Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505250001
SECTION: EDITORIALS PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARSHALL FISHWICK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Her name is Pocahontas, and she will be resurrected by the magic of Disney Studios, whose last animated film, "The Lion King," made more money than any other movie in history. Will this fabled Virginia heroine - the most romantic figure in colonial history - do as well?
In our era of political correctness, the timing seems perfect. She is female, nonwhite, ethnic, native American. And her legend is already deeply embedded in the American conscience. It goes like this:
Bushy-bearded, swashbuckling Captain John Smith was captured by the Indians and condemned to death by Chief Powhatan. At the last moment, the chief's daughter Pocahontas intervened, put his head in her arms and laid her own upon his to save him. So impressed was the chief that he released Smith, who returned to Jamestown. The friendly Pocahontas continued to visit Jamestown, and by warning of an Indian attack, saved the colony. Later she became a Christian, married John Rolfe, and went to England as Lady Rebecca, where she was received as a princess in the court of King James 1. The Lord Bishop of London entertained her with "festival, state and pompe." Suddenly stricken with smallpox, she died and is buried in the church in Gravesend.
Hence, according to the legend, the princess and the captain founded a nation and made an empire possible. Pocahontas is Cinderella in doeskin. Through her son by John Rolfe, many high-born Virginians, including John Randolph, have been proud to claim blood relationship with the first lady of Virginia's first generation.
The famous rescue originated a far-reaching literary tradition; a veritable deluge of poems, dramas and novels have followed. The tone for an endless line of school texts was set by Noah Webster's "Little Reader's Assistant" (1791). Seven years later the English traveler, John Davis, brought out a glowing account of the Pocahontas story. Her fame in Europe grew.
Those who didn't read could see the carving on the west door of Washington's Capitol Rotunda, portraying "Pocahontas Saving the Life of Captain John Smith," or could gaze at the large painting inside of "The Baptism of Pocahontas." For those who could and did read, there were such popular accounts as Mary Webster's "Pocahontas: A Legend," Charlotte Barnes' "The Forest Princess" and John Esten Cooke's "My Lady Pocahontas: A True Relation of Virginia."
Antebellum journals favored Pocahontas poems; those by Mary Mosby, Lydia Sigourney and William Waldron were reprinted many times. On the stage, J.N. Barker's "The Indian Princess" and Philip Moeller's "Pokey" drew large audiences. When James Kirke Paulding toured Virginia in 1817, he wrote: "Fortitude, valor and the little Pocahontas are their true tutelary deities." In his scholarly study of "Pocahontas & Co." (1987), Asebrit Sundquist traces her remarkable impact on our textbooks and romantic novels.
How does the legend stack up against history? Records are scant, but we believe that Pocahontas was only 11 in 1608, when the rescue was supposed to take place; Smith was in his mid-30s. Why then have the movie makers decided to portray them both in their 20s? Their answer is nothing if not blunt. Because this will make it a romance, and that will make more money.
We got a glimpse of what they have in mind when they showed a brief preview clip before "The Lion King." The lovely, lissome princess sings a song about the beauties of America to the enraptured captain. It's love in bloom. Bad history? Good entertainment. Standard Hollywood.
A much more serious charge is that the braggart John Smith was a liar, and the rescue story fiction. New documents discovered in 1860 by Charles Deane put the whole story in doubt, and historians as famous as Henry Adams agreed with Deane.
Apparently what has happened is that history has faded into myth - as it has done for centuries. How many of the exploits of Ulysses, Aeneas, King Arthur, Napoleon, Buffalo Bill and George Washington are "true?" For example - since we are speaking of Virginia - did Washington actually cut down the cherry tree, and throw a silver dollar across the Potomac? We now know that both stories were invented by Parson Weems long after Washington's death. But are they good stories? You bet!
History may not be, as Voltaire suggested, a pack of lies agreed upon; or mere gossip, in the words of Oscar Wilde. But it is certainly a matter of the historian, the material, and the times that produce it. There are no "facts" in nature. They must all be filtered through human interpretation. So has it been with Pocahontas. Whether the Pocahontas rescue story was true or not, it has entranced posterity - and persuaded Hollywood to pour millions of dollars into its retelling.
There is another dimension and another Indian princess who enters our story. She is known as White Dove, and is one of the 10,000 Pamunkey Indians on Virginia's Tidewater tribal reservation. They are the descendants of Powhatan, and the very people most concerned with the original story of Pocahontas. What makes White Dove special is that she looks like Pocahontas might have looked, and animators modeled the new Pocahontas after her.
She is enthusiastic about the project. So is the current chief of the Pamunkeys, Swift Water Miles, who approves of the whole project. "They simply are using artistic license," he has said to The Associated Press. "I don't find that particularly objectionable. The only written record we have is from John Smith's diaries. Nobody can verify the accuracy of what he wrote."
What is the official line of Disney's animator and director, Mike Gabriel? "The movie could be entertaining without departing from historical accuracy."
White Dove, presumably on the Disney payroll, admits there are inaccuracies, but adds, "They will serve only to inspire me to teach the truth." Make of that what you will.
Does she think Pocahontas will follow in the footsteps of "The Lion King?" Most certainly. "I think the film is going to be a big hit. Kids are going to think it's true - that's what they're going to remember."
I'm eager to see Pocahontas when it comes out this summer. It is too intriguing and romantic a story to let die. And after it has been told often enough, it becomes true in a poetic sense. Who is so literal-minded as to deny this?
Marshall Fishwick is a professor of humanities and communications studies at Virginia Tech.
by CNB