Whats the true story of Pocahontas?

Question

I've heard enough to belive the Disney story isn't true, and that its John Smiths, but what really happend?

The wiki has nothing helpful, I've read through the article.

Answer 1

Disney (and Hollywood in general) is never a good source of historical information - it's meant to be entertainment, not history.

Real name Matoaka or Matoaks, she was a very young girl (around 9 years of age) at the time John Smith was allegedly due to be clubbed to death by Powhatan's warriors. John Smith failed to mention the incident for a very long time and it is entirely possible he made the whole thing up as a good yarn to tell his friends - but we only have his much later account to go on, since the natives kept no written records. We can never know what really happened.

Pocahontas is a kind of "pet name" meaning frisky or playful - most natives had a series of names, one of which was secret and would only be known to close family. Matoaka would be the formal name used by most of her people.

Answer 2

You'll find the story of Jamestown interesting now that the facts are coming out. The original walls of the fort have been found by one persistent archaeologist and historian. Look at National Geographic.
Weather John Smith had anything to do with anyone named Pocahontas or not, remains to be seen. The founders of Jamestown, I'm sorry to say, were a bunch of braggarts that were more or less sent to the colonies so they would quit embarrassing their families.
It, Jamestown, was a failure to start with, not that it couldn't have been done with the right attitudes and supervision.

Answer 3

Pocahontas (c. 1595 – bur. March 21, 1617[2]) 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[3]; 'Pocahontas' was a childhood nickname referring to her frolicsome nature (in the Powhatan language it meant "little wanton", according to William Strachey[4]). In her last days she went by Rebecca Rolfe, choosing to live an English life by abandoning her native roots

Answer 4

The Wikipedia article is her entire biography, so I'm not sure what you mean by it not being helpful. You're going to need to be more specific about the "story" if you want useful answers. She's most famous for a rather suspect story about saving John Smith's life when he was about to be executed. She would have been about 10-12, assuming the story was true.

Answer 5

Pocahontas died of smallpox if that helps.

Answer 6

This should help http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas