Kiskiack

Kiskiack (or Chisiack or Chiskiack) was a Native American tribal group of the Powhatan Confederacy in what is present-day York County, Virginia. The name means "Wide Land" or "Bread Place" in the native language, one of the Virginia Algonquian languages. It was also the name of their village on the Virginia Peninsula.

Later English colonists adopted the name for their own village in that area. The site was later developed for the US Naval Weapons Station Yorktown in York County. The settlement was 11 miles (18 km) from Werowocomoco, capital of the Powhatan Confederacy.

History

In the mid-16th and early 17th century, the Algonquian-speaking Kiskiack tribe, part of the large Powhatan Confederacy, was located near the south bank of the York River on the Virginia Peninsula, which extended into the Chesapeake Bay. The present-day city of Yorktown developed a few miles east of here. The Kiskiack had built permanent villages, made up of numerous long-houses or yihakans, in which related families would live. The longhouses had both private and communal space.