ABSTRACT
In 1607 just over 100 Europeans sailed up the James River and established a fort and settlement in the midst of Powhatan territory. It was not at all inevitable that Chief Powhatan or his people would let the colonists survive; certainly Jamestown could have gone the way of the failed colony of Roanoke just 22 years earlier. He explores the relationship between the Powhatans and their neighbors to explain part of the tribe's reaction to the English. On Jamestown Island, in 1893, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA) acquired more than 20 acres surrounding the old church tower. However, William Kelso has directed APVA's Jamestown Rediscovery archaeological project since 1994. The 400th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown colony has inspired some very productive archaeology, as well as NPS and APVA plans to revisit and update public interpretation on Jamestown Island.
