The Mattaponi is a Native American tribe that lives on a reservation along the Mattaponi River in King William County, Virginia. The Mattaponi were one of six tribes inherited by Chief Wahunsonacock of the Powhatan in the 1590s, and they had about 450 members and 140 warriors by the time that Captain John Smith and the English arrived in 1607. During the second Anglo-Powhatan War of 1644-1646, the Mattaponi fled to the highlands along Piscataway Creek before returning to their homes after agreeing to become tributaries of the English. Nathaniel Bacon's colonial militia attacked the innocent Mattaponi tribe during Bacon's Rebellion, but the Mattaponi and Pamunkey resumed their vassalage after the rebellion was suppressed. Over the next several centuries, the Mattaponi defeated white attempts to encroach on their lands through legal action. By the 21st century, 450 Mattaponi lived on the King William County reservation, while 575 lived on the "Upper Mattaponi" reservation in Hanover County.
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