The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History

A long overdue correction to the Pocahontas story that we all thought we knew so well. THANK YOU for sharing your oral history with a non-Native audience. I am so thankful to be alive and literate in the age of information.

I’ve been teaching about the Powhatan for years. This was the missing link in my curriculum!

You won’t want to put it down and then you’ll want to reread it right away. It’s a small book overflowing with cool details and history we definitely weren’t taught in school. You won’t be disappointed I promise.

This book is some thing I believe everyone should read. The story touches the soul in more ways than one and sheds light on hidden aspects of our dark history.

Love this book. Written from the Potawan people. I really enjoy it.

Both gut and logic are in agreement here: This is a much more believable account of the motives, feelings, and actions of the involved parties than whatever we might read in Euro-American literature or histories. It's a sad story, and that doesn't tend to be what the victor wants to tell, hence the negative reviews (which are, nevertheless, in the minority.)Among other "criticisms," someone says it's "amateurish." Maybe, if I expected this to read like a feature article in the New Yorker, but that's not what it is. It is, and it reads like, an oral historian dictating to a co-writer.*Of course there are guesses, because--this was 10+ generations ago--no one alive to write this tale was there! But unless you are truly enrobed in a strident belief that European colonization always led to the best outcome, and that Christianity must prevail above all, this telling rings true, and it rings sadly.(*a note about the reviewer who found the book "amateurish:" Same person, elsewhere, has been seen attempting to vigorously dispute the point that Pocahontas had a first husband, named Kocoum. But, thing is...it's in the English record. Strachey cites it pretty clearly. There's no obvious reason to dispute that, unless your goal is to paint a pretty, pro-Euro, picture of Pocahontas happily, and without coercion, marrying Rolfe.)

Interesting true account of Pocahontas

Professional and wonderfully presented ethno-historic account of Matoaka (Pocahontas) and the Powhatan Chiefdoms cultural setting upon Captain John Smiths (representing the colony and investors of the Virginia Company of London) arrival to the "New World." This account provides additional critical cultural background and true events personally experienced by Matoaka, her extended family, and the Tribe; the other side of the story conveniently modified and omitted from non-Tribal historical accounts. Forget the romantic story of "Pocahontas." This fresh perspective is Matoakas story....not Cpt. John Smiths. This story illustrates the brief excitement and later atrocious events Matoaka and her people experienced during her short 20 years of life. She was a symbol of peace and a product of a very civilized and powerful chiefdom that allied with the colonists. Yet, her experience was one of broken alliances, brute force / pillaging / enslavement, kidnapping, ransom, captivity, rape, and murder. If you want to hear a version of the Tribes side of the story the way Matoaka might have told it..... this is the book.

Absolutely brilliant book dispells a lot of misconceptions about pocahontas and her people. Well written and very useful in trying to understand the real history.Only from truthful history can true history be learnedOnly by true history can we learn from our mistakesOnly by learning mistakes can we create a better life for all mankind we can only learn from real historyMany don't see the real historyDr linwood little bear custalow

A really good read. At last the awful truth is out.

I have read a lot of books titled "The true story of Pocahontas", but unfortunately I resume that THIS is the ONLY true story out there! It was written by Dr. Linwood "Little Bear" Custalow and Angela Daniel "Silver Star", who claim to be descendants of the true Pocahontas, or Matoaka, as her real name was. This book completely does away with any romanticism so often spread about her short life. And, yes, Pocahontas was murdered in the end, by the very people she trusted and loved! This book is a must for anybody who is REALLY seeking to know the truth about her life. It is a very sad, but definitely eyeopening book, that should be part of history lessons in schools, but definitely never will be, because it tells of the true unfeeling, selfish and criminal ways of the white people, when they invaded and took over the American Continent.

Il libro e molto interessante, molto facile nella scrittura. Si legge in un attimo! Lo consiglio a tutti coloro che vogliano approfondire la storia della principessa da un altro puno di vista.

Very informative and easy to read. Refreshing to hear about a different Perspective. Would highly recommend.