Opossunoquonuske

Opossunoquonuske (variant spelling: Oppussoquionuske) (died 1610) was a weroansqua, or female chief, of the Powhatan Confederacy.

Little is recorded of Opossunoquonuske's life, although she is known to have been a sister of the weroance Coquonasum. She was one of the first Virginia Indian leaders met by the English colonists in 1607; they called her the queen of Appamattuck, and she ruled a town near the mouth of the Appomattox River. The community was large enough to provide about twenty warriors to the Powhatan Confederacy. Her description was recorded by various settlers; John Smith called her "young and comely", while Gabriel Archer called her "a fatt lustie manly woman". She wore a copper crown and other copper jewelry to greet the Englishmen, and did not flinch when at her request one of Christopher Newport's men fired a gun in her presence; Newport met with her on May 26, at what was known as "Queene Apumatecs bower".^[1]

The Appomattoc tribe was wary of the English, and in the summer of 1610 Opossunoquonuske invited fifteen settlers, who had been collecting water upriver from the settlement at Jamestown, to come to her town.^[2] Claiming that the women of the village would be afraid of their weapons, she persuaded the men to leave them in the boat; she then invited them to sit down for a meal, at which she had them ambushed.^[3] Her men killed all but one who managed to escape;^[1] the survivor, Thomas Dowse, managed to return to the boat and protect himself with the rudder.^[2] The men's manner of death is not recorded, nor is it noted if they were tortured.^[3] In retaliation, the English burned the town and killed several of its inhabitants. Opossunoquonuske herself was reported to have been mortally wounded and to have died that winter.^[1] John Smith, in his narrative of the colony, discusses the burning of the town but not the reason behind it, calling the motive only the "injurie done us by them of Apomatock".^[3]

Opossunoquonuske was named one of the Virginia Women in History for 2007; she is recorded as being associated with Chesterfield County, Virginia.^[1]

References

1. "Virginia Women in History 2007: Opossunoquonuske". virginia.gov. Retrieved 20 September 2015.
2. James Horn (2008). A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America. Basic Books. pp. 189–. ISBN 978-0-7867-2198-6.
3. Thomas H. Appleton; Angela Boswell (June 2003). Searching for Their Places: Women in the South Across Four Centuries. University of Missouri Press. pp. 26–. ISBN 978-0-8262-6288-2.