There were no Native Americans at the Powhatan Village on the first day at the 400th Anniversary of America. The one real Indian, a young bear-sized Mattaponi with a Mohawk haircut, was out to lunch in midday Friday. About a dozen white men and women were posing as Indians, dressed in long leather outfits and re-creating life as it would have been in 1607 when three ships carrying English settlers landed on the shores of what is now the James River.

On Friday, the men and women cooked game hen over an open pit fire, made arrowheads and weaved mats. The sturdy huts where they were supposed to live were too hot to stay in and they were congregating on the outside.