A native of Virginia, Dr. Helen Rountree is widely acknowledged as the leading researcher and writer on Virginia Indians and one of the leading researchers on East Coast tribes.  Dr. Rountree began researching Powhatan Indians of Virginia, both modern and historical, in 1969. 

Dr. Rountree earned an A.B. in Sociology & Anthropology from the College of William and Mary, a M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Utah, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

Dr. Rountree joined the faculty of Old Dominion University as an Instructor in 1968 and retired as a full Professor in 1999.  She was honored with the 1995 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia.

Dr. Rountree has produced seven academic books for adults:

• The Powhatan Indians of Virginia: Their Traditional Culture
• Pocahontas’s People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia Through Four Centuries
• (edited) Powhatan Foreign Relations, 1500-1722
• (senior author on) Eastern Shore Indians of Virginia and Maryland
• (senior author on) Before and After Jamestown: Virginia’s Powhatans and Their Predecessors
• Pocahontas, Powhatan, and Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown
• (senior author on) John Smith’s Chesapeake Voyages, 1607-1609

A popularized book on Woodland Indian culture:

• Life in an Eastern Woodland Indian Village (2007)

And one book for children:

• Young Pocahontas in the Indian World (1995)