pocahontas biography

Pocahontas was a Native American princess, and a peacemaker. She was famous for her connection with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. Also for saving a life of English captain John Smith. Pocahontas was born on 1595 in what is now eastern Virginia. Pocahontas was a daughter of Powhatan, an important chief of the Algonquian Indians (the Powhatans) who lived in the Virginia region. Her real name was "Matoaka." "Pocahontas" was a nickname meaning "playful" or "naughty one." Powhatan had many wives from different villages, and Pocahontas had a large number of half-brothers and half-sisters. As a young child, Pocahontas lived in her mother’s village. She wore deerskin clothing and slept in a yehakin, which was made from natural supplies found in the surrounding environment. Pocahontas lived in a house made of bent saplings and covered with reeds or bark. There weren't any schools to help Pocahontas succeed in education but she learned many things by watching her mother and the other adults do work. Pocahontas helped prepare meals in dinners, such as meat and stews made from meat and vegetables. She learned to plant corn, beans and squash in the early summer and to gather roots, nuts and berries in the fall. Pocahontas learned to make clay pots as well, for cooking many natural plant fibers. She also helped in making clothing from animal skins. When Pocahontas was about eight or ten years old, she moved back to her father’s home, in the village of Werowocomoco on the York River where she worked with her half sisters and her stepmothers. As she grew up there were many harder responsibilities that she owned for instance scraping deer hide and canoeing into the fenland to collect reeds. She used reed for very helpful reasons, she made mats that could be used in houses, beds, or on the ground to be seated. At Werowocomoco, Pocahontas first met Captain John Smith in December 1607. Smith was one