Pocahontas And John Smith Essay

Pocahontas and John Smith. We all know the famous story between the two from the movie “Pocahontas”. How they fell in love and how she saved him from getting brutally murdered by her own father. But you can’t always believe what you read and watch. How do we know that it is an accurate telling of the event and that she actually saved John Smith? What if I told you that Pocahontas and John Smith might have not even met and that everything that you have learned about their relationship is false? John Smith wrote two versions of the encounter with the tribe, one where they just happily trade, and one where the natives try to kill him and Pocahontas saves Smith from her own tribe. Because of these two completely different versions, historians have

The chief at the time, Chief Roy Crazy Horse, had written an interpretation that shows the tribes point of view of the whole controversy. The Powhatan Tribe believe that the 1st version of the encounter that John Smith wrote about was true and that the second one was false. The tribe also says “...she would have been 10 or 11 at the time.” which tells me that they think that it have been ridiculous for a grown man to fall in love with an 10 or 11 year old. Because the two versions of the same encounter are so different, the tribe questions this immense change of the event and specifically says "Yet in an account Smith wrote after his winter stay with Powhatan's people, he never mentioned such an incident." Therefore they are saying that the first version of the encounter must have been written for a reason and questioning why the second version was written 15 years later. They also disagree hugely with the Disney movie “Pocahontas”. The tribe says, “The film distorts history beyond recognition. Our offers to assist Disney with cultural and historical accuracy were rejected.” When they tried to make the movie more accurate Disney refused their help and therefore they believe the movie is inaccurate and