Indigenous People Had a History

indigenous people had a history or culture before Europeans arrived

The book that Camilla Townsend wrote, "Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma," goes deep into the colonialism period of the state of Virginia and depicts the life of Amonute, an indigenous girl who was later transformed into the famous Disney character of Pocahontas. She does that by using a number of historical and ethno historical sources and tries to create the stories from the point-of-view of the indigenous populations. The author's aim is to present as much as possible the real and historical figure of Pocahontas and her life and personality within a more complex context which involved the contact between Indigenous people and English people at the beginning of the Virginia colonization.

This is clear from the first chapter, referring to Amonute's people. The respective chapter bears an almost anthropological approach, with the author going into details about the characteristics of the society of which Amonute is part of, including the way power was passed on (through the female line, as in any matriarchal society), patterns of conquest or the way that Pocahontas fitted into the political patterns of her society. The latter is emphasized in the chapters that are dedicated to Pocahontas and to providing a detailed account of what her life must have been like in the times before the arrival of the colonists.

Pocahontas enters the book as a ten years old girl of the great Powhatan leader visiting colonists at the fort. The girl's life, in the rest of the book, has been build by Townsend as a metaphor of the clash of civilizations and what seems to be the impossibility of adapting and changing towards a different culture. Going from her kidnapping and imprisonment from the colonists to her marriage with John Rolfe and her passing to Christianity, these stories shape Pocahontas' identity. Even if she tries to involve and stand up in the English society she does that thinking about her people and trying to find ways to help their cultural and civilization survival.

This book succeeds therefore not only to present a more realistic approach to that period and that specific place, but also to demythologize Pocahontas and offer the perspective of a real leader with specific frustrations, feelings and desires.

Pocahontas has been used since then by authors, poets, American exceptionalism or movie makers and her actual life, role and lessons have been portrayed into Hollywoodian models. Townsend reconnects with the real Pocahontas and offers a very veridical account of the Virginian colonial history. She is depicted as being assertive, youthful and athletic, but also very interested in deepening and developing her responsibilities of daughter of a leader by becoming a more and more familiarized with the Englishmen. Some would consider the behavior and thoughts of Pocahontas and her indigenous people as naive, considering the perception that Englishmen had and were constantly remembered to have over them. They were considered subhuman, primitive and dispensable, with little or no real intention of creating a long-term relationship of cooperation, trust and a system of living together.

The book has also a purpose of educating the readers into understanding better the way in which the American builders of this nation have evolved. The majority were not entering the classical image of builders of cities and knowledge in a sustainable development scheme, but they wanted to be more than what they could have ever been in their home countries: lords. The superiority complex that many of the settlers had, both of religious and civilization nature, was directed against the indigenous people, that even if possessing extraordinary cultures and an honest desire to understand them, were considered inferior.

The first chapters of the book present in high details the political, social and cultural environments and developments of Virginian Algonquians and English settlers at the beginning of the colonization period. It aims at presenting the history of indigenous people through their perspective, including more political and historical situations, but also more private ones like Pocahontas' kidnapping, imprisonment, marriage and her death. She aims at making the reader understand that the Algonquians were not merely indigenous people with little or no political experience. They entered in a dangerous but necessary game to build a beneficial relation with the colonizers.

Townsend offers in her book, besides a view on reality from within the indigenous population world, a model of explaining the entire actions that Pocahontas took on the course of her short life. Chapters such as "Amonute's People," "What the English Knew" or "First Contact" support the previously mentioned argument of the book, according to which the society of which Pocahontas was part of was highly developed socially and politically and which proposed the idea of the clash of civilizations.

Chapter 4 presents some of the characteristics of the new English colony at Jamestown, along with the political background that motivates the approach that the English take in their relationship with the natives. The chapter is useful for the future arguments that the author makes about the clash of cultures and civilizations.

Looked in a political construction view, the fact that she saved Captain John Smith could only mean she was trying to identify an ally in the opposite camp that would, later on, become a valuable source of information and a pressure point on the Englishmen side. Even common Disney stories have created this romantic image of how Pocahontas fell in love and saved the life of Captain John Smith, the real story is less romantic and more "realpolitik." Pocahontas was kidnapped in the middle of a war with her people "and kept for prisoner for many months while they waited for her father to agree to tribute payments of corn" (Townsend, 2004, pag. x). By inscribing a good and positive image to a historical truth, history has been altered and, as many stories of colonization and the classical wild west, the level of violent and ruthless aggressive colonization was much higher.

The realpolitik is most visible in two different chapters. One is chapter five, "Kidnapped" and chapter six "Imprisonment," whereby here imprisonment and the internal politics of her society are described, but also how she politically deals with the situation she is in by attempting to identify potential partners of dialogue in the adverse camp. Chapter five argues that the kidnapping of Pocahontas was, in fact, a clear measure to obtain benefits from her tribe and her father, notably corn, since one of the most important problems for the colonists was the lack of food. Chapter six carries on this theme to relate it to the imprisonment of Pocahontas and her perceptions of the implications this had on the members of her tribe.

In a similar strategic way, her marriage with John Rolfe and converting to Christianity can be translated as a very good strategic movement to create a bridge between the two cultures and populations and to retrieve crucial information about the "others." Her mission, if one could see it like that, lead to results that cannot be called negative or positive. It was in itself a mission impossible as history has shown that in very few instances the wave of migrants from Europe has resulted in positive effects for the indigenous population. Even so, after her death, her reports and messages convinced her father to retire and also his brother Openchancanough to enter into a new stage of policy towards the English, a more militant one.

Chapters eight and nine relate to the experience that Pocahontas has in London, where she arrives through her marriage with John Rolfe.

Strategically, the indigenous people became aware that they would stand no chance in a conflict with the new comers. It was obvious that their number would increase and their technological advancement would make them win battles that would result in the decimation of indigenous populations. This theme is further argued in the last chapter of the book, which presents a perspective into the future, with Queen Cockacoeske as a future Pocahontas, a future representative of her tribe in the relations with the English.