Pocahontas in London at the age of 22, dressed to visit the Royal Court and King James. She died some months later. The portrait is in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.. The painting is a later copy of the etching which was made during her visit in London 1616.

Pocahontas was born about 1595 in east Virginia and she got the name Matoaka. Her father was Wahunsanacock, also called Powhatan, chief over the Powhatan people. On the 26:th of April in 1607 the first English settlers in Virginia comes to Chesapeake Bay. The 14:th of May the same year they found the little colony Jamestown on the James and Chickahiminy rivers. In the year of 1607 Pocahontas then 12 years old visits Jamestown several times and there she meets Captain John Smith, whom she educates in the Powhatan language.

In December of 1607 Smith is captured by Powhatan warriors and taken to the village Werowocomoco where he meets Powhatan. Pocahontas saves his life as she begs her father not to execute him. In Januari/Februari 1608 Pocahontas sends indian messengers to Jamestown with food to the starving settlers. In Januari 1609 Powhatan orders Smith to die. Pocahontas tells Smith about this and he escapes on a ship to England

"Why are you taking things from us with violence, things you can get by being kind? Why do you want to destroy us, we who gave you food? What can you win by making war? We can hide our supplies and flee back in the woods, and then you will probably be starving by being unfair to your friends. What is the cause of your jealousy? You look at us and we are unarmed and willing to satisfy your requirements, if you come to us in a friendly way of being and not with swords and rifles as to insult an enemy." Powhatan 1609.

In the Fall of 1609 Pocahontas father Powhatan orderes a massacre of 60 settlers being in the village of Werowocomoco. Pocahontas then moves as a protest from the village and lives with the Patawomeke tribe. In the spring of 1613 Pocahontas is kidnapped by Captain Samuel Argall, who takes her to Jamestown as an English prisoner. In the year of 1613 or 1614 she is baptisted a Christian by the protestantic priest Alexander Whitaker. On the 5:th of April 1614 Pocahontas marries the settler John Rolfe and takes the name of Rebecca Rolfe. The year after they have a son named Thomas. In the spring of 1616 she sails to London among others to found a Christian school for English and Native children. In March 1617 she dies during the journey back, and she is buried in Gravesend in England. One believe that she had difficulty in breathing. Other historic information says she died from smallpox. Her son Thomas was educated in England and had a daughter, Jane Rolfe.
(From "Pocahontas Powhatan Peacemaker" by Anne Holler, Chelsea House Publishers)

Below is a protest from the Powhatan people in the US against the story and Disneys film called Pocahontas. The truth according to them is as follows:

In 1995, Roy Disney decided to release an animated movie about a Powhatan woman known as "Pocahontas". In answer to a complaint by the Powhatan Nation, he claims the film is "responsible, accurate, and respectful."

We of the Powhatan Nation disagree. The film distorts history beyond recognition. Our offers to assist Disney with cultural and historical accuracy were rejected. Our efforts urging him to reconsider his misguided mission were spurred.

"Pocahontas" was a nickname, meaning "the naughty one" or "spoiled child". Her real name was Matoaka. The legend is that she saved a heroic John Smith from being clubbed to death by her father in 1607 - she would have been about 10 or 11 at the time. The truth is that Smith's fellow colonists described him as an abrasive, ambitious, self-promoting mercenary soldier.

Of all of Powhatan's children, only "Pocahontas" is known, primarily because she became the hero of Euro-Americans as the "good Indian", one who saved the life of a white man. Not only is the "good Indian/bad Indian theme" inevitably given new life by Disney, but the history, as recorded by the English themselves, is badly falsified in the name of "entertainment".

The truth of the matter is that the first time John Smith told the story about this rescue was 17 years after it happened, and it was but one of three reported by the pretentious Smith that he was saved from death by a prominent woman.

Yet in an account Smith wrote after his winter stay with Powhatan's people, he never mentioned such an incident. In fact, the starving adventurer reported he had been kept comfortable and treated in a friendly fashion as an honored guest of Powhatan and Powhatan's brothers. Most scholars think the "Pocahontas incident" would have been highly unlikely, especially since it was part of a longer account used as justification to wage war on Powhatan's Nation.

Euro-Americans must ask themselves why it has been so important to elevate Smith's fibbing to status as a national myth worthy of being recycled again by Disney. Disney even improves upon it by changing Pocahontas from a little girl into a young woman.

The true Pocahontas story has a sad ending. In 1612, at the age of 17, Pocahontas was treacherously taken prisoner by the English while she was on a social visit, and was held hostage at Jamestown for over a year.

During her captivity, a 28-year-old widower named John Rolfe took a "special interest" in the attractive young prisoner. As a condition of her release, she agreed to marry Rolfe, who the world can thank for commercializing tobacco. Thus, in April 1614, Matoaka, also known as "Pocahontas", daughter of Chief Powhatan, became "Rebecca Rolfe". Shortly after, they had a son, whom they named Thomas Rolfe. The descendants of Pocahontas and John Rolfe were known as the "Red Rolfes."

Two years later on the spring of 1616, Rolfe took her to England where the Virginia Company of London used her in their propaganda campaign to support the colony. She was wined and dined and taken to theaters. It was recorded that on one occasion when she encountered John Smith (who was also in London at the time), she was so furious with him that she turned her back to him, hid her face, and went off by herself for several hours. Later, in a second encounter, she called him a liar and showed him the door.

Rolfe, his young wife, and their son set off for Virginia in March of 1617, but "Rebecca" had to be taken off the ship at Gravesend. She died there on March 21, 1617, at the age of 21. She was buried at Gravesend, but the grave was destroyed in a reconstruction of the church. It was only after her death and her fame in London society that Smith found it convenient to invent the yarn that she had rescued him.

History tells the rest. Chief Powhatan died the following spring of 1618. The people of Smith and Rolfe turned upon the people who had shared their resources with them and had shown them friendship. During Pocahontas' generation, Powhatan's people were decimated and dispersed and their lands were taken over. A clear pattern had been set which would soon spread across the American continent.

Chief Roy Crazy Horse