A controversy is a story with two sides. Often, in our history texts, only one side of the story is told. Should the other side be told?
Many people are familiar with the story of Pocahontas and John Smith. However, if you questioned a Mattaponi tribal member about the story it would sound more like a murder mystery than a rescue love story. The Mattaponi tribe, in their new book, state that Pocahontas was captured, raped, and impregnated before her marriage to John Rolfe. To cover up this English abuse, John Rolfe agreed to marry Pocahontas in order to prevent war over her treatment and to protect his tobacco crop. The tribe also claimed that Pocahontas was already married to a Mattaponi man, named Kocoum, and had a son, but the Colonial government viewed the marriage null and void since it did not occur in a Christian Church. She was forced to travel to England in order to help Rolfe save his people and keep hers from annihilation.
For your follow up essay, please examine the history of Pocahontas written by the Mattaponi Indian tribe. Read the The Pocahontas Archives and watch The True Story of Pocahontas.
Summarize what you learned from the Mattaponi tribe and include in your analysis the debate between historians of European descent and those that are Native American about how to write the history of Indian peoples. Make sure you discuss whether you agree or disagree, explaining why or why not, with the Mattaponi version of the Pocahontas story?
