The Chesepian or Chesapeake were a Native American tribe who lived near present-day South Hampton Roads in the U.S. state of Virginia . They occupied an area which is now the Norfolk County or Princess Anne County .
7-681: The name Chesapeake is an anglicization of the Algonquian word, K'che-sepi-ack , which translates as "country on a great river." In 1585, their name was recorded by English colonists as Ehesepiooc. Their name is spelled many different ways and also listed as Chesapians. The main village of the Chesepian was on the Lynnhaven River in Princess Anne County. Two other Chesepian towns were Apasus and Chesepioc, both near
14-706: Is Lynnhaven Roads. It has a small, developed watershed covering 64 square miles (170 km ), terminating at Lynnhaven Bay. It was once famous along the East Coast of the United States for its oysters , which declined through pollution and runoff. It is now being restored by the Lynnhaven River Now restoration project based out of the Brock Environmental Center . A proposed comprehensive project for ecosystem restoration of
21-640: The Chesapeake Bay in what is now the independent city of Virginia Beach. Chesepioc was located in near Great Neck Point . Archaeologists and others have found numerous Native American arrowheads, stone axes, pottery, and beads in Great Neck Point. Several Native burials are present as well. Although they spoke an Eastern Algonquian language like many tribes within the Powhatan Confederacy , archaeological evidence suggests that
28-705: The Chesepian people originally belonged to another group, the Carolina Algonquian . In 1607, the Chesepians had about 100 warriors and a total population estimated at 350. By 1669, they ceased to exist as a tribe. According to William Strachey 's The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia (1618), the Chesepian were wiped out by the Powhatan , the paramount head of the Virginia Peninsula –based Powhatan Confederacy, sometime before
35-647: The Jamestown Colony against "The Devil's Empire" appears, in hindsight, rather eccentric. Lynnhaven River 35°53′45″N 76°5′33″W / 35.89583°N 76.09250°W / 35.89583; -76.09250 The Lynnhaven River is a tidal estuary located in the independent city of Virginia Beach , Virginia , in the United States , and flows into the Chesapeake Bay west of Cape Henry at Lynnhaven Inlet, beyond which
42-626: The Lynnhaven River Basin is currently under consideration by the United States Congress . Notable historic residences near the entrance include the Adam Keeling House , Adam Thoroughgood House , and Ferry Plantation House and the area was the site of the early colonial settlement of Henry Town . The bay was a convenient harbor for coast-wise shipping in the colonial period. Adam Thoroughgood
49-669: The arrival of the English at Jamestown in 1607. The Chesepian were eliminated because Powhatan's priests had warned him that "from the Chesapeake Bay a nation should arise, which should dissolve and give end to his empire". Though historians of the period express little doubt that the Powhatans eradicated the Chesapeake tribe, Strachey's belief that these rumored prophesies indicated the Christian God's intervention on behalf of
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