In November 1607, with Jamestown facing a severe food shortage, Captain John Smith traveled along the Chickahominy River trading for corn with Indian towns, especially at Mamanahunt, which he described as the center of Chickahominy territory, where more than 200 Chickahominy gathered on the first day and overloaded his barge with corn, and where he returned the next morning to trade for another 300 to 400 baskets. The Chickahominy, whose name comes from an Algonquian word meaning coarse-pounded corn, drew abundant harvests from the river’s rich floodplain soils by clearing fields with slash-and-burn methods, planting around larger stumps to retain moisture and prevent erosion, shifting cultivation as fields wore out, and using companion planting such as growing corn and beans together. Along with corn, Tidewater Indians relied on tuckahoe from the marsh, processing its tuberous roots into flour for bread and cakes despite the labor involved. The river also sustained fisheries for Atlantic sturgeon, striped bass, river herring, American shad, and longnose gar, which were staples for Indians using weirs, nets, spears, and hooks and later helped sustain the early English colonists, who adopted Native fishing techniques. In later times, the Chickahominy River became known for recreational fishing and a nationally recognized largemouth bass fishery, while over-fishing in the 1900s decimated Atlantic sturgeon and American shad and blue catfish introduced in the 1970s thrived at the expense of native species.
