For a couple of years, I worked closely with Philip Barbour, editor of
The Complete Works of Captain John Smith and The Jamestown
Voyages, and author of Smith and Pochontas biographies.  He was
quite a linguist and a dogged researcher, and he always insisted that
"Powhatan" should be pronounced

                                PO hat an

(long O and emphasis on 1st syllable, ignoring the W).

With that drilled into my head, I have always thought that Powhite
should be pronounced  PO WHITE--with implications left to others!

Fred Fausz
St. Louis

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