Pocahoas became known by the colonists as an important Powhatan emissary. She occasionally brought the hungry settlers food and helped successfully negotiate the release of Powhatan prisoners in 1608. But relations between the colonists and the Indians remained strained.
She received instruction in Christianity and learned colonial customs. She was even baptized, taking the Christian name Rebecca. During this period, Pocahontas met another Jamestown resident, John Rolfe.
Pocahontas was a Native American woman born around 1595. She was the daughter of the powerful Chief Powhatan, the ruler of the Powhatan tribal nation, which at its strongest included around 30 Algonquian communities located in the Tidewater region of Virginia. As far as historians know, nothing in Pocahontas’ childhood indicated she would become known as a folk icon. But when the first European settlers arrived on Powhatan land to begin the colony of Jamestown, Pocahontas became embroiled in a series of events with Captain John Smith and John Rolfe that permanently linked her to America’s colonial heritage.
