Pocahontas is probably the best known Native American in history. But the true story of her life has been eclipsed by a fictionalised version, played out as a romance between an intrepid English captain and a wild native princess. So what is known about the real Pocahontas, and her life before the arrival of the white colonisers? How did she spearhead a period of truce between her tribe and the Europeans? And did she truly have a say in her own fate, and the fate of her people? 

This is a Short History of Pocahontas.

Written by Lindsay Galvin. With thanks to Camilla Townsend, professor of history at Rutgers University, and author of Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. 

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