Popular Culture and Jamestown History Discussion

Read the Jamestown section of Chapter 2 in The American Yawp. Then watch the following scene  from Terence Malick’s 2006 film about the founding of Jamestown, The New World.  Also read this page about Pocahontas from the actual Jamestown site: The World of Pocahontas

https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/pocahontas-her-life-and-legend.htm 

Pocahontas is probably the most widely depicted Native American woman in history.  Very little is known about her, and most of what is known about her comes from John Smith’s own early 17th century account.  She died at the age of 21 in England after marrying Englishman John Rolfe.  In recent years, Former Presiddent Donald Trump has repeatedly used the term “Pocahontas” to refer to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, in an effort to ridicule Warren’s Native American heritage.  

What does the person of Pocahontas represent to us as Americans?  What can the facts of her actual life teach us?  How can we honor her memory, given the suffering her people experienced in the years following her short life?