The Powhatan resented the English settlers because they made regular incursions into their lands without permission. These lands had been occupied by the Powhatan since time immemorial; they were ancestral hunting lands which had deep cultural significance to the tribe and were considered sacred. Unsurprisingly, then, the Powhatan didn't take too kindly to the Jamestown settlers encroaching on their territory.
Relations between the Powhatan and the English settlers, which had initially been quite cordial, rapidly deteriorated, to the extent that a series of full-scale conflicts broke out between the two sides. A brief period of peace ensued after the marriage of the Powhatan princess Pocahontas to the English tobacco planter John Rolfe. But after she passed away, conflict resumed, this time even more bitter and bloody. The Powhatan made regular raids on Jamestown, indiscriminately killing men, women, and children. The English retaliated with equal ferocity, using their superior firepower to bring the Powhatan to within an ace of extinction.
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