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Pocahontas Played Mythic Role in Founding of Jamestown

Scholars still disagree on some crucial aspects of the American Indian's story

Who was the real Pocahontas?

One of the most famous stories connected with the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, portrays Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan chief Wahunsunacock, heroically saving English colonial leader John Smith from being clubbed to death in 1607. The story was featured in the Disney's 1995 animated film, Pocahontas, and Terrence Malick's The New World that was released 10 years later. Both films suggested a romantic relationship between the two.

But some scholars dispute the historical accuracy of the event, based entirely on Smith's own writings 17 years after it supposedly occurred. Some argue Smith had misinterpreted a Powhatan adoption ritual; others say the clubbing incident might not have happened because Smith never mentioned it in any of his contemporary journals, but invented or embellished the story years later, after Pocahontas had married English settler John Rolfe and converted to Christianity.

The name "Pocahontas" was actually a nickname for Wahunsunacock's daughter Matoaka, who would have been only 10 or 11 years old at the time Jamestown was established. After being captured and held by the English in 1613, she adopted Christianity, married Rolfe and changed her name to Rebecca. En route to Virginia in 1617 after visiting England, she died and was buried at the town of Gravesend, England. In addition to a romanticized legacy, due mainly to Smith's writings, she also left a son, Thomas Rolfe, from whom many Virginians claim to be descended, including President Woodrow Wilson's second wife, Edith Bolling Galt, and Arctic explorer Admiral Richard Byrd.

In 2006, a delegation of Virginia's eight remaining tribes - the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Mattaponi, Monacan Indian Nation, Nansemond, Pamunkey, Rappahannock and Upper Mattaponi - visited Pocahontas' grave site in Gravesend, England. There, they paid tribute to her role as an ambassador between her tribe and the early English settlers.

For more information about Jamestown and its indigenous peoples, see related article.

Source: U.S. Department of State