The True Story of Pocahontas [View all]

Historian Camilla Townsend separates fact from fiction, as a new documentary premieres about the American Indian princess

Pocahontas might be a household name, but the true story of her short but powerful life has been buried in myths that have persisted since the 17th century. To start with, Pocahontas wasn’t even her actual name. Born about 1596, her real name was Amonute, and she also had the more private name Matoaka. Pocahontas was her nickname, which depending on who you ask means “playful one" or “ill-behaved child.”

Pocahontas was the favorite daughter of Powhatan, the formidable ruler of the more than 30 Algonquian-speaking tribes in and around the area that the early English settlers would claim as Jamestown, Virginia.

Now, 400 years after her death, the story of the real Pocahontas is finally being accurately explored. In Smithsonian Channel’s new documentary Pocahontas: Beyond the Myth, premiered on March 27, authors, historians, curators and representatives from the Pamunkey tribe of Virginia, the descendants of Pocahontas, offer expert testimony to paint a picture of a spunky, cartwheeling Pocahontas who grew up to be a clever and brave young woman, serving as a translator, ambassador and leader in her own right in the face of European power.

Camilla Townsend, author of the authoritative Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma and a history professor at Rutgers University, who is featured in Beyond the Myth, talks to Smithsonian.com about why the story of Pocahontas has been so distorted for so long and why her true legacy is vital to understand today.

article/interview :
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-pocahontas-180962649/