The True Story of Pocahontas

01Pocahontas is one of the most famous figures in American history.

02Many books and films portray her as a beautiful American Indian princess who made sacrifices to serve British colonial interests.

03These stories also suggest that she saved England's first Virginia settlers from death and starvation.

04Most likely, none of that is true.

05Pocahontas was the daughter of Pamunkey Chief Wahoon Seneca.

06He was leader of an alliance of about 30 Algonquian tribes and bands in Virginia when the British arrived in 1607.

07This did not make her a princess, however.

08Royalty was a European idea.

09Her family called her Matoka, flower between two streams.

10This likely referred to their home between Virginia's Mattapanai and Pamunkey Rivers.

11Tradition has said that her father also called her Pocahontas.

12This has several possible meanings, including wanton to mischievous.

13The name suggests she had a lively personality.

14Little is known of Pocahontas' childhood.

15Linwood Little Bear Kustalo was a member of the Mattapanai tribe, an ally of Wahoon Seneca's.

16Dr.

17Linwood's book, The True Story of Pocahontas, The Other Side of History, reports about Mattapanai oral history.

18It says Matoka married a young Potowomak fighter named Cocowum when she was about 14.

19They had a child called Little Cocowum, who was raised among the Mattapanai.

20The book also says that the English murdered the older Cocowum.

21In 1613, the English took Pocahontas and imprisoned her because they thought it would help influence negotiations with her father.

22They kept her for a year at the settlement of Jamestown.

23At some point during her imprisonment, Pocahontas was declared a Christian, and her British captors gave her a new name, Rebecca.

24The Mattapanai say at one point the English settlers permitted her sister to visit her.

25During that visit, Pocahontas told her sister that she had been raped.

26During her time at Jamestown, a British farmer named John Rolfe took an interest in her.

27The details of their relationship are not clear.

28In his writings, Rolfe said that he loved Pocahontas, but also recognized that a marriage alliance between Britain and Virginia tribes would be helpful.

29Rolfe married Pocahontas in 1614, and she gave birth to a son, Thomas.

30The Mattapanai say her father did not attend the wedding.

31However, he gave her a necklace made of pearls harvested from Virginia's coastal waters as a gift.

32Pocahontas later traveled to England with Rolfe and Thomas to help bring attention to the new Virginia colony.

33She was presented to the Queen as Virginia's first Christian.

34Historical records say she was well received.

35However, Pocahontas became sick and later died before she and Rolfe could return to Virginia.

36She was buried at St.

37George's Church in the Kent town of Gravesend on March 21, 1617.

38A memorial statue of Pocahontas stands there today.

39Pocahontas is most famous for an event that likely never happened, saving British explorer Captain John Smith from death by Chief Wahoon Seneca in 1607.

40Smith claimed that he had been taken prisoner by a group of fighters who brought him before Chief Wahoon Seneca.

41Smith said they were ready to kill him with a club, but, he wrote, Pocahontas threw herself down on top of the prisoner, which saved his life.

42Today, the Matapunai say it could not have happened.

43They say such behavior would not have been consistent with Virginia native culture or custom.

44Non-native researchers also suspect the truth of this story, taking note that even in his own time, people saw Smith as a liar who had an inflated sense of his own importance.

45I'm Phil Deerking.

46I'm Phil Deerking.

47I'm Phil Deerking.

48I'm Phil Deerking.

49I'm Phil Deerking.