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Article ID: CBB063648395

Return to the Yeokanta/River: Powhatan Women and Environmental Treaty Making in Early America (2023)

Hayley Negrin (Author)

Environmental History
Volume: 28
Issue: 3
Pages: 522-553
Publication date: 2023
Language: English

URI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/725422

DOI: 10.1086/725422

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Nature and its relationship to culture; human-nature relationships Bacon's Rebellion, 1676 Great Britain, colonies Treaties Indigenous peoples; indigeneity 17th century Virginia (U.S.)

In 1677, an Algonquian Weroansqua named Cockacoeske put quill to paper and signed the Treaty of Middle Plantation in a swirling line to represent the river of her birth. The treaty was negotiated by Cockacoeske and representatives of the Crown to reestablish English-recognized sovereignty for Powhatan people in the uncertain aftermath of Bacon’s Rebellion, with multiple meanings for Indigenous signatories. After surviving Bacon’s attempt to enslave her by hiding in the swampy upper reaches of the Piankatank River, Cockacoeske’s signature was a reminder to the English of the kinship and environmental relationships at stake as the plantation complex expanded in Virginia. While scholars have long interpreted the treaty as a sign of the loss of Powhatan power, exploring Cockacoeske’s “signature” and the environmental history behind the treaty in collaboration with contemporary tribal historians helps tell a story of Indigenous resilience and kinship with the environment. The concept of “environmental treaty making” is deployed to capture the previously unappreciated role that Indigenous women like Cockacoeske, as well as elders and children, played in protecting the environment under the stressors of colonialism.

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