Editing Virginia (section)

=== Earliest inhabitants ===
{{Main|Native American tribes in Virginia}}
{{stack|float=right|margin=true|[[File:Pocahontas-14.jpg|thumb|The story of [[Pocahontas]] was simplified and romanticized by later artists and authors, including [[John Smith (explorer)|Smith]] himself, and promoted by her descendants, some of whom married into [[First Families of Virginia|elite colonial families]].<ref name=slate_pocahontas>{{cite news |url= http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/06/pocahontas_wedding_re_enactment_john_rolfe_john_smith_and_native_americans.html |title= Pocahontas: Fantasy and Reality |work= Slate Magazine |first= Laurie Gwen |last= Shapiro |date= June 22, 2014 |access-date= June 23, 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140623013337/http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/06/pocahontas_wedding_re_enactment_john_rolfe_john_smith_and_native_americans.html |archive-date= June 23, 2014 |url-status= live}}</ref>|alt=A simple drawing of a young dark-haired Native American woman speaking to two men in armor from the early 1600s. Several Native Americans look on from the right.]]}}
Nomadic hunters are [[Peopling of the Americas|estimated to have arrived]] in Virginia around 17,000 years ago. Evidence from [[Daugherty's Cave and Breeding Site|Daugherty's Cave]] shows it was regularly used as a [[rock shelter]] by 9,800 years ago.{{sfn|Egloff|Woodward|2006|pp=2–14}} During the late [[Woodland period]] (500–1000 [[Common Era|CE]]), tribes coalesced, and farming, first of corn and squash, began, with beans and tobacco arriving from [[Southwestern United States|the southwest]] and Mexico by the end of the period. [[Palisade]]d towns began to be built around 1200. The native population in the current boundaries of Virginia reached around 50,000 in the 1500s.{{sfn|Egloff|Woodward|2006|pp=5, 31–39}} Large groups in the area at that time included the [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquian]] in the [[Tidewater region of Virginia|Tidewater region]], which they referred to as [[Tsenacommacah]], the [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian]]-speaking [[Nottoway Tribe|Nottoway]] and [[Meherrin]] to the north and south, and the [[Tutelo]], who spoke [[Siouan languages|Siouan]], to the west.<ref name=heinemann/>

In response to threats from these other groups to their trade network, thirty or so [[Powhatan language|Virginia Algonquian]]-speaking tribes consolidated during the 1570s under Wahunsenacawh, known in English as [[Chief Powhatan]].<ref name=heinemann>{{harvnb|Heinemann|Kolp|Parent|Shade|2007|pp=4–11}}</ref> Powhatan controlled more than 150&nbsp;settlements that had a total population of around 15,000 in 1607.<ref>{{cite web|first=Sarah J.|last=Stebbins|date=August 20, 2020|title=Chronology of Powhatan Indian Activity|url=https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/chronology-of-powhatan-indian-activity.htm|access-date=February 14, 2022|publisher=National Park Service}}</ref> Three-fourths of the native population in Virginia, however, died from [[smallpox]] and other [[Old World diseases]] during that century,<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/220.html |title= 1700: Virginia Native peoples succumb to smallpox |website= National Institutes of Health |date= July 10, 2020 |access-date= June 11, 2021}}</ref> disrupting their [[oral tradition]]s and complicating research into earlier periods.<ref>{{cite journal |url= https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/1553 |title= How Cultural Factors Hastened the Population Decline of the Powhatan Indians
|first= Julia Ruth |last= Beckley |website= Virginia Commonwealth University Scholars Compass |date= May 2008 |doi= 10.25772/VWYX-2J21
|access-date= August 10, 2023}}</ref> Additionally, many primary sources, including those that mention Powhatan's daughter, [[Pocahontas]], were created by Europeans, who may have held biases or misunderstood native social structures and customs.<ref name=slate_pocahontas/><ref>{{cite web |url= https://states.aarp.org/virginia/virginia-treasures-pocahontas-her-real-world-versus-the-legend |title= Virginia Treasures: Pocahontas—Her Real World Versus the Legend |first= Myra |last= Basnight |website= AARP |date= June 7, 2022 |access-date= August 10, 2023}}</ref>