The True Story of Pocahontas

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The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History is a 2007 book written by Dr. Linwood "Little Bear" Custalow and Angela L. Daniel "Silver Star" who claim they are revealing for the first time the oral history of the Mattaponi tribe and its contents regarding the story of Pocahontas and John Smith. The authors claim the book is a collection of four hundred years of Mattaponi oral tradition passed down through the tribe's quiakros (priests who dedicated their lives to learning).^[1]

Synopsis[]

Birth[]

According to the authors' account of Mattaponi oral history, the story of Pocahontas is a love story between Pocahontas and her father ?? , Wahunseneca (sometimes spelled Wahunsenaka), the paramount chief of the Powhatans. Though it was customary for him to marry maidens from each of his tribes to strengthen the bloodline within the nation, his most treasured marriage was his marriage of love to his wife, Pocahontas, before he became paramount chief. Pocahontas died while giving birth to a daughter. At the time, her name was '''Matoaka''' or Amonute,^[2] with Matoaka meaning the “flower between two streams,” as her mother was Mattaponi and her father was Pamunkey, relating to the Mattaponi and Pamunkey (York) Rivers.^[3][4][5] She was determined the favorite of Wahunseneca, as she reminded him the most of her late mother.^[3]

Arrival of the English[]

Matoaka was about ten years old when the English landed in what is now Virginia in 1607.^[4][3] At the time, quiakros tried to make the English allies of the Powhatan. In the winter of that same year, Smith and some others were met by hunting warriors. After a skirmish, Smith was taken to Wahunseneca, to whom he explained that the English arrived to avoid the Spanish, whom the Powhatan were wary about.^[3] Due to the hardships faced by the colonists on Jamestown Island, Wahunseneca offered to adopt the colonists into the tribe and name Smith their werowance (sub-chief).^[5] It was this ceremony in which Smith describes the famous scene of Pocahontas saving his life. However, the Mattaponi claim that Smith's life was never in danger as he was then a respected member of the tribe.^[3] The ceremony to make Smith a werowance took four days, and children (such as Matoaka) were not allowed in these spaces.^[4][3]

Smith would have first met Matoaka in Jamestown after his return. Wahunseneca allowed tribe members to bring food to the English because they had no knowledge or experience of cultivating the land.^[4] Matoaka would have been in this group, but with much protection from warriors and the quiakros, as she was the treasured daughter of the paramount chief. It was at this time that she and Smith exchanged English and Algonquin words for translation, as she eventually helped to serve as translator between peoples.^[2][4] She would not have traveled of her own accord, as Jamestown Island took crossing the York River and walking twelve miles – a trip hardly passable for a ten-year-old girl.^[3] The Mattaponi believe that misconceptions of her leading the entourage of food stem from her being placed in the front of it as a peace symbol from the Powhatan.

In the summer of 1608, tensions grew between the Powhatan and the English due to Smith demanding corn from villages. Smith was berated by Wahunseneca, who told Smith he wanted peace between the two peoples.^[6] It was during this visit that popular myth claims Matoaka came to Smith and warned him of Wahunseneca's plot to kill him.^[6] The Mattaponi believe this was not possible, as she would not have slipped past the warriors guarding her in the night.^[3] After some time, Smith returned to England after a gunpowder incident, of which the colonists told Matoaka he died of.

Coming of Age and Captivity[]

Because of tense relations, Wahunseneca stopped allowing Pocahontas to go to Jamestown. He believed that she would become more of a target, because she was beginning to come of age.^[3] Eventually, she celebrated her coming-of-age ceremony (huskanasquaw), between twelve and fourteen years of age, during which she changed her name from Matoaka to that of her mother's, Pocahontas. During this time she also met and married Kocoum (also spelled Kokoum), a warrior of her father's, and became pregnant. For safety reasons, she left Werowocomoco and lived in Kocoum's home village, where she gave birth to a son.^[3] When Captain Samuel Argall learned of Pocahontas's whereabouts, he demanded that Chief Japazaw (Kocoum's brother) bring Pocahontas to the ship to see the inside. After a lengthy council meeting, Japazaw decided it would be in the best interest and safety of the tribe to meet his demands. He bargained for her to be safely returned to him after a temporary time. However, when she was escorted on, it is reported by the Mattaponi that Argall broke his word and held her as an indefinite captive, throwing Japazaw and his wife a copper pot for the good “trade.” Before the ship set sail, Argall's men went to Pocahontas's home and killed Kocoum.^[3] Her son survived, as he was with other women of the tribe at that time.

Pocahontas was taken back to Jamestown, where she was turned over to Sir Thomas Gates. She was about fifteen or sixteen at the time. Tradition says that she was prepared for her capture. This is because she was taught from an early age what to do in the event of a capture by a foreign people, as it was common for Powhatan wives to be captured in times of war.

Conversion and Marriage[]

Efforts were made by Sir Thomas Dale, Reverend Alexander Whitaker, and John Rolfe to convert her to Christianity and teach her English manners. Eventually, she was baptized and given the name Rebecca. During this time, the Mattaponi say she had anxiety and sank into a deep depression.^[3] She became fearful and withdrawn, eventually escalating into having a nervous breakdown. Because of this, the English requested that her eldest sister, Mattachanna, stay with her and be her caretaker in captivity.^[3]

To her sister, Pocahontas confided that she was raped. The book emphasizes this fact. It is believed that Mattachanna came to her during her first trimester.^[1]

It is believed she was moved from Jamestown to Henrico during her pregnancy to avoid suspicion. There, her second son, Thomas, was born before her marriage to John Rolfe in the spring of 1614 in Jamestown after he wrote a letter to Sir Thomas Dale seeking permission.^[7]

Her father was not present for this wedding for the fear of being captured; however, he did send Pocahontas a necklace of sizeable pearls, which she is seen wearing in multiple portraits.

Death in England[]

Rolfe gained prestige from his marriage to the paramount chief's daughter. Because of this, he went on a public-relation's tour in England with Pocahontas and Thomas. A dozen or so Powhatan, along with Mattachana accompanied them. They set sail in the spring of 1616. Here, according to the Mattaponi, Pocahontas was shown off to hide the failing colony in Virginia and gather support from the English crown to send more settlers to the New World. Pocahontas eventually realized this when she discovered that Smith was still alive and well in England. She confronted him in a rage because of his deception to her and her people.^[4]

Arrangements were made to return to Virginia on a ship captained by Argall. As it began to sail on March 21, 1617, Pocahontas quickly became ill after dining with Rolfe and Argall.^[8] She returned to her room and vomited, telling Mattachanna that she thought something was put in her food.^[1] Mattachanna went to get Rolfe as she convulsed. When she returned, Pocahontas had died. She was quickly buried in Gravesend, where Thomas was left to the clergy until relatives arrived. Rolfe left immediately for Virginia.

Upon return, Mattachanna and her husband, along with the rest of the Powhatans, reported that Pocahontas was poisoned before her departure, as she was in good health in England and on the boat home. This contrasts with the belief that she died of tuberculosis, as Mattachanna insisted Pocahontas's death was quick and sudden.

The Mattaponi believe she was poisoned, due to her realization of English intentions to take over Powhatan lands for the production of tobacco.

After her abduction, Wahunseneca's health rapidly declined. Eventually, he could not make sound decisions and handed the chiefdom over to his brother, Opechancanough, who moved the capital form Werowocomoco to Pamunkey. Wahunseneca eventually died in the spring of 1618, within a year of Pocahontas's own death. The book ends with the explanation that he died blaming himself for her death and letting his wife down, as the oral traditions say her last words to him were “take care of my child for me.”^[1]

Reception[]

The True Story of Pocahontas has received favorable reviews in the Virginia Gazette and Indian Country Today.^[1] However, historian J. Frederick Fausz has called it “flawed”,^[9] and a number of historians and anthropologists who have studied the Powhatans have refused to comment on the book. Anthropologist Helen C. Rountree, who has published extensively on Native American history and culture in the Chesapeake area, is an exception and wrote “I don’t believe Linwood’s 'sacred tradition' stuff was either accurate or passed down through the Mattaponis. … Linwood didn’t get any of his stuff from his ancestors.”^[10]

References[]