<P> For thousands of years before the arrival of the English, various societies of indigenous peoples inhabited the portion of the New World later designated by the English as "Virginia". Archaeological and historical research by anthropologist Helen C. Rountree and others has established 3,000 years of settlement in much of the Tidewater . Even so, a historical marker dedicated in 2015 states that recent archaeological work at Pocahontas Island has revealed prehistoric habitation dating to about 6500 BCE . </P> <P> As of the 16th Century, what is now the state of Virginia was occupied by three main culture groups--the Iroquoian, the Eastern Siouan & the Algonquian . The tip of the Delmarva Peninsula south of the Indian River was controlled by the Algonquian Nanticoke . Meanwhile, the Tidewater region along the Chesapeake Bay coastline appears to have been controlled by the Algonquian Piscataway (who lived around the Potomac River), the Powhatan & Chowanoke, or Roanoke (who lived between the James River & Neuse River .). Inland of them were two Iroquoian tribes known as the Nottoway, or Managog, & the Meherrin . The rest of Virginia was almost entirely Eastern Sioux, who held lands from the Bluestone River between West Virginia & Kentucky, all the way around through southwest Virginia and up to the Maryland border (the region of the Shenandoah River Valley was controlled by a different people). Also, the lands of Muskogean people connected to the Mississippian Culture may have just barely crossed over into the state into it's southwestern corner . Later, these tribes merged to form the Yuchi . </P> <Ul> <Li> Algonquian </Li> </Ul> <P> Rountree has noted that "empire" more accurately describes the political structure of the Powhatan . In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a chief named Wahunsunacock created this powerful empire by conquering or affiliating with approximately thirty tribes whose territories covered much of what is now eastern Virginia . Known as the Powhatan, or paramount chief, he called this area Tenakomakah ("densely inhabited Land"). The empire was advantageous to some tribes, who were periodically threatened by other groups, such as the Monacan . The Powhatan fared the worst of all Virginia tribes, being pushed south into the Carolinas, being forcibly dissolved by English law, and forcing them to accept English intervention in selecting their chiefs . They disappeared as a distinct people by the Revolutionary War, but their descendants reformed in the 20th & 21st centuries . </P>

The products of the civil war and reconstruction included all of the following except