Pocohantas, Sacajawea, and Indian Costumes for Girls
Most grade school children are familiar with Pocohantas, a Native American daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Algonquian Indians in Virginia. She was born in the last years of the 16th century and actually named Matoaka, although most know her as Pocahontas , which means “Little Wanton,” a description given to a playful small girl. She’s famous for meeting John Smith, when the English landed at Jamestown in May of 1607.
Smith wrote that he was greeted warmly by the Chief and offered a feast, but was grabbed and held captive over two large stones, where members of the tribe were ready to beat him with clubs on the order of the chief. However, Pocahontas came in, placed his head in her arms and “laid her owne upon his to save him from death.”
Truthfully, though, this was most likely part of an execution and salvation ritual, which was completed by Pocahontas telling Smith they were now friends and that the chief adopted the man as his own son. Still, Smith’s account of it was the start of one of the great historical stories — and one of the first stories that young women might hear about Native American girls.
In another tradition in October, children today might pay homage to Pocohantas by dressing up in an Indian girl costume for school pageants or for Halloween.
While Pocohantas is perhaps the best known of Native American women, but there are others, too, such as Sacajawea, famous for guiding Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition throughout the Western United States in 1806. More recently, there is Maria Tallchief , born in 1925, who became a well known ballerina with the New York City Ballet, retiring in 1965, and then founded the Chicago City Ballet.
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