The following article appeared in our local newspaper today, with comments by Helen Rountree. Dr. Rountree's latest book is "Pocahantas, Powhatan, Opechancaough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown". > 'New World' a good tale but, sadly, bad history > -------------------- > > Tamara Dietrich > > January 26 2006 > > You don't have to be a Virginia Indian to be disappointed that film director > Terrence Malick turned the story of the Jamestown settlement into what one > local moviegoer approvingly calls a "chick flick." > > I haven't even seen it yet, and I'm disappointed. Why take a gritty tale of > survival against desperate odds and dress it up in doeskin and a romance that > never happened? > > You may get a good story out of it, but you also get respected > anthropologists kicking the backs of theater chairs, squirming in their seats and, if they > weren't a professor emerita at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, maybe > even throwing popcorn at the screen. > > Retired professor Helen C. Rountree hasn't done any of those things. Yet. > But when her friends finally drag her to a showing of "The New World," all bets > are off. > > "They will probably be laughing themselves silly watching me instead of the > movie," says Rountree, who lives in Hampton. "We're going to do a postmortem > while I'm still fulminating." > > Rountree is an expert on Pocahontas and the world in which she lived. Her > new book is "Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed > by Jamestown." > > Scholars have penned enough nonfiction on Pocahontas to offer Malick plenty > of material - fascinating stuff, too - for a compelling story grounded more > firmly in fact. > > It makes you wonder how the Jamestown story might go if Pocahontas, Powhatan > and his brother Opechancanough had $100 million to produce a film today. > > "The plot would be very different from what you see in the movies," Rountree > assured me. "For one thing, the colonists would not be heroes who had a > right to settle here. The Indians would not be treacherous, mindless villains." > > And Pocahontas? Not a Barbie, despite what Malick and Disney say. Scholars > like Rountree were quick to point that out 10 years ago, when the House of > Mouse charged its animators to come up with the sexiest Indian maiden ever. > > The real Pocahontas, we were reminded then, was only about 11 when she met > Capt. John Smith. Built like a piano mover, as Rountree told a Daily Press > reporter. And nekkid, too. > > "The kids were doing very active labor alongside their parents, and some of > that was quite dirty," she explained Tuesday. "The easiest way to clean a kid > is if they don't have clothes. Ditto for hair." > > > Yes, that's right: Pocahontas had a nekkid head, too. Shaved to the skull > except for the rat-tail trailing down her back. > > If Capt. Smith was ever drawn to a kid like that, Malick would be making a > completely different movie. And then he'd be arrested. > > Eventually, Pocahontas hit puberty, married a fellow Indian, then got > kidnapped by white settlers to trade back to her father in exchange for white > captives. The settlers ended up keeping Pocahontas, turning her over to a > Calvinist minister for schooling. > > To the whites, she was a pagan soul to save, as well as a bargaining chip. > To Rountree, she was being "brainwashed." > > "Held captive, literally," she says. "Probably under house arrest for some > time." > > Eventually, Pocahontas married tobacco entrepreneur John Rolfe, who, if > we're talking realism, should be known today as the father of lung cancer. Was it > love? > > To Rountree, Rolfe was "in lust," obviously drawn to Pocahontas, as his > letters indicate. As for Pocahontas, Rountree considers it less love or lust than > a psychological disorder - Stockholm Syndrome, where captives emotionally > attach themselves to their captors. > > Pocahontas and Rolfe soon sailed to visit England with their infant son. She > died there and was buried at Gravesend in southeast England. Rountree > reckons she has tens of thousands of descendants alive today, many of whom probably > don't even know their ancestry. > > Every now and then, people like Wayne Newton - who claims Cherokee and > Powhatan blood - make noises about bringing Pocahontas' remains back to Virginia. > But in the 1920s, Rountree says, a respected anthropologist excavated the > mass grave where Pocahontas is said to rest, looking for a telltale skull of a > Native American. He didn't find one. > > Virginia Indians today have "very mixed feelings about her," Rountree says. > "It's not simple. With some of the older folks, they will believe the myth > because it was the myth that kept them going for a long time - one Indian who > was acceptable to the whites." > > In the movie the Indians would make about Jamestown, Rountree says, > Pocahontas would be a footnote. "She wasn't crucial, sorry," she says. > > Powhatan and his brother would be the "good cop/bad cop" of the New World, > alternately assaulting and befriending the invading Europeans until they, too, > perished, their territory and power diminishing. > > And John Smith would be the rascal who years later rewrote his own story - > and history along with it. Pocahontas throwing herself between him and her > father's bloodthirsty warriors. The Indian falling for the noble white man. > > "He had taken care to associate himself with Pocahontas already," Rountree > says. "So he was attaching himself to somebody he was hoping would be a > celebrity. It didn't happen till long after he was dead. Also, it made a good story > - falling in love with the enemy. > > "He was not the kind of journalist we think of today. He was a storyteller." > > Hollywood would've loved him. > > Tamara Dietrich can be reached at [log in to unmask] or at 247-7892. > > Copyright (c) 2006, Daily Press > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html