A new book called "Jamestown and the Birth of America" by historian James Horn says that tribes did not welcome the European settlers at Jamestown, Virginia.

Washington Post reviewer Jonathan Yardley says the settlers faced "constant" warfare with tribes and that it was "miraculous" that Jamestown survived. Yardley says the book credits their survival to Capt. John Smith's negotiations with local tribal leaders.

Yardley then says Opechancanough, the chief of the Pamunkey Tribe, reached a deal but then betrayed the settlers and had them killed in "a slaughter of unimaginable proportions," according to the book. This ushered in an official government policy to exterminate the tribes and enslave any survivors.

Get the Story:
Jonathan Yardley: The Story of Us: Revisiting Jamestown's Difficult Birth (The Washington Post 10/25)
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Relevant Links:
Jamestown 2007 - http://www.jamestown2007.org

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