From Algonquin pocahantesu, "She is Playful", although another
but dubious translation suggests "Bright Stream Between Two Hills".
Her Pamunkey name was Mataoaka (also Matoax and Matowaka), "She
Plays with Things"; both names apparently referring to her vivacious
disposition. The exact date pf her birth is not clear; it is said to
have been between 1595-1597, but the earlier date is preferred by most
writers. It is certain that she was the favorite daughter of Powhatan,
the powerful chief of the Virginia confederacy. In 1608, Captain John
Smith of Jamestown was captured and sentenced to death. According to
Smith, the girl successfully pleaded with her father to spare him. Although
historians have some doubts about the account, it has become a lasting
legend of early colonial life.
Smith left for England in 1609, and relations between Indians and colonists
deteriorated. In 1613 Pocahontas was taken as hostage by the Jamestown
settlers, who demanded and eventually received a large ransom, including
English prisoners held by the Indians. The English treated their captives
well and Pocahontas liked Jamestown; she became a Christian and was
baptized Rebecca. During her stay in Jamestown, John Rolfe, a young
English widower who had introduced tobacco cultivation into the colony,
fell in love with her, and she with him. Sir Thomas Dale, the Governor,
hoping that the union might bring Indians and Whites closer together,
granted permission for their marriage which took place on April 5, 1613.
It is probable that Pocahontas may have been married at the time to
Kocoum, a minor chief, but this is uncertain. The expected result of
the marriage was that Powhatan kept peace until his death.
In 1616, Pocahontas, John Rolfe and several others went to England,
where she was received as a princess, presented to King James I and
Queen Anne, and generally lionized. On March 30 or 32, 1617, she caught
smallpox while on board ship at Gravesend, England, just before returning
to America, and died. She is buried in the chancel of St. George's Parish
Church in England. Her son Thomas Rolfe was raised in England by an
uncle, later returned to America, acquired considerable wealth, and
through his only daughter founded the Randolph family of Virginia. While
she seems not to have been a particularly beautiful woman, Pocahontas
captured the romantic mood of the period, and has become the idealized
Native American woman, with all of the attendant realities and misconceptions.
Source: "Great North American Indians" by Frederick J. Dockstader
NATIVE
AMERICAN RHYMES 
