The Powhatan people are pretty upset with Disney. Roy Disney took the story of Pocahontas and morphed it into something unrecognizable. The Powhatan’s tried to collaborate to make the story accurate both culturally and historically, but they were refused. Pocahontas is a nickname meaning “the naughty one” or “spoiled child.” Her real name was Matoaka and she was only 10 or 11 years old in 1607 when she supposedly saved John Smith from being clubbed to death by her father. Smith’s fellow colonists said he was abrasive, ambitious, and a self-promoting mercenary soldier. It was 17 years after John Smith was in Jamestown and met Matoaka that he told his story about her.
In reality, when she was 17, in 1612, she was taken prisoner by the English while on a social visit and held hostage in Jamestown for a year. A widower, John Rolfe, took an interest in her and she agreed to marry him as a condition of her release. She then became “Rebecca Rolfe” in 1614 upon marrying John Rolfe. They had a son and sailed to Europe in 1616 and she was used as propaganda to promote the colonies.
In 1617 they sailed back to Virginia, but she was taken off the ship at Gravesend and died there at the age of 21. It wasn’t until after she was famous that Smith used her fame to make up a story to get attention.