Cockacoeskie was a 17th-century leader of the Pamunkeytribe in what is now the American state of Virginia. During her thirty-year reign, she worked within the English system, trying to recapture the former power of past paramount chiefs and maintain peaceful unity among the several tribes under her leadership. She was the first of the tribal leaders to sign the Virginia-Indian Treaty of Middle Plantation. In 2004 Cockacoeske was honored as one of the Library of Virginia's "Virginia Women in History".
History
The death of Opechancanough in 1646 led to the disintegration of the confederacy built by his brother Powhatan. Chiefs competed to gain power among the various tribes. Among the Pamunkey, Cockacoeske's husband Totopotomoi became leader in 1649. While assisting Col. Edward Hill in removing Rickohockans from their new settlement at the falls of the James River in 1656, Totopotomoi was killed in what was sometimes later called the Battle of Bloody Run. The Virginia Governor's Council later censured Hill for his lack of leadership.'' Following Totopotomoi's death, the Colonial Government recognized Cockacoeske the Pamunkey "Queen". When Bacon's Rebellion erupted, Governor Berkeley's faction sought help from the Pamunkey against the hostile tribes, particularly their erstwhile enemies the Susquehannock. Sporadic raids by other Indian tribes against settlers on the colony's frontier contributed to an uprising of whites and blacks excluded from the power structure, led by Nathaniel Bacon. Although of the wealthy planter class, Bacon competed for power with Gov. Berkeley, drawing upon the frontier settler's resentments. Although raids had been perpetrated by the Doeg and Susquehannock tribes, Bacon and his men sought easier wealth, and attacked the peaceful and friendly Pamunkey, Mattaponi, and Kiskiack tribes. Thomas Mathew, whose history of cheating the Doeg and Susquehannock Indians who lived in Maryland across the Potomac River, may have actually led to the raid that kills his overseer, described Cockacoeske's behavior when summoned to Jamestown and told to honor treaty obligations by supplying warriors against the other tribes: Although appointed to the Governor's Council after the Pamunkey agreed to supply some warriors against other tribes, Bacon's first attacks were against the Pamunkey, who fled into Dragon Swamp. Governor Berkeley declared Bacon a rebel, but he continued his focus against friendly tribes, also killing the Occoneechees by subterfuge after they had captured a Susquehannock fort but refused to give the English all the spoils. The assembly at Jamestown attempted to reconcile Bacon and Berkeley, but did not repudiate Bacon's policy of exterminating all Indians. Cockacoeske attempted to throw herself at the mercy of the English, and eventually the Assembly authorized a naval expedition against Bacon's camp in Maryland, which miscarried. After Bacon died of disease, the rebellion fizzled. The crown appointed a commission which criticized both English parties for their ill treatment of the Pamunkey and other friendly Indians, and stressed the importance of restoring peace. Berkeley sailed to England to protest reforms imposed by London, and died shortly after his after landing in May 1677. Cockacoeske and her son signed the Treaty of Middle Plantation with new Virginia Governor Jeffreys on May 29, 1677 by, which other tribes signed in the following years. Essentially, these tribes accepted their de facto position as subjects of the British Crown, and gave up their remaining claims to their ancestral land, in return for protection from the remaining hostile tribes and a guarantee of a limited amount of reserved land—the first Native American reservation to be established in America.
Family
Cockacoeske's only documented child was her son, John West, born probably around 1656–57 and "reputed the son of an English colonel." On the basis of his name, and birth after her husband's death, he has often been considered an illegitimate son of John West, who established a plantation, or his son John West. The Virginia-Indian Treaty of 1677/1680, which this youth signed, identified him as "Cap't John West, sonne to the Queen of Pamunkey." Cockacoeske died in 1686, and, as this was a matrilineal society, was succeeded by her niece, Betty.
