Pocahontas (Native American Legends)

.VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NATIVE AMERICAN LEGENDS

POCAHONTAS

Don McLeese

Publishing LLC Vero Beach, Florida 32964

© 2004 Rourke Publishing LLC All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher. www.rourkepublishing.com PHOTO CREDITS: ©Library of Congress pgs 5, 11, 17, 22, 25 ©Hulton/Archive by Getty Images Cover, pgs 8, 12, 15, 19, 21, 26 ©Canadian Heritage, National Archives of Canada pg 7 ©James P. Rowan Title pg

Title page: A recent photograph of a Powhattan village dwelling at Jamestown Editor: Frank Sloan Cover and page design by Nicola Stratford

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McLeese, Don. Pocahontas / Don McLeese. p. cm. -- (Native American legends) Summary: A brief biography of the seventeenth-century Indian princess who befriended Captain John Smith and the English settlers of Jamestown. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-58952-728-3 (hardcover) 1. Pocahontas, d. 1617--Juvenile literature. 2. Powhatan Indians--Biography--Juvenile literature. 3. Jamestown (Va.)--History--Juvenile literature. [1. Pocahontas, d. 1617. 2. Powhatan Indians--Biography. 3. Indians of North America--Biography. 4. Women--Biography. 5. Jamestown (Va.)--History.] I. Title. II. Series. E99.P85P5743 2003 975.5'01'092--dc21 2003004597

Printed in the USA w/w

Table of Contents Making Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 A Playful Girl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 A Mighty Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 English Settlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 John Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Captured! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Saved! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 True or False? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Losing a Friend? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Prisoner and Wife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Learning English Ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 The Last Days of Pocahontas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Pocahontas’s People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Time Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Further Reading/Websites to Visit . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Making Friends

T

he story of a girl with the nickname Pocahontas

and her friendship with John Smith is one of the most famous in early American history. She was a Native American girl, the daughter of a mighty chief. Smith had come from England and was the leader of a number of people who had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle. Native Americans had lived on this land for centuries and the people from England wanted to live here and have the land be their own.

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Because they were so different, many of the Native Americans and people from England didn’t trust each other. One day in 1607, the Native Americans made John Smith their prisoner. He thought the tribe was going to kill him. But the 12-year-old Pocahontas liked him and told her father to save the life of her friend. Because of Pocahontas, the English settlers and Native Americans learned that they could become friends and trust each other.

An illustration that shows the legend of Pocahontas saving the life of John Smith

A Playful Girl

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ocahontas was born in 1595. Her real name was

Matoaka, but she became better known as “Pocahontas,” a word that means “playful one” in her Native American language. She liked to play and had a lot of spirit. She had a mind of her own and didn’t always do what other people told her to do. She and her Algonquin tribe lived in what is now the state of Virginia.

Algonquin The Algonquin tribe was made up of many other tribes, who all spoke the same language. The original tribe came from Canada, before some of them moved to the eastern part of what is now the United States.

Sketches of Algonquin working with a canoe and a beaver trap

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A Mighty Chief

T

he father of Pocahontas was named Powhattan.

His tribe was also called Powhattan. Because he was so powerful, other Native Americans did whatever he said. Pocahontas wasn’t afraid of the important chief. He was her father, and she was his princess. They loved each other very much.

Powhattan Chief Powhattan’s real name was Wahunsonacock. He was called Powhattan after his favorite Native American village in Virginia, and so was his tribe.

W Powhattan was the chief of more than 25 tribes.

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English Settlers

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n the early 1600s, many people from England

began sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to come live in this new country. In 1607, Captain John Smith and some English settlers started a village that they called Jamestown. It was in what is now the state of Virginia, very near where Pocahontas lived with the Powhattan tribe. The Native Americans had never seen people like the ones who came to live in Jamestown. The English people had white skin. They spoke a language that the Native Americans didn’t understand. They carried guns instead of hunting with bows and arrows like the Native Americans did.

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The Native Americans and the English settlers didn’t know what to think about each other. Each thought the other might cause trouble.

Jamestown was named for King James I, who was the king of England from 1566 to 1625.

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John Smith

T

he leader of Jamestown was a soldier named

Captain John Smith. He was 27 years old when he and his company sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from England to what is now Virginia. They landed there in May, 1607. Times were hard for the English in the new country. Many of them got sick and had trouble finding enough to eat. It was harder for them to live there than it was for the

The London Company The money for Smith and the others to sail to America came from the London Company in England. The company thought that the settlers would find gold and silver there, which were worth a lot of money.

Native Americans.

W John Smith was an English soldier and explorer.

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Captured!

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n December, 1607, Smith was exploring with

some of the settlers when he was taken by some Native Americans. They made him their prisoner and took him to Powhattan, their leader. Powhattan’s village was 12 miles (19.3 kilometers) away from Jamestown. John Smith was sure the Native Americans wanted to kill him.

Differences The Native Americans and the people from England were very different. The brown-skinned Native Americans and the whiterskinned English people looked different and wore different clothes. They had different religions and spoke different languages.

An engraving that shows John Smith with Native Americans

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Saved!

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hen John Smith came to Powhattan’s village, the

Native Americans made him lie down on two large, flat stones. The Native Americans stood over him with their weapons. They had clubs that were sticks with a hard rock at the end. John Smith thought the Native Americans planned to hit him with those clubs until he died. Suddenly, the little girl known as Pocahontas rushed to John Smith as he was lying on the stones. She wrapped her arms around his head, and she put her head on top of his. The Native Americans couldn’t hurt John Smith without hurting Pocahontas.

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Powhattan didn’t want to see his daughter hurt, so he told the Native Americans to let John Smith go. He said that if Pocahontas liked John Smith then John Smith must be a good man. Powhattan said John Smith was now a friend to all of the tribe and a helper to the chief.

A color painting showing Pocahontas saving the life of John Smith

True or False?

T

his story became very famous after John Smith

wrote it in a book about his life in Jamestown. Later, some people said that maybe the story wasn’t all true, that it was more like a fairy tale. Maybe the Native Americans had only been playing with John Smith and had never Trading Because the Native Americans didn’t use English money or have stores to buy things, they and the English settlers would trade things that each other wanted.

planned to kill him.

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An engraving that shows the many V adventures of John Smith

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Whether or not Pocahontas really saved John Smith’s life, she and the captain became friends. After the Native Americans let him go back to Jamestown, Pocahontas came there often to visit. She brought food from Powhattan, and the English settlers gave her tools and weapons to take back. Because Pocahontas and John Smith became friends, the Native Americans and English settlers became friendlier as well.

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Losing a Friend?

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he Native Americans and the English settlers

continued to trade with each other, but they didn’t all get along as well as Pocahontas and John Smith did. In 1608, Smith became president of Virginia. This was a colony that belonged to England before it became a state when Colonies These are like states that belong to another country. Before the United States became a country, the land had 13 colonies, and they belonged to England.

the United States was formed. Many Native Americans thought Smith was mean, and they were afraid of him. He was still friends with Pocahontas.

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Settlers in Jamestown trade with Native Americans inside a fort.

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In 1609, Smith had an accident when some gunpowder exploded. He was wounded and went back to England to get better. When Pocahontas went to Jamestown, she was told that John Smith was dead. This made her very sad, because she thought she had lost her friend.

Prisoner and Wife

I

n 1613, Pocahontas was taken to an English ship

and held there as a prisoner. The Native Americans were holding some English settlers as prisoners. Powhattan learned that his daughter was captured, and that she wouldn’t be let go until he let the English prisoners go. The English settlers also wanted corn to eat from the tribe. While she was a prisoner, Pocahontas met John Rolfe, an Englishmen. The two became friends and fell in love. In 1614, Pocahontas became John Rolfe’s wife.

W An English ship like the one where Pocahontas was held captive

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Learning English Ways

J

ust like her friendship with John Smith, the

marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe showed that Native Americans and English people could get along. She learned all about the Christian religion from the English



people and started believing in

John Rolfe John Rolfe believed very strongly in the Christian religion. Native Americans had their own religion. Though Pocahontas and Rolfe loved each other very much, he wouldn’t marry her unless she became Christian like the English people.

that. She took “Rebecca” as her Christian name, and that’s what her husband called her, instead of Pocahontas.

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A painting of Pocahontas at the court of King James of England

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After she had a baby boy, she went to England with her son and her husband in 1616. She was famous there for saving the life of John Smith, so she was taken to meet the king and his family. She also learned that John Smith wasn’t dead, but was still living in England. She was very happy to see Smith.

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The Last Days of Pocahontas

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n 1617, Pocahontas planned to sail back to

Virginia with her husband, but she became too sick for the trip. She was only 22 years old when she died and was buried in England. John Smith lived another 14 years, until 1631. The story of their friendship lives on, because it showed how two very different people could learn to help and trust each other.

John Smith. After he returned to England, he wrote a number of books about America and what it was like to live there. He gave the name “New England” to the northeast part of what is now the United States.

W A painting of Pocahontas after she had converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe

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Pocahontas’s People

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ocahontas’s small tribe was called Powhattan, after

her father, who was also the group’s chief. This tribe spoke the Algonkian language, which was one of three language families spoken by Native Americans who lived in the Northeast Woodlands. Descendants of the Powhattan are known as the Powhattan-Renape. About 2,000 of them live today on the Rankokus Reservation in New Jersey. Others live in Oklahoma and in Canada.

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1595

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Time Line 5

Pocahontas is born.

1607 5

Smith and crew sail from England to Virginia.

1607 5

Smith is taken by Native Americans while exploring.

1608 5

Smith becomes president of Virginia.

1609 5

Smith is sent back to England to get better.

1613

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Pocahontas is taken prisoner by an English ship.

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Pocahontas marries John Rolfe.

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Pocahontas goes to England.

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Pocahontas becomes sick and dies.

5

John Smith dies.

1614 1616 1617 1631

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Glossary Algonquin (al GOHN kwin) — a group of Native American tribes that spoke the same language (also the name of the language they spoke) chief (CHEEF) — leader, head of a Native American tribe Christian (KRIS chun) — a religion that believes that Jesus Christ is the son of God colony (CAHL oh nee) — a territory that belongs to another country Matoaka (MAH to AH kuh) — the name of the girl who took the nickname “Pocahontas” Native American (NAY tiv uh MARE ih can) — people who lived in the land that is now the United States before explorers from Europe came Pocahontas (poe cuh HAHN tis) — a Native American girl who helped her people and English settlers become friendlier Powhattan (pow HAT un) — the name taken by the father of Pocahontas (also the name of the tribe where he was chief) prisoner (PRIZZ nur) — someone captured by the enemy or put into prison settlers (SET lers) — people who move to a new land to live there tribe (TRYB) — one of the bands or nations of Native Americans

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Further Reading Edwards, Judith. Jamestown, John Smith and Pocahontas in American History. Enslow Publishers, 2002 Sonneborn, Liz. Pocahontas: 1595-1617. Capstone Press, 2002 Sullivan, George. Pocahontas. Scholastic, Inc., 2002

Websites to Visit www.apva.org/history/pocahont.html www.geocities.com/Broadway/1001/poca.html www.incwell.com/Biographies/Pocahontas.html

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ROURKE POCAHONTAS

Index Algonquin tribe 6 birth 6 death 27 Jamestown 10-12 London Company 13 Powhattan 9, 28 Rolfe, John 23-24 Smith, John 4, 10, 13-21, 25-27

About The Author Don McLeese is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in many newspapers and magazines. He earned his M.A. degree in English from the University of Chicago, taught feature writing at the University of Texas and has frequently contributed to the World Book Encyclopedia. He lives with his wife and two daughters in West Des Moines, Iowa.

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