MMIW: Pocahontas

 

Here’s another sad tale

of an Indigenous girl

stolen from her land

and forced into marriage.

 

Many of you know of her

from Disney’s movie:

Pocahontas.

It displayed her as a proper age

and was in love with John Smith.

 

I too was taken away by this fantasy

that was fed to us.

 

I relearned her story in High School,

where in History Class another Native girl

did a report on Pocahontas.

 

But the school project was not the entire truth.

 

In contrary to Disney,

Pocahontas was only 11.

A young girl, barely a young woman.

She lived in fear of the settlers and soldiers,

because rape was a popular sport.

 

When John saw the young girl

with long black hair

running around with her friends.

He wanted her.

 

So, he took her at the age of 15.

She was forced into marriage,

was raped by men.

All the while she saw her own husband murdered.

 

A broken soul, beaten and scorned,

was forced into another marriage

and was given an English name, Rebecca.

 

Like Sacagawea, she also died in her 20’s.

Only to have her story romanticized and condensed.