The Pamunkey Native American tribe is one of two existing tribes in Virginia that were part of the Powhatan Confeeracy. They inhabited the coastal tidewater of Virginia near Chesapeake Bay. The Pamunkey reservation is located on the site of some of its ancestral land on the Pamunkey River adjacent to King William County, Virginia. The Pamunkey tribe is significant to American history because of its early contact with colonial settlers and adaptations for self preservation through the centuries. Native Americans have occupied this part of the mid-Atlantic coast since pre-Columbian times.