Kiskiack

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Kiskiack (or Chisiack or Chiskiack) was a Native American tribal group of the Powhatan Confederacy. The name means "Wide Land" or "Bread Place" in the native language, which was apart of the Algonquian language group. It was also the name of their village site on the Virginia Peninsula, which is now located on the grounds of the US Naval Weapons Station Yorktown in York County, Virginia. The settlement was 11 miles from the Powhatan Confederacy capital of Werewocomoco.

1 History
2 English settlement and the palisade
3 Other use
4 See also

[edit] History

In the mid 16th and early 17th century, the Native American village of the Kiskiak tribe of the Powhatan Confederacy was located near the south bank of the York River on the Virginia Peninsula a few miles west of the current site of Yorktown. The Native American architecture was based upon permanent villages made up of long-houses or "yihakans."

The Chiskiack were one of the original 8 tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy. They had a degree of autonomy, which allowed them stave off subjugation by the English for a little longer than other tribes in the area. The Kiskiack were an unfriendly tribe toward the English, and were reluctant to give away their goods simply at the request of the parties sent from Jamestown to collect corn and other foodstuffs during the first few years after English settlement. Their population was around 40-50 fighting men as of one 1612 estimate by John Smith.

However, beginning with the arrival of the English settlers at Jamestown in 1607, encroachment of the new arrivals and their ever-growing numbers on what had been Indian lands resulted in conflicts which became almost continuous for the next 37 years. Kiskiak was only about 15 miles from Jamestown, but across the Peninsula and along the York River, which did not see as much early development by the English as did the James River. However, after the Indian Massacre of 1622 (of which the Chiskiack participated) and retaliatory actions of the settlers, the Natives abandoned Kiskiak, moving west and north in 1629.

[edit] English settlement and the palisade

At a meeting held at Jamestown on October 8, 1630, Sir John Harvey, the Governor, and his Council, "for the securing and taking in a tract of land called the forest, bordering upon the cheife residence of ye Pamunkey King, the most dangerous head of ye Indyan enemy," did "after much consultation thereof had, decree and sett down several proportions of land for such commanders, and fifty acres per poll for all other persons who ye first yeare and five and twenty acres who the second yeare, should adventure or be adventured to seate and inhabit on the southern side of Pamunkey River, now called York, and formerly known by the Indyan name of Chiskiack, as a reward and encouragement for their undertaking." [1]

Under this order houses were built on both sides of King's Creek, and extended rapidly up and down the south side of York River, and plans were put into motion to fortify the area. In 1634, a palisade was erected across the Peninsula from Martin's Hundred to Kiskiack to protect the lower (eastern) area from Indian attacks. Middle Plantation, near the center of the palisade, was the first inland settlement, established by an Act of Assembly of the House of Burgesses in 1632. Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg after being designated the capital of the Colony in 1699.

The former site of Kiskiack is now located on within the boundaries of the U.S. Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. The name, often mispronounced, gave rise to "Cheesecake Road" and "Cheesecake Cemetery", also located on Navy lands in the same area.

The southern end of Cheesecake Road left the federal property and crossed State Route 143 (Merrimack Trail), and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, and connected with U.S. Route 60 (Pocahontas Trail) near the western edge of Grove and the James City County-York County border, but was severed with the construction of Interstate 64 in the late 1960s.

[edit] Other use

"Kiskiack" is also the name of a very early 18th century brick building located on the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. This brick structure, which is the oldest building owned by the U.S. Navy, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.