What did Pocahontas really look like?
Pocahontas is one of those historical enigmas with a huge reputation, but a ton of question marks about her real life and appearance. Of course we all know her from the 1995 Disney Film, but it’s not shocking to hear that what’s shown in the movie is barely a shadow of the real Pocahontas.
For the full video with all of the re-creations and some bonus motion & smiles, visit us here.
Today we will talk about what Pocahontas looked like, how she would have dressed, and how she may have worn her hair. At the bottom you will see re-creations of her appearance.
She grew up in the Virginia Tidewater area of the United States - in a region called Tsenacommacah - ruled by her father, the paramount chief of the Powhatan tribes. We don’t know anything about her mother, but we do know that the Powhatan were a matrilineal society. Inheritance ran through the female line, and women owned property and homes.
As a child, Pocahontas would have worn little to no clothing. Her head would have been partially shaved using mussel shells, leaving a long braided section down the back.
As she grew up, she would be taught the women’s work of building homes, gathering firewood, clearing land and gardening, and of course raising children.
The colonists of Jamestown arrived around 1507, when Pocahontas would have been 11 or twelve. Over the years, they routinely helped the starving colonists by bringing gifts of food and supplies. Pocahontas often went along on these visits, and the English report her playing and doing cartwheels with the English boys.
The colonists remarked that the Powhatan were tall, lean, and very strong. This makes sense, since both the women and men engaged in a ton of physical labor every day.
Although no illustrations of the Powhatan exist, Author HC Rountree describes the Powhatan as having coppery skin that was further darkened by the sun, with course, straight black hair, dark brown eyes, and wide faces with prominent cheekbones and heavy jaws.
In terms of clothing and fashion, the Powhatan people used and decorated themselves with what was available to them. They were skilled hunters, so animal hide and furs were widely available. The basic dress was a deerskin apron for men, and a deerskin dress for women.
The amount of clothing worn depended on the season - they would wear very little in summer, but in the winter they wore heavy cloaks and deerskin leggings with moccasins.
But, to assume that Powhatan clothing was just one thing would be a huge error. It’s kind of like asking what Americans wear today - the answer is that we have a basic uniform - usually a shirt and pants - but what that means looks different for everyone. Every Powhatan dressed however they wanted to.
You could dye your deerskin many colors with natural dyes - deep red, orange, or even green. You could add a lot of fringe or embroidery to your cloak, decorate your skirt with beads, shells, and more. There was really no limit to how the Powhatans decorated themselves, and it was all about individual expression.
Of course, some of this was according to class. As the daughter of the Paramount Chief, Pocahontas would have had access to the finest and most precious materials, like copper and freshwater pearls.
Like most societies, they would have a set of clothes for working, and a separate set of clothes for special occasions.
John White, "A cheife Herowans wyfe of Pomeoc and her daughter of the age of 8 or 10 years." (1585) British Museum, London.
While the Disney movie does get a lot wrong about this time in history, there are a lot of things they got right about the attire. For instance, in the movie, Pocahontas’ father wears a cloak with raccoon tails hanging from it. This was actually based on a real cloak that John Smith described him wearing. “A great robe made of rarowcun skins, and all the tails hanging by.”
The movie also gets the basic deerskin attire, shell necklaces, and red paint worn by the tribes correct as well.
We can see that Disney does brush on one important aspect of Powhatan attire, and that was tattooing. Pocahontas in the film has a red armband tattoo, that’s based on real tattoo patterns shown in watercolors of the Secotan people. (The Secotans were a closely related tribe to the Powhatan).
However, in real life, she probably would have been more heavily tattooed than this. Looking at the other watercolor paintings, some tribe members had a lot of tattoos where others didn’t have many. Just like the clothing choices, these were likely based on personal preference and individual expression, like they are today.
Although she was young there are children that are shown with tattoos, and as the daughter of the chief, it may have also meant importance.
They could also make the less permanent choice of painting their bodies instead, which they did often for many occasions.
For women, hair was worn long and loose or braided. Men kept their hair long as well, sometimes shaving parts of their head. Both sexes decorated their hair with feathers, shells or animal bones.
In 1613, we start seeing Pocahontas through a much more English lens.
Over the years, the once-peaceful relationship between the Native American and the colonists had grown fraught. When Pocahontas was in her teens, she even found herself captured by the English. As the daughter of the chief, she was a valuable hostage, and the English were hoping they could trade her back for captives and guns.
While they were negotiating the terms of her release, Pocahontas was taken to Henrico, another small English settlement. There, she began to study the English language and learn about their religion.
It’s here that Pocahontas reportedly fell in love with the English colonist, John Rolfe, and the two decided to marry, which actually led to a tentative peace between the English and the Powhatan Indians. She converted to Christianity and was baptized as “Rebecca.”
The engraving of Pocahontas by Simon de Passe.
When the Virginia Company of London, who had funded the exploration of the United States and the settling of Jamestown, found out that Rolfe had married the daughter of the paramount chief, they wanted to take advantage. The Virginia Company extended an invitation to the Rolfes - an all expense paid trip back to London, where they would tour the country and even meet King James.
It’s during this time that we get the only known portrait of Pocahontas from her lifetime, and that’s an engraving made by Simon de Passe. The portrait was made essentially for publicity. She’s wearing English dress, and notably any tattoos she may have had have been omitted or covered. It was intended to show how well integrated she was in English society - how the natives could be made to adopt English ways - basically that the exploration of Virginia, and Jamestown, were projects worth investing in. (Miller, Kevin (2018).
Now, engravings are obviously not the most delicate style of art. They tend to exaggerate features and wrinkles because there’s not a lot of subtlety in the medium. However, de Passe was a celebrated and well-trained engraver.
This is the only image of Pocahontas to work from. So, let’s check out the re-creations. First, I’ll show her in English dress, and then we’ll transition her into her native dress. Keep in mind that the possible tattoos I’ve added to her are just examples of the types of tattoos she may have had - it’s impossible to know exactly how she would have chosen to adorn herself.
