When historians discuss Native Americans in Virginia's Colonial period, they tend to focus on the powerful chief Powhatan and the tribes along the York and James rivers, where English settlers landed.
When tribes along the northern side of the Rappahannock River are mentioned, it's often been with the assumption that they migrated there to put a river between them and the powerful Powhatan. But a new study conducted by an anthropology team from St. Mary's College of Maryland may well change the discussion.