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Depictions of Pocahontas--arguably the most famous Indian in American history--are all over the map, depending on culture, politics, gender and the era. By Michael Zitz Date published: 3/3/2007
By Michael Zitz
SHE'S ALTERNATELY America's first sex symbol, our own Joan of Arc and the Mother of Our Country. Or all three. Or she's someone who sold Virginia Indian tribes down the river because of a crush. To some, she was a pawn. To virtually everyone, she's an icon. "To some, she is a heroine, but to others, she's a betrayer," said Barry Richardson, a Haliwa-Saponi Indian from Warren County, N.C., who puts on educational powwow events. Regardless of point of view, Pocahontas has fascinated not just America but the world, for the 400 years since the Jamestown colony gave the English a permanent foothold on this continent in 1607. Some historians say that were it not for young Pocahontas' help in providing them with food, the colonists probably would have starved. And, if that had happened, observes Chief Robert "Two Eagles" Green of Stafford County's Patawomack Tribe, virtually all Americans might be speaking Spanish or French right now. Roll up Gandhi, Bill Clinton, Marilyn Monroe, Anna Nicole Smith and Britney Spears into one powerful persona, and you still wouldn't create the kind of enduring star power, controversy and just plain heat generated by the native woman who died at 22. In her own time, her people were often treated as savages by the British, but Pocahontas herself was a media star even English royals were excited to meet. Part of it has to do with the disputed story that she saved the life of Jamestown leader John Smith. But as is the case with most celebrities today, Pocahontas' fame was, and still is, fueled by sex appeal. In pop-culture portrayals, she has always been seen as a beautiful princess right out of a fairy tale. The Jamestown settlement and all that flowed from it was no fairy tale. But as one of the young daughters of Wahunsonacock, powerful ruler of a confederacy that included many tribes and extended from Delaware through Maryland to eastern Virginia, she had status among her people and the colonists.
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