Mar 21, 2008

Pocahontas


(Wikipedia) - Pocahontas (c. 1595 – bur. March 21, 1617) was a Native American woman who married an Englishman, John Rolfe, and became a celebrity in London in the last year of her life. She was a daughter of Wahunsunacock (also known as Chief or Emperor Powhatan), who ruled an area encompassing almost all of the neighboring tribes in the Tidewater region of Virginia (called Tenakomakah at the time). Her formal names were Matoaka and Amonute; 'Pocahontas' was a childhood nickname referring to her frolicsome nature (in the Powhatan language it meant "little wanton", according to William Strachey). After her baptism, she went by the name Rebecca, becoming Rebecca Rolfe on her marriage. Link

Statue of Pocahontas by William Ordway Partridge. Photo NYTimes via LoC.

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