Posted on 11/03/2013 3:30:17 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
Historian Tony Horwitz tries to separate the truth from the myths that have been built up about the Jamestown “princess”
Pocahontas is the most myth-encrusted figure in early America, a romantic “princess” who saves John Smith and the struggling Jamestown colony. But this fairy tale, familiar to millions today from storybook and film, bears little resemblance to the extraordinary young woman who crossed cultures and oceans in her brief and ultimately tragic life.
The startling artwork (above), the oldest in the National Portrait Gallery collection, is the only image of Pocahontas taken from life. Made during her visit to London in 1616, the engraving depicts a stylish lady in beaver hat and embroidered velvet mantle, clutching an ostrich feather fan. Only her high cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes hint at her origins far from London. The inscription is also striking; it identifies her not as Pocahontas, but as “Matoaka” and “Rebecca.” In short, there seems little to link this peculiar figure, peering from above a starched white ruff, with the buck-skinned Indian maiden of American lore. So which image is closer to the woman we know as Pocahontas?
She was born Matoaka, in the mid-1590s, the daughter of Powhatan, who ruled a native empire in what is now eastern Virginia. Powhatan had dozens of children, and power in his culture passed between males. But she did attract special notice for her beauty and liveliness; hence Pocahontas, a nickname meaning, roughly, “playful one.” This was also the name she was known by to the English who settled near her home in 1607. John Smith, an early leader in Jamestown, described her as beautiful in “feature, countenance, and proportion” and filled with “wit and spirit.”
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jang_Geum
A female doctor to the King, all that is known about her is those 7 entries into the official Chronology. That is it.
That did not stop a Korean TV network from doing a 54 episode series about her life. lol. All embellishment really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dae_Jang_Geum
And if that wasn’t enough they followed that up with a 52-episde cartoon series, about her childhood. Of which nothing is known in reality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jang_Geum%27s_Dream
You can find these online with subtitles I bet.
Abandoned some self-imposed computer work, today, in order to remain outside and think about much of what you wrote; thank you.
I've seen a few of those: The Genuine True Life Story of ____________, Told In His Own Words, If He Could Have Lived & Written It As Conceived By Our Writers And Producers!
I saw that before. That is pretty amazing and so true.
Yes. It COULD have been a true story.
lolz
AFAIK Pocahontas was never anywhere near Gitcheegoomie- that is the Huron name for Lake Superior.
Yup, that’s the Avatar plot. Just as in Disney’s Pocahontas, the American Marines in Avatar are murderous savages.
I only know that because of Gord's "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."
Are high cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes unknown in England at that time?
Injun Summer
Yep, sonny this is sure enough Injun summer. Don't know what that is, I reckon, do you? Well, that's when all the homesick Injuns come back to play; You know, a long time ago, long afore yer granddaddy was born even, there used to be heaps of Injuns around here—thousands—millions, I reckon, far as that's concerned. Reg'lar sure 'nough Injuns—none o' yer cigar store Injuns, not much. They wuz all around here—right here where you're standin'.
Don't be skeered—hain't none around here now, leastways no live ones. They been gone this many a year.
They all went away and died, so they ain't no more left.
But every year, 'long about now, they all come back, leastways their sperrits do. They're here now. You can see 'em off across the fields. Look real hard. See that kind o' hazy misty look out yonder? Well, them's Injuns—Injun sperrits marchin' along an' dancin' in the sunlight. That's what makes that kind o' haze that's everywhere—it's jest the sperrits of the Injuns all come back. They're all around us now.
See off yonder; see them tepees? They kind o' look like corn shocks from here, but them's Injun tents, sure as you're a foot high. See 'em now? Sure, I knowed you could. Smell that smoky sort o' smell in the air? That's the campfires a-burnin' and their pipes a-goin'.
Lots o' people say it's just leaves burnin', but it ain't. It's the campfires, an' th' Injuns are hoppin' 'round 'em t'beat the old Harry.
You jest come out here tonight when the moon is hangin' over the hill off yonder an' the harvest fields is all swimmin' in the moonlight, an' you can see the Injuns and the tepees jest as plain as kin be. You can, eh? I knowed you would after a little while.
Jever notice how the leaves turn red 'bout this time o' year? That's jest another sign o' redskins. That's when an old Injun sperrit gits tired dancin' an' goes up an' squats on a leaf t'rest. Why I kin hear 'em rustlin' an' whisper in' an' creepin' 'round among the leaves all the time; an' ever' once'n a while a leaf gives way under some fat old Injun ghost and comes floatin' down to the ground. See—here's one now. See how red it is? That's the war paint rubbed off'n an Injun ghost, sure's you're born.
Purty soon all the Injuns'll go marchin' away agin, back to the happy huntin' ground, but next year you'll see 'em troopin' back—th' sky jest hazy with 'em and their campfires smolderin' away jest like they are now.
John T. McCutcheon 1907
It don't make fun of the history but boy does it sock it to Disney.
Pocahontas “Matoaka” & son Thomas (2 1/2 years old)This Sedgeford portrait of Pocahontas and her son, Thomas Rolfe, carefully preserved through the centuries, although its travels and whereabouts have been been shrouded in mystery. Presently at Kings Lynn Museum.
EVER.
I musta been thinking about Sacajaweewee ....
I was and remain shocked to learn that every state does not teach Texas history.
I'm sure other states have something resembling history.. but really.. who cares?
Her uncle, Opechancanough, half brother of Powhatan, is supposedly a who-knows-how-many-great great grandfather of mine, not a pretty story though. No movies would ever be made of that one.
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