Rountree, Helen C. 1944-

PERSONAL:

Born October 8, 1944, in Camp LeJeune, NC; daughter of Henning Ainsworth, Jr., and Mildred Ellen Rountree. Education: College of William and Mary, A.B, 1966; University of Utah, M.A, 1968; University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Ph.D, 1973. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Episcopalian. Hobbies and other interests: Landscape photography, designing and making tapestry afghans, choir singing.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Sociology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, 23529.

CAREER:

Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, instructor in sociology, 1968-73, assistant professor of anthropology, 1973-80, associate professor, 1980-91, professor of anthropology, 1991-99, professor emerita of anthropology, 1999—. Consultant to Jamestown Settlement Museum, Williamsburg, VA, 1986; Virginia Council on Indians, Richmond, 1993; and Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, Annapolis, 1995.

MEMBER:

Society for Applied Anthropology (fellow), American Anthropological Association (life member), American Society for Ethnohistory (president, 1993-94), Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (overseas member).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Outstanding Faculty award, State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, 1995.

WRITINGS:

The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1989.

Pocahontas's People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia through Four Centuries, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1990.

(Editor) Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722, University Press of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA), 1993.

Young Pocahontas in the Indian World, [Yorktown, VA], 1995.

(With Thomas E. Davidson) Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, University Press of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA), 1997.

(With E. Randolph Turner III) Before and after Jamestown: Virginia's Powhatans and Their Predecessors, foreword by Jerald T. Milanich, University Press of Florida (Gainesville, FL), 2002.

Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown, University of Virginia Press (Charlottesville, VA), 2005.

(With Wayne E. Clark and Kent Mountford) John Smith's Chesapeake Voyages, 1607-1609, University of Virginia Press (Charlottesville, VA), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Helen C. Rountree is widely regarded as a leading researcher and writer on Virginia's Native American people and has been made an honorary member of the Nansemond and Upper Mattaponi tribes. She is also the author and editor numerous books focusing on Eastern American Indian tribes, primarily the Powhatans. For example, she served as editor of Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722. In this book, Rountree presents nine essays that examine the relationships that the Powhatan Indians had with other tribes and the newly arrived Europeans. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from physical characteristics of the Indians to their subsistence living. The various authors also examine how the Europeans and the Powhatans viewed each other. Raymond Wilson, writing in the Journal of American Ethnic History, commented that the "authors offer a comprehensive look at the thirty Algonquian-speaking tribes collectively known as the Powhatan."

In their book Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, Rountree and Thomas E. Davidson delve into the tribes of Virginia and Maryland's Eastern Shore Indians from approximately the year 800 C.E. They provide information on each tribe's characteristics and traditions and also explore the plants and animals that the Indians lived with and used. The authors examine how ecological and geographical difference and changes affected the tribes' various cultures and everyday lives. "With the publication of Eastern Shore Indians, anthropologist Helen Rountree coauthors her most compelling work to date," according to Edward Ragan in the American Indian Quarterly. "Once again, she enriches our understanding of Native culture in the Chesapeake Bay."

Rountree collaborated with E. Randolph Turner III to write Before and after Jamestown: Virginia's Powhatans and Their Predecessors. This general history of the tribe traces their origins back to 900 C.E. and follows the tribes' fortunes to current times. "As a popular history, the work has many strengths," wrote April L. Hatfield in the Journal of Southern History. "Its introduction offers a clear and, indeed, interesting primer on the kinds of sources available for studying Indians in both pre-historical and historical periods." Hatfield went on to comment that the book "represents an important synthesis of archaeological, anthropological, and historical material that will interest many general readers."

In her 2005 book, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown, the author provides a Native American perspective of the settlement of Jamestown and, in the process, includes biographies of Pocahontas, her father Chief Powhatan, and Chief Opechancanough, who captured Captain John Smith. Michael D. Green, writing in Southern Cultures, remarked that "if anyone can write a history of the encounter between them and the English at Jamestown from their point of view, it is" Roundtree. Green also wrote that the author "has done a marvelous job in producing a readable, believable book that readers, particularly nonspecialists, should love." Virginia Historical Society Web site contributor Alexander B. Haskell felt that the author "brings to the book a wealth of understanding about seventeenth-century Powhatan culture."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Anthropologist, March 1, 1999, review of Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, p. 195.

American Historical Review, December 1, 1990, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture, p. 1618; June 1, 2006, review of Pocahontas, Powhatan, and Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown, p. 821.

American Indian Culture and Research Journal, March 22, 2003, review of Before and after Jamestown: Virginia's Powhatans and their Predecessors, p. 106; June 22, 2005, review of Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough, p. 162.

American Indian Quarterly, September 22, 1990, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 418; fall, 1998, Edward Ragan, review of Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, p. 501.

American Studies International, April 1, 1995, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 137.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, September 1, 1993, review of Powhatan: Foreign Relations, 1500-1722, p. 206; June 1, 1998, review of Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, p. 1752; February 1, 2003, review of Before and after Jamestown, p. 1045; March 1, 2006, review of Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough, p. 1290.

Ethnohistory, June 22, 1991, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 336; September 22, 1992, review of Pocahontas's People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia through Four Centuries, p. 517; June 22, 1999, review of Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, p. 623.

Historical Archaeology, September 22, 1997, review of Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722, p. 122.

Journal of American Ethnic History, January 1, 1992, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 77; June 22, 1993, review of Pocahontas's People, p. 75; Raymond Wilson, summer, 1997, review of Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722, p. 89.

Journal of American Folklore, June 22, 1993, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 373.

Journal of American History, June 1, 1990, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 279; December 1, 1991, review of Pocahontas's People, p. 1046; September 1, 1994, review of Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722, p. 639; March 1, 1999, review of Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, p. 1571; September 1, 2006, review of Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough, p. 494.

Journal of Anthropological Research, March 22, 1999, review of Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, p. 172.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, March 22, 1995, review of Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722, p. 716.

Journal of Southern History, May 1, 1991, reviews of Pocahontas's People and Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 300; August 1, 1994, review of Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722, p. 553; May 1, 1999, review of Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, p. 380; November 1, 2003, April L. Hatfield, review of Before and after Jamestown, p. 863.

Journal of the West, October 1, 1990, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 107.

Library Journal, October 1, 1990, review of Pocahontas's People, p. 102.

Mississippi Quarterly, September 22, 1991, review of Pocahontas's People, p. 505.

Pacific Historical Review, August 1, 1992, review of Pocahontas's People, p. 417.

Quest, fall, 2005, "Helen Clark Rountree," profile of the author.

Reference & Research Book News, August 1, 1989, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 8; June 1, 1993, review of Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722, p. 12; May 1, 1998, review of Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, p. 39; August 1, 2005, review of Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough, p. 59.

Southern Cultures, Michael D. Green, summer, 2006, review of Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough, p. 94.

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, January 1, 1990, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 103; April 1, 1991, review of Pocahontas's People, p. 204; January 1, 1994, review of Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722, p. 103; June 22, 2002, review of Before and after Jamestown, p. 399; March 22, 2006, review of Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough, p. 292.

Virginia Quarterly Review, January 1, 2003, review of Before and after Jamestown, p. 9.

Western Historical Quarterly, May 1, 1990, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 233; November 1, 1991, review of Pocahontas's People, p. 492.

William and Mary Quarterly, April 1, 1990, review of The Powhatan Indians of Virginia, p. 303; January 1, 1994, review of Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722, p. 125; July 1, 1999, review of Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland, p. 633; October 1, 2005, review of Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough, p. 774.

ONLINE

Virginia Historical Society Web site,http://www.vahistorical.org/ (April 23, 2007), Alexander B. Haskell, review of Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough.

Virginia Libraries Web site,http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ (April 23, 2007), Patricia F. Watkinson, review of Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough.