WEBVTT 00:00:05.780 --> 00:00:08.000 They were looking for it... 00:00:08.220 --> 00:00:10.180 ...and they found it. 00:00:10.820 --> 00:00:12.820 There's a historic gravity to the place... 00:00:12.920 --> 00:00:15.180 ...This was a place where religious ceremonies had been held... 00:00:15.260 --> 00:00:16.960 ...for thousands of years. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:18.380 It took those moments where somebody said, 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:21.920 "Look, do realize what you're digging? 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:24.160 This is a part of American history." 00:00:24.940 --> 00:00:28.720 There's just this weight of history that you feel. 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:39.440 "The majority of people don't even know about Werowocomoco,... 00:00:40.340 --> 00:00:42.780 ...but they know about one specific event... 00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:45.540 ...that took place here, that involves one of the most famous... 00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:49.640 ...Indian people in the world and that's Pocahontas." 00:00:50.220 --> 00:00:59.620 This, Werowocomoco, is the place where Captain John Smith, Powhatan and Pocahontas met. 00:01:08.140 --> 00:01:13.020 For years and years, people thought that the site was lost. 00:01:21.360 --> 00:01:26.640 I walk in the morning, and I walk again late in the evening, and I always find... 00:01:26.659 --> 00:01:32.080 ...something. I still get just as excited when I find something as I did at first. 00:01:32.080 --> 00:01:36.920 It's like this is so amazing to live here. 00:01:37.820 --> 00:01:40.950 You can definitely tell this would be a good place to live for several reasons. 00:01:40.950 --> 00:01:45.690 It's high up on a bluff. That's good for you know obviously issues of flooding. 00:01:45.690 --> 00:01:50.550 People from other tribes were coming to pay tribute to Powhatan and the other 00:01:50.550 --> 00:01:54.510 paramount leaders who lived here. They will have wanted to be in an elevated place and 00:01:54.510 --> 00:01:59.850 it's surrounded by water on three sides and if you look at important places 00:01:59.850 --> 00:02:02.820 throughout the Powhatan Virginia landscape, you'll see that that's a pattern. 00:02:03.860 --> 00:02:09.220 They did a small dig here in the 70s, that was not focused on Werowocomoco. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:13.280 We know from the notes they were not looking for Werowocomoco at that time. 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:19.780 We come here and then Lynn shows us what she found... 00:02:19.780 --> 00:02:22.040 ...and then it all changed... 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:25.460 This is a really nice arrowhead. Beautifully done on the edges. 00:02:25.470 --> 00:02:26.853 This is another unique one. 00:02:26.853 --> 00:02:29.670 This is the pipe stem that I almost threw away, made for a very very... 00:02:29.670 --> 00:02:36.380 ...prominent person in the tribe probably a chief. This is a significant find. 00:02:38.180 --> 00:02:40.420 It's bigger than us. 00:02:40.420 --> 00:02:45.480 How could we not share it with the world and let the research go forward? 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:55.540 To have Werowocomoco and to be able to look under the soil, it's so unusual 00:02:55.540 --> 00:03:02.019 because oftentimes, that activity has been paved over or you know there's a 00:03:02.019 --> 00:03:08.469 suburban development sitting on it, but this place is largely intact, it's a very 00:03:08.469 --> 00:03:14.880 large landscape, and the story is just underneath the surface. 00:03:15.720 --> 00:03:18.394 You get with the archaeologists and they begin to tell you... 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:20.660 ...this is where Chief Powhatan's house was... 00:03:20.660 --> 00:03:25.599 ...and we believe a temple was here and in this field, that's where they planted 00:03:25.600 --> 00:03:29.320 corn I mean you just you're just blown away and you begin to feel it, you begin to see it. 00:03:30.580 --> 00:03:33.760 It is an awesome archaeological site in and of itself and 00:03:33.760 --> 00:03:36.940 it talks about their history, Virginia Indian history. 00:03:37.380 --> 00:03:44.020 I mean how many people get to say that they are researching, excavating where their ancestors lived? 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:47.840 And not just any ancestor, you know, Wahunsenacawh, better known as Chief Powhatan 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:52.160 lived here and the paramount leaders before him. 00:03:52.760 --> 00:03:58.180 I believe it was like ten years ago and my brother and I came out to watch the dig 00:03:58.180 --> 00:04:03.220 and we could feel this connection between us and this place. 00:04:04.100 --> 00:04:07.520 Not until I actually came out here myself, did I feel the the power 00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:12.440 of the site and my kids have experienced that same thing. 00:04:12.780 --> 00:04:16.540 For them to have a say in what's going to happen to the site,... 00:04:16.540 --> 00:04:21.060 ...it'll strengthen in them the need to keep our culture going. 00:04:21.060 --> 00:04:22.280 Keep it alive. 00:04:22.280 --> 00:04:26.210 This was the first archaeological project in Virginia that created a 00:04:26.210 --> 00:04:30.440 sustained collaborative relationship with the Virginia Indian community, so 00:04:30.440 --> 00:04:34.430 for me, that aspect of it this contemporary aspect of it and having 00:04:34.430 --> 00:04:38.820 Native people at the table to tell our story was also extremely important. 00:04:39.700 --> 00:04:46.460 It's really important for our culture to be portrayed and described through our voices. 00:04:46.960 --> 00:04:52.560 I do want people to take away the complexity of the Powhatan chiefdom. 00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:58.640 How it developed. All of the working parts that created this complex nation that the English encountered. 00:04:58.640 --> 00:05:01.460 The people who are here, thousands of years before... 00:05:01.460 --> 00:05:05.870 ...Powhatan and Pocahontas, you know they are important people in human history. 00:05:05.870 --> 00:05:10.120 They are people that are worthy of studying. This site has their history in the artifacts 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:14.560 that are left behind. We have a longer story to tell. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:20.300 Also it doesn't just end in 1607. Our story doesn't end in the 17th century. 00:05:20.300 --> 00:05:25.720 We're still here today. We have our own perspectives about this place and about this history in general. 00:05:25.860 --> 00:05:30.300 These were our lands our sacred sites and still are. 00:05:30.310 --> 00:05:34.660 And hopefully people come away with a respect for our culture as it existed 00:05:34.660 --> 00:05:36.980 then and as it exists now. 00:05:47.200 --> 00:05:53.980 This is the perfect opportunity for us to tell the whole story for the American public. 00:05:53.980 --> 00:05:59.740 It's a spiritual place. Hopefully it'll be preserved for a long, long time. 00:05:59.980 --> 00:06:02.820 This is something that's much bigger than any of us... 00:06:05.420 --> 00:06:09.940 ...and it's something that's gonna last much longer than we will.