Once upon a time…Yes, tiktakers, many of you were asking us, and today we return with a Tale Day.
This time we bring you the story of Pocahontas.
Surely you know the version that Disney taught us in its animated film Pocahontas and Pocahontas II.
But what many of you may not know is that the young woman really existed,
and the film is based on a true story. So we will start by telling you a brief summary of the
version that we all know and at the end we will explain who Pocahontas was, and why she was known.
Once upon a time, there was a young Indian girl named Pocahontas. She was very determined
and adventurous, she loved nature and exploring everything around her. One day,
she discovers that a group of English settlers arrive in her tribe's territory looking to seize
all their gold and riches. Despite not knowing their intentions, and disobeying the orders of
her father, the chief of the tribe; Pocahontas decides to keep a close eye on the strangers.
In this way, together with her inseparable friends the raccoon Meeko and the hummingbird Flit,
she enters an adventure where she ends up falling in love with one of the foreigners, John Smith.
The ambition of the settlers causes tensions between the two groups. However, Pocahontas tries
to find a way to achieve peace among all. She asks her father to prevent a war, and in the same way,
Smith asks the governor of the ship not to start a battle, because peaceful people lived there.
The two protagonists meet to see each other, followed unknowingly by Kocoum,
Pocahontas's fiancé, and Thomas, another English sailor. Kocoum decides to attack
John thinking that Pocahontas was in danger, but just then, he is shot and killed by Thomas.
The tribe takes John Smith prisoner, blaming him for Kocoum's death, and agrees to kill
him at dawn. Thomas hears everything and informs his governor, who decides to prepare to attack.
As it nears daylight, Pocahontas stands in front of John and tells her family that if
they kill him, they'll have to kill her too. This fact causes the chief of the tribe to change his
mind and both the Indians and the English lower their weapons and free the prisoner.
However, the governor shoots Pocahontas's father, and John, to avoid being hit,
pushes the man, ending up seriously wounded. The other colonists arrest their captain and
decide to return to England so that John can recover. He asks Pocahontas to accompany him,
but she had already chosen her path, and decides to stay with her tribe.
Now that you have remembered the famous Disney version, it is time to tell you
who Pocahontas really was. Born in the 17th century, Pocahontas was a Native American.
In her mother tongue, her real name was Matoaka, but she was known by her nickname, Pokahantesú.
The English settlers pronounced it Pocahontas and that's how it went down in history. She met
them when she was 11 years old, when they arrived in her territory to found the city of Jamestown.
The young woman's tribe didn’t like the presence of outsiders, so they decided to kidnap one of
their leaders, John Smith. The Englishman was sentenced to death, but Pocahontas prevented it.
Legend has it that at the time of the execution the young woman jumped on him to protect him.
Thus began a brief period of peace, which was soon broken as settlers began to occupy
more and more land. The chief of the tribe invited outsiders to visit his village,
but Pocahontas betrayed her father by warning the English that they wanted to kill them.
But why did she do it? For love? Pocahontas was just a child when all of this happened.
John Smith was seriously injured in an explosion and is forced to return to his
country for medical care. However, the version that the tribe gives to
Pocahontas is that the young man had been kidnapped by a French pirate and had died.
At 18, Pocahontas went like many other times, to the English settlement of Jamestown to give food
to the settlers. But this time, Samuel Argall, an officer, kidnapped her. The captivity lasted
a year, until another Englishman, John Rolfe, reached an agreement with the kidnappers: free
her in exchange for marrying the girl and turning her into one of them. No one asked Pocahontas if
she agreed, but they baptized her and introduced her to the Christian faith and changed her name to
Rebecca. It was the first recorded marriage between a European and a Native American.
Several years later, accompanied by her husband, Pocahontas traveled to England and discovered that
John Smith was alive, and not dead as she had been led to believe. They met in the street,
but she didn't greet him. The young Indian girl was very popular in England,
even being presented to King James I and the Queen Consort.
Unfortunately, at only 21 years old, Pocahontas died of a very high fever,
it is unknown if it could have been tuberculosis, smallpox or pneumonia. The funeral took place in
Gravesend, Kent. As you can see, the life of the real Pocahontas wasn’t a fairy tale,
her life was much more tragic and short than what Walt Disney made us think.