Amonute’s life was fairly simple. She would start her day off with a bath in the river. Despite the fact that the water was cold she bathed in it anyway. Amonute and the other children of the tribe were able to do this because their skin was tough from constantly bathing. The weather in Virginia was cold. In order to withstand the cold, constant scrubbing of the skin toughened it. After bathing prayers were said followed by a time of gathering ingredients for the evening stew. Amonute and her aunts would gather wild greens and water for the meal. After this task was accomplished the remainder of the day would be spent finding firewood, gathering Tuckahoe roots, and cleaning. Tobacco would then be used
once again for prayers of thanksgiving for the gifts of the day!

At the age of eight Amonute left her mother and came to live with our father, Chief Powhatan. Her parents divorced and she saw her mother rarely. She lived among very important people who were dressed very immaculately. She, however, wore nothing except on special days when visitors came. She would wear a deerskin apron or a dancing costume of green leaves. Her hair was shaved and worn in one long lock. Amonute worked very hard and was a very witty child. She liked to tease people. Thus, our father gave her a new name Pocahontas, meaning “ little mischievous one.” Pocahontas acted in this manner to gain her father’s attention because he was a very busy man.

He met often with the chiefs of the various parts of his domain and was constantly surrounded by bodyguards, councilors, wives and children.

I remember the spring day they came, the white-winged birds floating on the river. I heard the others speaking about them. They weren’t friendly visitors. They built their homes inside a circle of wood. They looked like a war party. No women and children were with them. They would become violent when our people would approach. They found our oysters and ate them. They discovered our canoes and used them. When a chief from Appamatuck, came offering his arrow and pipe they did not know what to do because they did not speak our language.

Luckily the man they called Percy took the pipe. I’m sure he did not know what he was doing! Now we had new friends. And so we showed them the ways of the forest (if we hadn’t they would not have survived because they had little sense). My father could not understand why they chose the place that they did to live. It was a bad swamp where they could not grow corn or find food. But they did have nice things to trade with us. And so they gave us bells, glass beads and needles. We in turn taught them to survive!

Our father watched them for months. I think it amused him to see the English learn how to live on the land. Our father knew it was the job of the warrior to deal with them. And so my father let the neighboring tribes deal with the English in the ways they wanted to. I think he knew that the English were there to stay. My father eventually made contact with them and declared peace.

My sister and I did not see English till later in the winter. The first white man my sister and I saw was our father’s prisoner, John Smith. Our uncle had been hunting and had captured Mr. Smith. They took him to Werowocomoco, our father’s capital city. A great ceremony took place to welcome our new friend/prisoner. After spending time with the holy priests the prisoner was said to be a friend of the Indian. There was a ceremony where he was tested and became our brother. And as our new brother we called him “ Werowance” or “chief” because he was respected!

A year later my sister grew up and became a woman. She married Kocoum and went to live with him in his village. Meanwhile, more English were arriving and setting up new forts. These foreign people had troubles like their brothers before them. Much loss occurred in their camps. People were starving and dying from disease. They had made attempts to leave the land but ended up coming back. For a while Pocahontas did not see Englishmen in her new area. But that all changed when she was captured. My sister had been visiting some Potomac Indians when she was tricked into coming aboard an English ship. She was taken to Henrico and held as a hostage. While there she was taught English and about the white man’s God. They gave her a new name an Christian English name, Rebecca.

A white man that lived near by had seen my sister and fell in love with her. She fell in love with him too. But, what was to come of my sister’s marriage to her Indian husband Kocoum? Eventually there was a wedding. My sister married John Rolfe. My father did not go. My uncle, Chief Opechancanough, and two of my brothers attended the wedding. For a while it seemed that relations between our people and the English were going to be better due to the union.

My sister soon had a baby, Thomas, in the spring of 1614. John, her new husband, was so proud he took the baby and my sister to a new land, England. I hear that she was regarded as a princess and treated like royalty. Their head chief, King James, adored her. But even with all this attention, my sister was lonely at first. She was in a new land with people that did not know her language or culture. While she was in England she revealed her very sacred name, Matoaka, which means, “little snow feather.” She eventually found out that John Smith, “Werowance”, was in England as well. It took him a long while to visit which hurt my sister. But now she had grown accustomed to England and found great comfort with her new friends.

When John Rolfe decided that it was time to sail back to Virginia where our people lived, my sister did not want to go. They boarded the ship and sailed down the river. My sister was not feeling well. She had contracted smallpox. Her husband took her off the ship. She died shortly after. She was only 22. Back in our hometown, my father and our family had not yet heard the news. There was still peace among the English and our people. Eventually my father found out that his favorite daughter was dead, which not only devastated him, but devastated all possible chances of peace. Our people attacked the English. Their homes were burnt, their people killed. This would last for many years.