Her actual name was
Matoaka, and she was born in about 1596 to a Powhatan chief ruling over more than 30 Algonquin-speaking tribes, according to the National Park Service history of the Jamestown Colony site.
She differentiates between Pocahontas,
Matoaka, Amonute, and Lady Rebecca because the four names are appropriate for specific stages of Pocahontas's life and not appropriate for others.
A future in-depth analysis of the films depicting Pocahontas would make a valuable contribution to the growing scholarship on
Matoaka, who came to be known as Pocahontas.
Matoaka visited early 17th-century English where she was reconfigured as Indian princess Pocahontas and Christian bride Lady Rebecca in order to serve as a public relations prop for the Virginia Company enterprises--a precursor to the Disney enterprises.
It is time to tell the truth of Chief Wahunsunacock, whom the English called Powhatan, and his daughter
Matoaka, who was nicknamed Pocahontas, or "frolicsome child", and say a prayer over her grave at Gravesend, where she died in England at age 22.
I teach at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, where locally, Pocahontas is known as
Matoaka. A large body of water and a nature preserve on the campus named in her honor date back to the college's founding.
He notes, for example, that, when John Rolfe married
Matoaka (Pocahontas), the main problem for James I was that a commoner had married the daughter of a foreign prince without his sovereign's permission.
This year's gathering included two spoken-word events, at which
Matoaka Little Eagle expressed her sense of transformation from sharing the traditional dances.
After about 5 or 6 of our visits, he had specific books selected for specific students and could call them by name and say something like `Margaret, I know that you're studying famous people, and I thought you might like this book about
Matoaka. You may know her as Pocahontas.' He got my students really into books.
