Taweeren

Taweeren (died September or October 1653), also recorded as Touweren, Taweren, Towezen, and Towerozen, was a seventeenth-century weroance, or political leader, of the Rappahannock people in what is now eastern Virginia. He succeeded Accopatough by May 1651, when he confirmed a land conveyance that Accopatough had made shortly before his death. In 1653, English officials recognized Taweeren as "king of all the Indians of the Rappahannock nation," assigned land for the tribe's use, and promised to build him an English-style house.

Taweeren's leadership occurred during the rapid expansion of English tobacco plantations into the Rappahannock River valley. Colonial authorities attempted to use him as an intermediary through whom they could regulate land, livestock disputes, trade, and relations between settlers and the Rappahannocks.

Weroance

Taweeren's name appears in English colonial documents in several forms. In the May 1651 confirmation of Accopatough's deed, it was written as Touweren. Lancaster County records later called him "Towezen otherwise called Taweren," while modern historians have also rendered the name as Taweeren and Towerozen.

English documents referred to Taweeren as the "great King of Rappahannock" and later as "king of all the Indians of the Rappahannock nation." "King" was the English translation customarily applied to a weroance, an Algonquian political leader whose authority was based on kinship, community relationships, diplomacy, and control over resources.

The earliest known documentary appearance of Taweeren occurred shortly after the death of the Rappahannock weroance Accopatough. On April 4, 1651, Accopatough and several councilors executed a deed conveying land along the northern side of the Rappahannock River to the English planter Moore Fauntleroy. The tract extended from the Morattico or Morratico area toward Totuskey Creek and included land associated with Rappahannock towns, agricultural fields, waterways, and paths.

The consideration described in the deed included peake, roanoke, and other trade goods. These forms of shell-bead wealth served not only as media of exchange but also as diplomatic objects through which Indigenous people created or reaffirmed political relationships. English land law instead treated the exchange as an outright and permanent transfer of a geographically defined tract.

Accopatough died while traveling to Jamestown soon after executing the deed. On May 11, 1651, Taweeren and a second leader named Moratoerin confirmed the transaction. The document stated:

We, Touweren, the great King of Rappahannock and Moratoerin, do hereby fully ratify the above act and deed unto our loving brother Fantleroy, his heirs and assigns.

Taweeren assumed leadership as the Rappahannocks faced growing pressure from English colonists moving upriver. The tribe increasingly concentrated its population away from newly established plantations. By 1652, its principal town was reportedly located approximately upstream from Cat Point Creek.

The Rappahannock landscape was not limited to the site of a single settlement. It encompassed seasonal fields, hunting grounds, fishing places, wetlands, paths, ceremonial sites, and locations associated with previous generations. An interdisciplinary study prepared with the participation of the Rappahannock Tribe identified more than as part of the tribe's Indigenous cultural landscape.

The displacement affected several related communities. The Rappahannocks, Moraughtacunds, and people associated with Totuskey were increasingly compressed into smaller areas or compelled to consolidate. Taweeren apparently represented the interests of more than one settlement and may also have spoken for Moraughtacund people during negotiations with the English.

English recognition in 1653 In 1653, the Virginia government directed Lancaster County officials to assign land to the Indigenous communities living within the county. The commissioners allotted to "Towezen otherwise called Taweren king of Rappahannocke" territory extending from the northwestern boundary of William Underwood's land to Rappahannock Creek. The tract also included land above Joseph Sherlock's plantation and territory where the Rappahannocks were then living.

The commissioners further ordered that Taweeren “bee king of all the Indians of the Rappahannocke nation.” At the request of Taweeren and his “great men,” the county agreed to construct for him “an English house of the country fashion.” The house was intended both as a material benefit and as a visible symbol of the relationship that colonial officials hoped to establish with the weroance.

The order reveals the colonial government's attempt to formalize Taweeren's leadership and use him as the principal intermediary between settlers and the Indigenous population. English officials often preferred to deal with one recognized leader, even where Indigenous political authority was dispersed among several towns, councils, families, or weroances.

Agreement with Lancaster County The Lancaster commissioners negotiated a series of rules governing relations between the Rappahannocks and English colonists. The agreement purported to provide a procedure through which an Indigenous person injured by a settler could complain to a justice. More serious cases could be transferred to the county court, where Taweeren and the Rappahannock "great men" were permitted to attend the hearing and observe the administration of justice.

Other provisions focused heavily on English livestock and labor. If Rappahannock people discovered that someone had returned to their town with an animal shot by an arrow, Taweeren was expected to investigate and require restitution from the responsible person. Indigenous people accused of killing or driving away English livestock could be arrested and brought before a justice. A person caught killing a colonist's livestock could be killed at the scene.

Conversely, the Rappahannocks were to receive compensation for apprehending and returning indentured servants who fled from colonial plantations. These provisions attempted to make Taweeren responsible for policing his people according to English property law while drawing the Rappahannocks into the enforcement of the colonial labor system.

Although the agreement was associated with the 1653 allocation, it was not entered into the surviving Lancaster County record book until September 12, 1660, several years after Taweeren's death. Its delayed recording has complicated efforts to reconstruct the precise sequence of events.

Death

Taweeren was killed shortly after the colonial recognition of his authority. Lancaster County court minutes dated October 24, 1653, record payments to Thomas Williamson for his work "amongst ye Indyans when Taweeren was kild" and to a man identified as Jesper for his "paines amongst ye Indyans."