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Archiver > PACE > 2003-05 > 1053139448


From: "Roy Johnson" <>
Subject: [PACE-L] Chanco/Chauco???
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 21:44:08 -0500


As a history teacher, I often heard remarks like "well, at least you don't have to update your lesson plans all the time; history doesn't change. Oh, but it does--for you see, history is NOT the past--history is what we THINK the past was like. History writing is "part science and part art". The science part is in careful verification and use of sources. The art part is selecting the most important sources and weaving them into a story, which is the historian's INTERPRETATION of what the past was like.

I am currently reading POCAHONTAS'S PEOPLE: THE POWHATAN INDIANS OF VIRGINIC THROUGH FOUR CENTURIES by Helen C. Rountree, which I purchased on Amazon.com. This book is going to shake up some general history and some Pace history if the conclusions are accurate, especially regarding the story of Chanco.

First, I must say that this lady is a BEAR for sources. The book contains 23 pages of bibliography and 80 pages of footnotes. When possible, she went to the original documents in the court houses and local archives, rather than relying on microfilm in the Library of Congress or University of Virginia library. I am tremendously impressed by this.

The original story of Chanco seems to have gotten into the history books in the following manner: John Smith, and someone named Waterhouse before him, wrote the story of Richard Pace in Chanco in a dramatic fashion, stating that this one Christianized Indian's warning was all that saved the colony from being wiped out. John Smith, of course, had not been in Virginia since 1609 and was therefore a secondary source. However, most historians have relied heavily on his interpretation. He does not name "Perry's Indian" nor do any of the other sources reporting the incident. Bruce Howard has remarked on this and has stated that he cannot find documentaion that the Indian's name was Chanco.

Rountree clears that up. She cites a Virginia Company document telling of a visit to the colony by an Indian named Chauco (not Chanco; she says she has examined the original document closely and the "u" was taken for an "n" and this error has been repeated every since). That Indian came as a representative of Opencanchanough, then the chief of the Powhatans, and was warmly welcomed by the English as one who had been living among them and who gave warning of the attack. Therefore, it has been assumed that this was the same person who informed Richard Pace.

Rountree disagrees. She cites copious evidence that several Indians, not just one, warned the whites at different settlements, and gives direct quotes to show that the plural "Indians" was used in several of the original documents. Opencanchanough assumed that all the Indians living among the whites (there were several) would be loyal to their heritage, but numbers of them had become acclimated and were more likely to side with the whites. She points out that John Smith loved to be dramatic; there are several historians who doubt his Pochontas story. She further shows how that those plantations who had warning were ready and fared better than the others. She also says the eyewitnesses do not agree on just when "Perry's Indian" warned Pace. Most writere have chosen the more dramatic midnight version.

As to whether Chauco was "Perry's Indian", she points out that the Indian who gave the warning was a Christian, which means that he would have been given a "Christian" (i.e., English) name, and they were expected to forsake their old name. Therefore, Chauco could not have been "Perry's Indian" but was one of the others who also gave warning.

I thought of the possibility that Chano/Chauco, in returning to his own people, might have reverted to his Indian name and religion, as some did, but then I realized that the colonists would probably have recorded him under his Christian name if they knew him as such--so it seems she may be correct.

This is an important part of Pace history and should be examined by Pace historians. I intend to check the abstracts of the Virginia Company records when I get back to St. Louis in the fall and get the exact wording of this mention of Chauco. Perhaps Bruce Howard or Ruth Clark would like to do the same. The citation is Kingsbury, Myra, comp. 1906-1935, Records of the Virginia Company of London, vol. 4 p. 98.

I strongly suggest purchase and close perusal of this book by all interested in this story in Pace history. Pernaps Jane would also want to publish this email or a synopsis in the next Bulletin.

I am cc-ing this to Bruce Howard, . I would like to have Bruce's "johnnyreb" email address (which I neglected to bring with me) if someone could send it to me.

Roy Johnson
-- summer email address



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