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THE II©IANS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
There are many evidences that before the coming of 
the white man Indians had their villages in what is now the 
District of Columbia. These Indians spoke the language of 
the great Algonquian family which covered the east coast, and 
for this reason the Algonquians were met by John Smith at 
Jamestown and by the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Much more Is 
known about the Virginia Indians than of the northeastern 
tribes seen by Winthrop because Sir Walter Raleigh sent along 
with John Smith a competent artist who drew pictures of the 
natives, their houses, dances, occupations, and of animals of 
the sea and land. Accustomed as we are to the buckskin of the 
western Indians, we will be surprised to know that Powhatan’s 
braves had nary a shirt to their backs, robes taking their 
place. The women wore short skirts and the children dispensed 
with clothes. Of course In the cold months of winter the 
Indians withdrew into their houses and enjoyed the stores of 
corn, smoked fish, hickory nuts, and such things as they had 
laid up. The houses were of bent poles covered with mats and 
were in shape like a hay rick seen on farms. 
Such houses were spaced with some regularity into 
villages, surrounded by cornfields, and having a dance plaza 
smoothed by the bare feet of the celebrants around the central 
fire. Secotan was a scattered village among the trees, while 
Pomeioc was massed in a circular palisade of sharpened stakes. 
