Amonute Extended Biography
Amonute (Pocahontas)Extended BiographyYou may wish to share this biography with students, or just to read it for your own information.In 1995, theater-going Americans were treated to an animated film released by Walt Disney Pictures featuring a Native American woman named Pocahontas. The film was a huge commercial success, earning $346 million in its first year. The movie is presented as a love story between this young woman and the English settler John Smith. As the story is told in the Disney movie, Pocahontas is the daughter of Chief Powhatan. Smith is depicted as a “good guy,” in contrast to the evil and greedy Governor Ratcliffe, who merely seeks gold and who plans to murder any Powhatans who interfere with his plans. Smith is captured by Powhatan warriors, and as the two groups move towards conflict, Pocahontas intervenes and manages to convince them to co-exist peacefully. Smith must return to England for treatment of a wound, but Pocahontas remains with her people and friends. This story was not entirely invented by Disney, as it is based on the life of a Powhatan woman named Amonute, or Matoaka, as she was also known, who acted as an interpreter between the English and Powhatan. She was indeed a daughter of the powerful Wahunsenacah, paramount chief of a large confederation of Algonquian-speaking people sometimes known as the Powhatan. Pocahontas was merely a nickname, often translated as meaning “playful one.” The main written source for Amonute’s early life comes from the account left by Captain John Smith, who landed in Virginia in April 1607 and settled there with the permission of Wahunsenacah. Smith wrote about Amonute in a 1619 letter and later in a 1624 book. In these accounts, he claims that Amonute (“Pocahontas”) had saved him from being killed by Wahunsenacah during a conflict between the Powhatan and the English. He implies that she was in love with him, turning the narrative into a love story. Smith’s account was influential in the development of the Disney movie of young Amonute’s encounters with John Smith. Historians have their doubts about many aspects of the account, however. While other sources agree that Amonute did visit the English settlement many times, often bringing food, there is no evidence of a love story with John Smith until his much later letter and book. Historian Karen Ordahl Kupperman believes Smith instead added the love story to appeal to a European audience and to raise money. In 2007, two Native American scholars wrote a new history of Amonute entitled The True Story of Pocahontas. They based their account on oral tradition—the retelling of Amonute’s story by the Mattaponi people, descendants of the Powhatan, across the generations. In their account, John Smith was never in danger of being killed by Wahunsenacah. Instead, he misinterpreted a ritual that was meant to integrate him and the English, which would allow them to get more help from the Powhatan. Amonute’s visits to the English settlement also had nothing to do with her interest in the colony, but rather the Powhatan put her in front of groups bringing food because being led by a young girl made it clear that the visits were peaceful. These arguments recast the story of Amonute (“Pocahontas”), but they too have their doubters. In particular, anthropologist Helen Rountree, who works in this region, doubts that this story was really transmitted unbroken across 400 years of Powhatan/Mattaponi oral tradition.
Amonute (Pocahontas) - Extended Biography2Sources:Custalow, Linwood “Little Bear” and Angela L. Daniel “Silver Star”. The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History. Golden, CO: Fulcrum, 2007. Tilton, Robert S. Pocahontas: The Evolution of an American Narrative. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.