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American Indian History

The Indigenous peoples of what would become Virginia, including the eleven state recognized nations (Cheroenhaka, Nottoway, Patowomeck, Pamunkey, Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Nansemond and Monacan Indian Nation,), cultivated their land and developed societies and cultural identities for millennia prior to European contact. Colonization by European settlers threatened Indigenous people’s very existence through war, by forcibly removing them from their ancestral land, and attempting to erase their language and culture. With resilience and resistance, Indigenous nations persisted in affirming their cultural identities. The Story of Virginia is deeply connected to the history and culture of Indigenous peoples past, present, and future.

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16,000 BCE to 1622 CE
A Land of Opportunity: Creating Virginia
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1623 to 1763
A Distant Dominion
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1764 to 1824
From British Colony to American State
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1825 to 1860
Challenge of a New Century
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1861 to 1876
Civil War and Reconstruction
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1877 to 1924
Virginia in the New South
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1925 to Today
Dynamic Dominion

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