Al Jazeera - Will the real Pocahontas please stand up?

"We understand the English and Americans think highly of Pocahontas. We appreciate that it brings an interest to our tribe, but we just sit back and figure: if people want to worship a myth, then let them do it."

Circa 1600, Pocahontas, the American Indian princess who saved the life of 
John Smith, the English adventurer on two occasions. 
(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) [Getty Images] 

This feature article combines mythology, history and current shared knowledge.  Pocahontas is one of the best known and most-beloved Native Americans; in many cases, one of the only known Native Americans. Disney has retold a version of her story, historical documents suggest she did much to help entice English to settle in the New World, and became 'the poster child of a "civilised savage."'

Her tribe today suggests that she does not hold the same significance for them as she does for mainstream Americans, that the history/mythology surrounding her might be both inaccurate as well as a glossing-over of a "brutal past" that left many Native American tribes decimated.

"Her legacy among mainstream Americans is very different. Like the fable of Thanksgiving turkeys, the Disney-fied tale of inter-racial ardour and a harmony between two peoples offers a palatable version of early US history... By one estimate, the conquest of the Americas wiped out 95 percent of the indigenous population. The guns and swords of Europeans were obvious causes, although smallpox and other bugs that accompanied them probably claimed many more lives."

 Pocahontas 

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