Although Pocahontas was a real person in America's history, not everything that has been written or said about her is based on facts. Have you heard about the life of Pocahontas—for example, at school, in a book, or in a movie or TV show?

In the box below, write down one to two things you know or have heard about Pocahontas. If you're not sure, you can write down one to two questions that you may have about her.

In this lesson, you will compare different versions of the Pocahontas story.

Goals
Here are the big ideas you will learn about in this lesson:

• When colonists and Native Americans first met, they had strong reactions to each other
• We interpret historical events in different ways based on the opinions and goals of the people who write about them
• Historians must decide how useful and reliable different historical sources are

Strategies
You will be using many reading and writing strategies to complete this lesson. The key strategies that you will focus on are:

• Using background knowledge
• Making inferences
• Comparing and contrasting ideas
• Determining important information

• legend
• settlement
• version

The legend of Pocahontas—the popular story—tells how she fell in love with John Smith and begged her father not to kill him. Her father gave in after he saw how his daughter felt about the Englishman.

Click "View" on the left to watch this video about the popular version of, or one way of telling, the story.

Write two to three sentences about why you think this version of the story is interesting to people and continues to be told.

English colonists arrived in what is now Virginia in 1607. They founded the Virginia colony—land that was claimed by the English for themselves. Their first settlement, or community, was called Jamestown. John Smith was 27 years old in 1607, and was a soldier and explorer from the Virginia colony. He traveled to trade with the local people for food because the English colonists were starving.

The land Smith explored was just a small part of the kingdom of Powhatan. Powhatan was a very powerful leader who controlled the land on which Jamestown was built. On one of Smith's journeys, he was captured by a group of warriors and taken to see Powhatan.

One of Powhatan's children was his daughter Matoaka, whose nickname was Pocahontas. Pocahontas was about 11 or 12 years old when the colonists arrived in Jamestown. She may have been there when Smith met her father.

The legend of Pocahontas tells the story of Powhatan, the cruel Indian chief, and his love-struck daughter. But historians, people who study what happened in the past, think there may be another version of the story.

Click "View" on the left to watch this video about what some historians think really happened.

In two to three sentences, describe what might have happened when John Smith was captured.

It's hard to be sure what really happened when Smith met Powhatan. Smith told two versions of the meeting in his writings. The first told the popular story of Pocahontas, and the second didn't mention her or the rescue at all. So which version is more likely to be true?

Powhatan was a wise leader. He knew when to use force and when to use kindness. He also knew that Smith had been trying to get food for his people. The English settlement was starving, and it was not a threat to Powhatan. Why would Powhatan need to kill Smith?

Pocahontas was much younger than Smith, who was a stranger brought in as a prisoner. Even if Pocahontas did love Smith, would she speak out against her powerful father in public?

List two reasons the information we know about Powhatan and Pocahontas does not support the popular story.

Now show what you've learned so far by answering these three questions. Be sure to save all your answers before you go to the next screen.

In this lesson, you have learned about the legend of how Pocahontas saved John Smith and what historians think may have actually happened. Now you will read more about the two versions of the story that Smith told, and why he may have told them.

Click "View" on the left to read the passage.

Why do you think John Smith did not write about Pocahontas right after the event, but did write about her much later? Write your answer in two to three sentences.

You will now check your understanding of the vocabulary words for this lesson by placing them in sentences. Click "View" on the left to begin the activity.

Before moving to the next screen, choose two words from the vocabulary list and write a new sentence for each word.

Vocabulary words: adopt, colony, historian, legend, settlement, and version

As the videos and the reading have explained, it’s hard to know what actually happened when Pocahontas and John Smith met in 1607. Think about what you have learned about Pocahontas, her father Powhatan, and John Smith. In this activity, you will decide which statements are part of the legend and which ones historians believe to be true.

Click "View" on the left to begin the activity. Your teacher will review the answers with you.

Then, before moving on to the final assignment, you may want to watch this lesson's videos again or reread the passage.

The Legend of Pocahontas

Video: 1m 03s

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When Pocahontas Met John Smith

Video: 2m 21s

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Pocahontas and John Smith

Document

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In this lesson, you have learned about the different versions of Pocahontas’ story, the legend and the historical version. You will now write an essay that shares what you have learned and what you think about it.

Begin by reviewing your notes. Click "review my work" above and view or print out the screen that pops up.

Final Assignment Instructions

• Click The Story of Pocahontas—Final Assignment (PDF).
• Choose one of the topics in the PDF and write an essay.
• Organize your response so that it includes at least three supporting details that you have learned from the reading passage, videos, and other materials in this lesson.
• Use at least three vocabulary words (or form of the words) as part of your supporting details. For example, for the word jump, you could use jumps, jumped, or jumping.