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Pocahontas and Captain John Smith Revisited

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Pocahontas and Captain John Smith Revisited Pocahontas and Captain John Smith Revisited FREDERIC W. GLEACH Cornell University The story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith is one that all school­ children in the United States seem to learn early on, and one that has served as the basis for plays, epic poems, and romance novels as well as historical studies. The lyrics of Peggy Lee's hit song Fever exemplify these popular treatments: Captain Smith and Pocahontas Had a very mad affair. When her daddy tried to kill him She said, 'Daddy, oh don't you dare — He gives me fever ... with his kisses, Fever when he holds me tight; Fever — I'm his Mrs. Daddy won't you treat him right.' (Lee et al 1958) The incident referred to here, Pocahontas's rescue of Smith from death at the orders of her father, the paramount chief Powhatan, was originally recorded by the only European present — Smith himself. While the factu- ality of Smith's account has been questioned since the mid-19th century, recent textual analysis by Lemay (1992) supports the more widely held opinion that it most likely occurred as Smith reported. Other recent studies have employed methods and models imported from literary criticism, gen­ erally to demonstrate the nature of English colonial and historical modes of apprehending otherness.1 While my work may be easily contrasted to these approaches, two re­ cent studies must be mentioned which have employed understandings and methods similar to my own. Kidwell (1992:99-101) used Pocahontas as an example in her discussion of "Indian Women as Cultural Mediators", 1ln addition to the comments of participants in the Algonquian Conference I have had the benefit of discussion with members of the Department of Anthropol­ ogy of Cornell University, where I presented some of these ideas in a departmental colloquium. 167 168 GLEACH bringing great insight to the Powhatan perspective in her brief discussion. Williamson (1992) brought out several interesting points in a detailed ana­ lysis of the rescue, but, as I will discuss here, this incident is only one part of a larger ritual complex. This ritual complex has not been previously recognized, in part, be­ cause Smith's descriptions tend to emphasize particular events and details, and thus obscure the view of the whole. The debate that has continued through the last century over the veracity of the rescue account has further distracted from efforts to understand the rituals described. My starting point in this investigation was an assumption that the events described by Smith might not be random or unconnected, but might indeed have had some meaning, and that such meaning need not be unfathomable. Re­ cent studies of the ways Amazonian Indians have sought control in their interactions with the non-Indian world, employing traditional understand­ ings and rituals in new ways to construct or reconstruct these relationships (e.g., T. Turner 1988, 1993a, 1993b; Ramos 1988; Foster 1993), provide fascinating echoes of the kinds of processes I began to see in the history of 17th-century Virginia. While there are both obvious and subtle differences between the actions in colonial Virginia and those in post-colonial Brazil, studies in both areas indicate the error of the still-all-too-prevalent atti­ tude that Native Americans could only react to colonial actions, that they would immediately perceive the superiority of the encroaching Europeans and enter an inevitable cycle of acculturation, revitalization, and finally subordination. I will argue here that the rituals of Smith's captivity cannot be ad­ equately understood simply in terms of individuals — whether motivated by love, the advancement of position, or personal adoption, the common themes in prior analyses — but must be seen in terms of cultural relations, and that the Powhatans were taking full control of the colonial situation in early Virginia, using this ritual complex to define a place for the En­ glish colony, with Smith as its chief, in the Powhatan world. The failure of Smith and the English colony to recognize this does not alter the facts of this ritual complex or its purpose, but that failure did make it necessary to recast the alliance a few years later by marriage. Pocahontas was a key actor in both instances, Smith only in the first, although he makes a later appearance. Pocahontas was the common-use name of Powhatan's favorite daugh­ ter, then approximately 12 years old. We know of her only from the writings of Smith and other Englishmen, and our understandings are thus based on their particular constructions of women. Modern Euro-American construc­ tions of gender are descended from that English tradition, and so there is a tendency to overlook the inherent biases in these descriptions. While there POCAHONTAS AND JOHN SMITH 169 is little information on the Powhatans specifically, it is possible to use com­ parative materials from other groups to get a better idea of their cultural constructions than that taken strictly from colonial accounts. The position of a woman, even a young woman of twelve, in Powhatan society was very different from that found in the English culture. Even young Powhatan children were integrated into the society by being included in ritual and political gatherings. While they may not have had a voice, they learned from such experiences how the society worked. As they approached their teens, Powhatan children began to participate more actively in religious and political events, and would then marry and begin to produce their own families. Women were not routinely isolated from power; indeed, they were themselves inherently powerful. The isolation of menstruating women was not because of fears of pollution by contact with impurity, but because their power at that time was too strong to be controlled, and would over­ whelm other rituals for controlling power (cf. Fogelson 1990:173-176, on the Cherokees). Powhatan women could be chiefs, counselors, and advi­ sors, and were often even involved in decisions about war parties. This is far from the English construction of woman as daughter or wife, which limited even Queen Elizabeth, and which shaped their perception of Poc­ ahontas. Since descent among the Powhatans was matrilineal, Pocahontas was not in line to inherit any position of leadership; despite this, colo­ nial accounts always emphasize her relationship to Powhatan, as "a king's daughter" (e.g., Smith 1986d:261). An important and powerful actor in her own culture, she was reduced to a symbol of potential power by the English. Smith was a self-made Englishman, a military leader with experience in several non-European cultures. He led explorations of Virginia in the first years of the colony; his differences with the gentlemen of the colony and his nature made that a more productive pursuit for him than political leadership of the colony, which office he also held at times. He seems to have been outspoken and perhaps boastful, skilled at communication, and convinced of English — and his own — superiority. Prior to going to Vir­ ginia, he had fought in Brittany and Transylvania; had there been captured and sold into slavery, and escaped; had traveled extensively through east­ ern Europe and as far east as Muscovy; and had sailed with a French pirate along the West African coast — all by the time he was in his mid-twenties (Barbour 1964:3-73). In December 1607 Smith was captured and his companions killed while they were exploring the upper Chickahominy River. During this captivity Smith was subjected to a series of rituals, including his apparent rescue 170 GLEACH from imminent death by Pocahontas. When first captured Smith was brought before Opechancanough,2 whom he impressed with his compass: Much they marvelled at the playing of the fly and needle, which they could see so plainly, and yet not touch it, because of the glass that covered them. But when he3 demonstrated by that globe-like jewel the roundness of the earth and skies, the sphere of the sun, moon, and stars, and how the sun did chase the night round about the world continually, the greatness of the land and sea, the diversity of nations, variety of complexions, and how we were to them antipodes, and many other such like matters, they all stood as amazed with admiration. Notwithstanding, within an hour after they tied him to a tree, and as many as could stand about him prepared to shoot him, but the king holding up the compass in his hand, they all laid down their bows and arrows. (Smith 1986d:147) Smith was then taken to Rasawek, a hunting town between the Chick­ ahominy and Pamunkey rivers, in the district of Orapaks (see Figure 1): Their order in conducting him was thus: drawing themselves all in file, the king in their midst had all their [Smith's and his men's] pieces and swords borne before him. Captain Smith was led after him by three great savages, holding him fast by each arm, and on each side six went in file with their arrows nocked. But arriving at the town (which was but only thirty or forty hunting houses made of mats, which they remove as they please, as we our tents), all the women and children staring to behold him, the soldiers first all in file performed the form of a bisson so well as could be, and on each flank officers as Sergeants to see them keep their order. A good time they continued this exercise, and then cast themselves in a ring, dancing in such several postures, and singing and yelling out such hellish notes and screeches, being strangely painted, every one his quiver of arrows, and at his back a club; on his arm a fox or an otter's skin, or some such matter for his vambrace; their heads and shoulders painted red, with oil and puccoon mingled together, which scarlet-like color made an exceeding handsome show; his bow in his hand; and the skin of a bird with her wings abroad, dried, tied on his head, a piece of copper, a white shell, a long feather, with a small rattle growing at the tails of their snakes tied to it, or some such like toy.
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