Pocahontas vs. Disney’s Pocahontas

The story of Pocahontas has long been remembered as a sweet, romantic tale, which has much to do with the 1995 animated movie Pocahontas produced by Disney. It depicts a bright, adventurous Native-American woman enamoured by the handsome John Smith, and how she brings two warring groups (the Powhatan people and the English colonists) together through the power of love.

It may not surprise you to know that her real story wasn’t quite as rosy. While the movie does take notes from what really did happen in Jamestown circa 1607, there are MANY notable details that were left out of the story - details that are worth knowing.

The inaccuracies start with the title - Pocahontas. Her real name was Amonute, or Matoaka, as she was more privately called. The name ‘Pocahontas’ was a nickname given to her, which meant “playful one” or “misbehaved one”. It seems like the kind of nickname that would be given to a little kid, right?

Because that’s what Pocahontas was - a kid. Given that she was born around 1596, Pocahontas was an 11-year-old girl when the then 27-year-old John Smith landed in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. Unfortunately, this rather critical piece of information couldn’t be translated into the plot of the movie, as it would have hindered the possibility of a love story between the two characters. And then it wouldn’t have been interesting enough to make a movie out of, right?

However, from John Smith’s personal accounts, it is visible that he has a unique interest in Pocahontas. He wrote of her physical beauty, and how he thought she was an interesting child with wit and spirit. Although it was vaguely considered that he would be the king of the Powhatan people if he were to marry her (which is what we call “illegal” in today’s time), there was no real mention of a romance between them. In fact, Pocahontas went on to marry two other people - a Powhatan man named Kocoum, and then to the English John Rolfe.

She married Kocoum in1610 (it’s worth noting that she was only 14 years old at the time), and gave birth to a son, whom historians call “little Kocoum”. Some historians claim that this was a marriage of love, since Kocoum wasn’t ranked very high on the social hierarchy at the time, and wasn’t a chief or councillor. If that’s true, it would be the first and last shred of romance in her story.

In 1613, when the colonists and Powhatan people weren’t on good terms, Captain Samuel Argall kidnapped Pocahontas, along with several other Indigenous women, in the hopes of using them as leverage to secure the return of some prisoners, and stolen English weapons. She was forced to give up her son, and wasn’t allowed to leave even after Chief Powhatan (her father) released the English prisoners. On the ship, she and the other indigenous women were allegedly raped and abused. She was taken from Jamestown to a second English settlement, forcefully converted to Christianity and baptised as ‘Rebecca’, and married to tobacco farmer John Rolfe.

I think we like to buy into this fabricated version of history. It’s just more comfortable to ignore the reality of the situation - the reality being that Pocahontas, like countless other Native-American women at the time, was kidnapped, held in captivity, assaulted by English colonists, and forced to convert to Christianity. We like to think that this intelligent woman rejected her own culture and people, in favour of the more “civilised” colonists and their Christianity. It makes us feel like we’re the good people, the right people, for trying to help the Native-American tribes - and only someone as clever and perceptive as Pocahontas could see it. It’s a comfortable idea, but it’s not real.

This movie is inaccurate, promotes ignorance, erases the endless suffering endured by Native-American tribes, and generally boils down some incredibly serious subject matter to a (let’s be honest) mediocre love story. But maybe it’s a good thing that it was released?

The movie presents a bright, curious, and adventurous Native-American woman as the main character, which is greatly significant for indigenous people. Coming from a person who belongs to a race that has been chronically discounted from Western media, representation really matters. Seeing yourself on a big screen can make you feel empowered - or at the very least, visible. It also gives people an opportunity to research and educate themselves on Native-American history, kind of like how I did.