his brother-in-law, Eracano; his father, Ensenore; three of his best warriors, Tetepano, Andacon, and Mingan [a fictitious character]; Manteo, the son of Croatoan’s weroansqua; Granganimeo’s closest friend, Tanaquincy; and Wanchese. Wingina and Granganimeo were smoking long-stemmed clay pipes. Flashes of the great fire outside danced on the matted reed walls that provided its occupants ventilation. Soon to be twenty summers, Wanchese recognized he was the youngest of the men present. Most had to have seen twenty-five or twenty-six summers, Wingina, Granganimeo, and Eracano at least thirty, and Ensenore more than fifty. He was gratified that he had been included, but he was uncertain of its meaning. He was convinced there was a specific purpose. What that would be he would probably be told after the council. His conduct would be that of respectful listener and, if asked to speak, of a deferential fact-giver. He thought it highly unlikely that these mature men would solicit his opinion.

“With the growing season ended, we need to address our problem with Piemacum.” Withdrawing his pipe stem from his mouth, Wingina glanced at his brother, then at Andacon, his fiercest warrior.

Eracano nodded. He repositioned himself on the long bench he shared with his two sons and son-in-law.

Granganimeo spoke. “Piemacum is your age, Andacon. Too ambitious for his loin skin. He wants power more than he wants wives.”

“He plans to take away our trade,” Andacon said.

Wingina nodded.

“I think he wants an alliance with the Pomouik,” Tanaquincy volunteered.

“We don’t know if that is true.” Wingina raised his pipe. He examined it at chin level. “But we should assume so.”

Manteo half-raised his right hand. The top portion of the large turkey feather embedded in the groove above his forehead bobbed. “I know that Piemacum wants a friendship with the Neusiok. It follows that he needs an alliance with the Pomouik.”

Wanchese watched Manteo out of the right corners of his eyes. Manteo was seated three braves to his right on the bench opposite that of the senior tribesmen. He had had little acquaintance with this rather tall, self-important behaving Croatoan. What he had seen of Manteo he hadn’t liked. Interjecting himself into this discussion with information that Wingina probably knew was an attempt to gain stature. It contributed nothing to solving Wingina’s problem.

Wanchese’s weroance nodded. His pearl earrings swung. “How do you know that?”

“He has spoken to my mother.”

“Then I will need to speak to her.” He frowned, folded his arms slowly across his bare chest. “She should have told me.”

“He visited her four sleeps ago. I came here especially to tell you.”

“Deliver to her, then, my gratitude.”

Manteo’s upper torso straightened; he appeared to grow. Resentment stirred in Wanchese’s throat.

***

I have provided specific character traits to all of these real people. I have given Wingina and Granganimeo wives and children that I have been obliged to name and assign age. I have given Ensenore a deceased brother that I have named Wematin. Wingina has succeeded Wematin as the chief weroance (mamanatowick) of the six coastal villages I have mentioned above.

I have provided Wanchese a deceased father and mother, a deceased brother, a deceased sister, and a living sister, Alsoomse. I have provided a family history. I have given Wanchese and Alsoomse two cousins – Nootau and Sokanon – brother and sister. Both are rather important secondary characters. I have also provided Wanchese and Alsoomse friends and neighbors and several personal enemies.

I chose the names of my fictitious characters from a list of names for Algonquian children. (http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/na...) An Algonquian’s name reflected something about the person’s appearance or trait of character. Algonquians could change their names. For instance, Wingina changed his name to Pemisapan when he withdrew his Roanoke villagers to Dasemunkepeuc after his relationship with Governor Lane had become especially hostile.

Alsoomse means “independent.”

Kitchi (Alsoomse and Wanchese’s deceased brother) means “brave.”

Kimi (Alsoomse and Wanchese’s deceased sister) means ‘secret.”

Matunaagd (Alsoomse and Wanchese’s dead father) means “He who fights.”

Nadie (Alsoomse and Wanchese’s deceased mother) means “wise.”

It became necessary for me to create a chart of the names of these characters with ages indicated and relationships defined to enable me to narrate my story.

Here is much of what I decided about my two protagonists before I began writing.

Alsoomse is an independent-minded, creative young woman of seventeen years who feels constrained by the limitations placed on her by her restrictive culture and by the fact that she is female. She speaks her mind. She defends those who are abused and vulnerable. She craves a male relationship. She feels especially the loss of her mother, who died when Alsoomse was fifteen.

Wanchese is a quick-tempered, impulsive young warrior of twenty. He suffered both the loss of his father, when he was fifteen, and his brother Kitchi, a year after the father’s death. Wanchese feels partially responsible for Kitchi’s accidental death. Wanchese is a skilled hunter and warrior, he is ambitious, and he is loyal (yet privately critical) to his chief weroance (Wingina). He respects courtesy and generosity and disdains pretension and bullying. Because of his sister’s independent behavior, he is often at odds with her; but they share important character traits.

In my next post l be more specific about Alsoomse’s and Wanchese’s activities and conflicts and the plot direction that the novel has taken.


Work cited:

Oberg, Michael Leroy. The Head in Edward Nugent's Hand. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. Print.

Quinn, David Beers. Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1985. Print.



Every fiction writer strives in his first chapter to pique his readers’ interest. Here is the first sentence of the first chapter of my work in progress, “Alsoomse and Wanchese.”

Using her moistened scrap of deerskin, Alsoomse removed decayed skin cells from the left humerus of her mother’s skeleton.

Seventeen year old Alsoomse is preparing her mother’s skeletal remains for ossuary burial.

North Carolina Algonquian ossuary burials were conducted every several years. They were ritual reburials of the remains of loved ones who had died and been interred after the previous community ossuary burial. Historian David Leroy Oberg explains their purpose.

“Death, and the resulting grief, could disrupt a community, leaving those who mourned bereft of reason. The reburial of all who had died since the last [ossuary] ceremony served to unify the community and tie it to the land it lived upon. Whatever the differences in status in Algonquian communities, all could expect the same treatment in the end. All belonged, and all were worthy of being remembered and reintegrated after death into the village community. Ossuary burial, a ritual that required the participation of all in ways that must seem foreign to us, helped set things right, and preserved the balance between the world of the seen and the unseen, the natural and the supernatural, and the living and the dead” (Oberg 28).

Alsoomse has chosen to cleanse her mother’s bones without her cousin’s assistance. Her labor is a deeply emotional experience. She confides to her mother, Nadie, her needs, anxieties, and aspirations. “Tell me everything I have forgotten. Help me,” she declares. She asks her mother questions and imagines receiving answers.

“How do you know who to marry? How will I know who is kind?”

“What does a man like Father see in a woman’s soul?”

“Why must weroances, priests, and husbands decide who I must be?”

“How much of life’s misery is the result of the wishes of the gods?”

All the while Alsoomse labors and grieves, she begrudges the absence of her brother, Wanchese.

***

Was their mother’s final burial so unimportant? She needed him. He needed to be the worthy brother she craved.

How often he had disappointed her! Pivoting on her right knee, she stared through the stately trunks of loblolly pine toward the water’s edge hoping to glimpse a canoe approaching from Dasemunkepeuc, the village where their weroance Wingina -- Wanchese’s substitute father and mentor – mostly lived. Where Wanchese spent most of his time striving to advance himself!

***

Wanchese is indeed one of four Algonquians crossing Pamlico Sound from Dasemunkapeuc
(http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.co....)

to attend the ossuary burial. The others are Wingina, the chief weroance of six mostly coastal villages including Dasemunkapeuc and Roanoke; Eracano, Wingina’s brother-in-law; and Wanchese’s disliked distant cousin, Askook. As Wanchese and Askook paddle the canoe across the Sound, Wanchese reflects upon how his father’s murder by the Pomouik (See my Oct. 16 post “Two Important Events) and the death of his brother Kitchi have affected him. He admits that he has not been supportive enough of his mother and sister.

***

How he had raged after his father’s murder! How he had imagined brutal retribution! He, fifteen, had not yet become a man! How his mother had comforted him, needing herself to be consoled. He wondered now if all her efforts to soothe him had helped her. He wanted to believe that it had!

It was after Kitchi’s death that she had needed him most. Instead, he had moped, bristled, raged. Alsoomse had loathed him. His aunt had lectured him. His best friend Osacan had tried to reason with him. Granganimeo himself had spoken to him, had then sent him across the shallow waters to his brother, Wingina, who had succeeded their uncle, Wematin, as chief weroance. Wingina had put him to work. Gradually, Wanchese had emerged from his funk. Not soon enough to show Nadie that he was worthy of her devotion.

***

About Alsoomse:

***

How much thought had he given about how she had suffered? How often had he sat beside her the past thirteen moons, he across the great waters fixated in his sphere of pain? She needed somebody better than he. She needed a husband, who would cherish and protect her.

None of his friends had showed an interest in Alsoomse. It was not that she was less desirable looking than most of the maturing girls he had seen at Roanoke or Dasemunkepeuc. What was she now, seventeen? A bit old. Opinionated. Too much a questioner. Too much the meddler. Why couldn’t she accept who she was, a female meant to do female work for her village’s benefit?

***

We learn of Wanchese’s activities away from Roanoke.

***

Living in Dasemunkepeuc, he had at Wingina’s behest traveled with two older companions to distant villages outside the weroance’s confederation to deliver and receive personal messages. He had traveled also to Secotan – his mother’s childhood village – and Aquascogooc and once to neighboring Pomeiooc, whose weroance was now challenging Wingina’s authority. Wanchese was proud of these assignments. Other braves his age native of Dasemunkepeuc were entirely capable of doing this work. “Wingina is training you,” Tetepano had told him during his, Cossine’s, and Wanchese’s recent trip to Weapemeoc. Wanchese hadn’t asked why. He knew that Wingina’s uncle, Wematin, had relied on Wanchese’s father, Matunaagd, to lead his braves in battle. Whatever his purpose, Wingina had chosen to elevate Wanchese’s status.

***

The chapter ends with Wanchese’s arrival at his aunt’s (and before her death his mother’s) longhouse.

***

Permitted to break away, Wanchese strode up the sandy bank toward the pathway that lead to the village. Shadows of pine branches moved across his bare shoulders. Drifting smoke marked his entrance to the village grounds. Up the lane separating the nine houses he hurried, oblivious of the sounds of Askook’s footfalls behind him. He saw the top of his aunt’s longhouse. Three women – Alsoomse, his aunt, and his cousin Sokanon – were bent, their arms and hands working, over a reed mat. He hoped they were mostly finished.

Alsoomse glanced his way; she saw him. She rose, took two tentative steps, rushed to him. They embraced.

“You came,” she murmured, the right side of her face pressed against his chest.

He stroked her hair. “I’m here to stay,” he said. For awhile, he thought.

***

Like every writer of fiction, I am hopeful my first chapter will cause curious readers to want to read the entire book.


Work cited:

Oberg, Michael Leroy. The Head in Edward Nugent’s Hand: Roanoke’s Forgotten Indians. (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). Print.



Granganimeo’s wife Hurit, standing a canoe’s length away in the village lane, was staring at them. She approached.

“Weroansqua,” Sokanon greeted.

Instantly, Alsoomse rose. The back of her left hand covering her mouth, she faced about.

“Sokanon. Alsoomse. You are teaching these children well.” Hurit looked at Wapun and Pules, who were watching her with large eyes. “Is that not so?” she said to them.

“Yes, Weroansqua, they are very good,” Wapun answered.

Pules nodded vigorously.

“I am pleased.” Hurit looked at Alsoomse, then Sokanon. “I have a duty I want you to perform.”

Sokanon’s eyes flitted.

I want both of you to accompany me to Croatoan, tomorrow. To serve me. Together with Allawa, and two other young women.”

Alsoomse’s cheekbones tingled. Her arms felt the rush of adrenaline.

She had expected criticism.

“Both of you appear surprised.” Hurit’s amused smile enhanced her unaffected beauty.

“Weroansqua, we will serve you well,” Sokanon answered.

Hurit nodded. Her face hardened.

“You should know that Croatoan’s weroansqua has asked me to attend a meeting she is to have with Piemacum’s important men, believing, we suspect, that Piemacum wants her to submit herself and her people to his authority.”

Alsoomse felt a second surge of adrenaline. Quick to exhibit temper, her face burned.

The Croatoan were gentle people! Her father Matunaagd had said so, often! For some time now they had been led by a woman, which explained, probably, their peaceful manner. A thought occurred to her. “Weroansqua,” she said, “I believe I know her purpose.”

“Which is …?”

“Your presence will answer Piemacum’s question without the weroansqua needing to give it.”

Hurit nodded, a slow backward and forward acknowledgment. “You are perceptive, Alsoomse. You are your father and mother’s daughter.” She paused, looked at Alsoomse soberly. “But in other ways you are not nearly so. You disturb me.”

Alsoomse’s face blanched.

Sokanon interrupted. “Is Granganimeo to accompany us?”

What other ways? Alsoomse thought.

“No, Sokanon. His or Wingina’s presence would cause a fight.” Hurit’s face softened. “I am to go alone. Men do not usually fight women.”

“We leave then … when?”

“Immediately after the casting of tobacco. Several of our men will take us there in two canoes. They will not be men of high station.” For the first time Hurit looked at Nuna and Odina. “I will need Machk to be one of them. Please tell him.”

“I will, weroansqua,” Nuna responded.

Sokanon made a small hand gesture. Hurit raised her eyebrows. “I will need somebody to look after my mother. She is not strong.” Her face apologized.

“I am certain one of your friends here will do that.”

Simultaneously, Nuna and Odina nodded.

“Then everything is arranged.” Hurit turned, took two steps toward the lane, and stopped. Pivoting, she regarded Alsoomse. “One other matter.” Her eyes examined the length of Alsoomse’s body. “I expect you, Alsoomse, to show your high station the entire time we are there. That means necklaces, Alsoomse. Bracelets. Beads hanging from your ears. You will be representing this village, not yourself. Do you have them?”

“Yes.”

“I should not have to ask.”

“No.” Here was the expected criticism. She felt the start of a second burn.

Hurit studied her, too lengthily.

The burn reached Alsoomse’s ears.

“Why do you do this? Are you not proud of your parents’ standing?” Hurit looked at Alsoomse’s legs. “No tattoos, not even on your calves. Your cousin has them” – she pointed – “there, and there, and on her arms. She wears a nice shell necklace. Polished bones hang from her ears. Every day. Why must you be so different?”

She wants to know; I will tell her!

“We are different people.”

“That is obvious.”

“I love my cousin.” Alsoomse’s eyes combatted Hurit’s sarcasm. “I respect her for who she is. It is not because she is my cousin or she is the daughter of parents of high station. It is because of who she is.”

“We all judge people that way.”

“I know some who do not. Also, some people of high station expect to be treated well but do not deserve it.” She was thinking of Askook.

Hurit’s left index finger touched the outer side of her left breast. Her fingers curled, became a fist. “Are you saying that people who are leaders, who take responsibility for the welfare of their followers, should not be treated with respect?”

“No, weroansqua, I do not.” Both sides of her face were hot. “I am saying that people like me born into high station should have to earn respect, not demand it. That is why I live here, outside the gate to the compound. I do not want anyone to believe I demand respect.”

Alsoomse moved her right foot forward, traced a line in the sandy earth. “I believe also that people not born of high station deserving respect should receive it.”

Fists pressed against her sides, Hurit studied her. “You are outspoken in your beliefs.”

“I spoke them because you asked.”

The flesh beneath her chin stretched, Alsoomse maintained eye contact. Peripherally, Odina and Nuna were figures of stone.

Hurit’s irises remained centered. “You should know, Alsoomse, that there are people in this village, and at Dasemunkepeuc, who believe that you are dangerous. Strong-headed dangerous. My husband has spoken of it. Our kwiocosuk has spoken of it. You risk punishment, from Kiwasa, from your leaders. I will expect you to keep your thoughts to yourself while we are at Croatoan. I have … tolerated your independence, until now. I must be certain that you will say or do nothing to damage our purpose.” Her eyes bored.

“Your answer?”

She would be truthful, not weak. “I respect you and all of our leaders. I will do nothing to hurt our people.”

“You will wear ornaments that signify your station?”

Alsoomse hesitated. “Yes, weroansqua, I will.”