4 comments about Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed By Jamestown.

1. I am fortunate to have read four excellent books on the Pocahontas / John Smith story. As I have read one after the other each has added seasoning, each has distilled the myth from the acts, each is a different perspective on THE seminal moment at the beginning of European history in America.
   
   The first book I read was "Captain John Smith: Jamestown and the Birth of the American Dream" (Kindle Edition) by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. We learn from a thorough biography of Smith at what a full and tumultuous life he lived. If even one half of what Smith wrote about his exploits was true, then his life was one of the most storied and lucky of the century. No matter how you look upon his pre-American exploits, by the time he sets foot in Virginia he is a well seasoned and experienced soldier.
   
   The next book was "Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma" by Camilla Townsend. Full of very important information about Pocahontas, the author tends to vilify Smith as a boastful liar, her sympathies towards Pocahontas run as deep. We learn much about the Powhatan people and the times they lived in.
   
   The third book was "Love & Hate in Jamestown" by David A Price. He tends to take both Pocahontas at her word (the very few we actually know of) and almost all of John Smith's many words....at face value. All three of these books are very well researched but each draw very different stories and conclusions.
   
   Coming now to the fourth and probably the finest of them, "Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives changed by Jamestown" by Helen C Rountree, I think that I have finally realized as accurately as I can who these people were and what happened at Jamestown. Whereas Townsend tends to reveal a degree of rage and resentment against Smith, Rountree does not get as caught up in the heated debates that still go on among Pocahontas/Jamestown writers and scholars. Having worked among the remnants of the Powhatan natives for 35 years, Rountree has absorbed their history and it is well integrated with mountains of scholarly research.
   
   What do we learn from Rountree's book that might have been missing in the other three? First, her objective was to tell the reader what happened to the three main characters and she succeeds to the fullest of the known evidence. Their stories are, with the exception of Pocahontas, that of long lives (Opachancanough might be have been close to 100 when he died) and of seeing a completely unstoppable change to their society. We must remember that Native American tribes by their very nature spent parts of their histories fighting with and either conquering other tribes or in turn being conquered by them in turn. Some tribes were wiped out, others brought into submission to a Great King, like Powhatan. The changes that the Europeans brought to the Natives of America was very unlike their previous history, a history that might have been as old if not older than the Europeans. Powhatan died with an uncertain notion of whether his people could push the smelly white strangers off their lands. Opachancanough died knowing that their civilization was doomed.
   
   One of the most important insights that Rountree presents comes close to the end of her book. She states that in the final uprisings against the Jamestown area settlements, the Powhatan natives were largely supplied by young men who had never known a time when their ancestral lands were all their own. They grew up in an embattled and bloody time of transition when the end of Amerindian culture was making itself known.
   
   Keeping this in mind, the life of Pocahontas, as short and sad as it was, exposed her to the most striking of contrasts. Can you imagine what her father would have thought had he been convinced to visit England? Would he have been able to absorb the sense of enormity of European society, positioned as it was with cities full of rank and foul airs, open sewage, filthy children running amok in the streets, clouds of black smoke coming from coal fires. Would he not have imagined Europe as a hellish nightmare? Certainly Pocahontas was astounded but what is amazing is that it appears that she actually liked being in England, if not in the smoldering big cities. Her feisty nature relished the changes that she had been pushed into. This is a strange aspect to her personality that is hard to understand.
   
   Much of the book relates the relentless waves of incompetent settlers who came to the Jamestown area. What is clear about this story is that the White Europeans were going to come and nothing was going to stop them. Not sickness, nor hurricanes, nor savage natives, nor starvation. They would come and more would follow and the superior technologies of gunpowder, steel and huge sail boats, coupled with animal husbandry were more than a match for the hunting/gathering subsistence native life.
   
   One comes away from this history wondering if it could have been another way and I suppose the answer is no. The clash of civilizations was inevitable, with swashbuckling Captain Smiths eager for exploring new and hopefully cleaner lands more than enough motivation to get out and go. That so many native lives perished as a result and thousands of years of history pulverized is a sad legacy to the memory of Pocahontas, her father and her uncle. But, it is what happened and we should know of their lives. Rountree's book is full of insight into these people as they tried in vain to deal with these strangers. The mythologies about Smith and Pocahontas I think have been finally put to rest and need not be resurrected again. The real story is much more gripping and important. Excellent book.



2. Everyone is familiar with the story of Pocahontas and British explorer/adventurer John Smith. They are romantic stories fed to us by the likes of Disney (10 yrs ago in the 1995 film) and countless romanticized versions in historical fiction novels. This "documentary" book exposes the truth about what really happened in the span of time that John Smith, Jon Rolfe and the Virginia Company founded Jamestown and dealt with the Indian tribes headed by Chief Powhatan and his brother Openchancanough. Since Thanksgiving is fast approaching, this makes a fine book to read if you are interested in the earliest British colonial period of the 1600's, when the pilgrims fist arrived in the Eastern coast of the United States. This period has been romanticized by movies and novels, evoking a thrilling time of danger, intrigue and romance, when Indians and colonists sparred and sometimes made peace, even made love. Princess Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief Powhatan. She was only fifteen or so when she first met Jon Smith and a romance was highly unlikely, even if perhaps the girl felt an attraction to the supposedly attractive adventurer. John Smith had traveled across the globe to foreign lands as a British explorer and was in his day a bad boy. That he may have gotten into trouble with Chief Powhatan and his people is probably true. Pocahontas was a diplomat, a healer/medicine woman and regarded as a peacemaker. Even if she didn't do a dramatic a thing as offer herself up as sacrifice to save John Smith's life, she did for a time lessen tension between the natives and the colonists. She married Jon Rolfe, a British nobleman, was converted to Christianity, learned to read and speak English. She journeyed across the Atlantic, leaving behind her old life in the tribe and became a popular figure in London society. She became a lady. Most people forget about this phase in her life and it must have been a very interesting story within itself. Did she miss her old life ? Was she as respected in London or did she experience a form of racism because she was not a white English lady ? Powhatan's life is documented well in this book. He was a very influential man in his time and he, too, was able to negotiate with the English. Jamestown brought these people together. They hoped that Jamestown would be an independent, Utopian society where English and natives could live and prosper. Unfortunately, Jamestown succumbed to disease and death. The dream died and conflict between natives and colonists resumed. If you're a big history buff, this book is for you.



3. The major theme of POCAHONTAS POWHATAN OPECHANCANOUGH: THREE INDIAN LIVES CHANGED BY JAMESTOWN revolves around truth. For each story that has been told about Virginia's Jamestown settlement or Pocahontas in general, its has centered on the Captain John Smith and Pocahontas legend and myth that has been overly romanticized in novels and in movies. At this time, no scholar has made the attempt to intertwine the Indian voice within the English story of Jamestown. However, Helen Rountree attempts to provide the Native American voice, but from letters and accounts by English colonists and foreigners. It is unfortunate that the Indians did not record their accounts of the arrival of these new world settlers, or as Rountree suggests, invaders. Nonetheless, Rountree places the three major participants' semi-biographical accounts at the forefront of this study in order to incorporate their contribution to the settlement as well as the invasion of white colonists to the Indian landscape.
   
   Rountree examines these three major actors and their way of life from anthropological perspective. Indeed, this is an historical narrative that deals with ethnohistory, but one that is " about one side only" (p. 6). Historians study their subject matters in order to get to the bottom of how an event occurred and its end result - think in terms of the past while writing in the present. Rountree takes the same approach, and studied the Powhatan side with why and how they acted the way they did. Rountree is critical and frank about past accounts of the Jamestown story as told by historian, William Strachey, HISTORIE OF TRAVELL INTO VIRGINIA BRITANIA and his plagiarized version of John Smith's narrative, GENERALL HISTORIE, which takes an English perspective that downplays the Indian presence. Rountree clarifies misconceptions that have been told within past narratives.
   
   Chronologically, the book covers the period from 1607 to 1644. With these periods, one has a time frame to work with. Rountree provides an in depth analysis of the inception and deterioration of relations between natives and colonists of the Virginia Company's settlement in Jamestown and the wars that concurred in 1622 and 1644. The book shows how life was like before the colonists, and the significance of Powhatan daily rituals. Rountree's expertise in so-called "digging deep" to the root of origins from an anthropological point of view allows the reader to understand how life was simple and structured for the Powhatans. Rountree suggests that life only later became complicated when the Indians had to provide and teach the colonists how to survive. In the process, both Indians and colonists discovered that their lifestyles and environments were different than what they had been accustomed to.
   
   For the sake of understanding, POCAHONTAS POWHATAN OPECHANCANOUGH will allow readers of history to see the bigger picture of the Jamestown story that took place three centuries ago. Although this history has already passed, its legacy and myths continues to engage readers. Helen Rountree should be commended for taken the task to reveal the real Pocahontas as human as possible and not as a Disney cutout, and to emphasize the predominant role of chief leader, Powhatan, and his successor or "brother", Opechancanough as essential actors in American history.
   
   
   
   



4. Most interesting. A story of the founding of Jamestown from the Indian point of view. It is a family tradition that we are descended from Powhatan, and the story meant a great deal to me.

5 comments about Tecumseh: A Life.

1. The combination of excellent research and crisp narrative make this a wonderful biography. He weaves in appropriate larger issues without getting diverted from the theme of his story. One of the largest problems was discovering the truth about this legendary Indian chief, and he delivers an even-handed assessment of Tecumseh the person.



2. Sugden has put together a very important biography of this critical figure in the early national period. Tecumseh was uniquely gifted at seeing the larger picture. The tragedy of the volume is that, even given his gifts, Tecumseh was not able to bring the Native Americans together to resist those who would change their way of life. What Sugden makes clear is that, demographically speaking, it was unlikely that they could have done so. Nonetheless, that does not in any way diminish Tecumseh's accomplishments.
   
   Unlike the Eckert volumes, which feature an uncritical inclusion of many of the myths that developed regarding Tecumseh, this is a critical biography. As a result many of the stories that grew up around Tecumseh are examined carefully--many are debunked. What emerges is an all the more remarkable individual who created a legend by serving a cause greater than self. We have Sugden to thank for painting that picture compellingly.



3. The Shawnee war chief Tecumseh was a man of true, unbridled genius. He was hailed by nineteenth-century Americans as the epitome of the "noble savage" and later became the namesake of many thousands of boys born in the early decades of that century (including Union General William Tecumseh Sherman). Whereas in death Tecumseh was hailed with pride as a worthy adversary, in life his name struck nightmarish fear into whites from Cincinnati to Buffalo, and caused nearly the whole of the US Army to be sent west in opposition to his highly successful war against what he saw as the American invasion of his native soil
   
   This book does a spectacular job of filtering through the legend and finding the real biography of a figure whose life reads like a story of fiction. Tecumseh was a visionary (some say literally) who looked ahead and saw what the consequences of US expansion would be for the aboriginal populations of the North American continent. The preservation of his people and its culture being this wise leader's greatest priority, this amazing man laid aside his grief over the murders of two family members by expansionist whites, and at first sought to make treaties with the American government. Tecumseh kept his word and maintained peace on the frontier border, but after Washington broke its word again and again and used episodes of one-sided peace to slaughter whole Shawnee villages in Ohio, Tecumseh saw there was no alternative but to begin a war that he knew would have but one possible outcome: either the expansion of the United States into the west would be halted, or his and other native cultures would be destroyed within a generation.
   
   Tecumseh used his charisma and eloquence to persuade ardent enemies among Indian nations to lay aside their grievances and unify in an effort to stop the white man who was yearly seizing territory in the Ohio Valley homeland of so many tribes. Tecumseh crisscrossed North America, from Florida to Canada, whipping up fierce hatred of the whites and raising an army to strike at their mutual enemy. Under Tecumseh's fearless leadership, the Indian forces--warriors from a score of diverse peoples--won victory after victory over the American settlers, militia and armies. For a time US settlement into the Shawnee homeland was halted and Tecumseh's dream almost seemed within reach...and then this tactical genius made a horrible error in allying with the English in the War of 1812. Tecumseh, a man of deep personal honor, aided this European superpower in its goals of preventing the US takeover of Canada, but the English in their stead betrayed their Indian allies, whom they regarded as mere primitives, and ultimately set them up for a battle that would result in their doom.
   
   An American President once said that were it not for the presence of the United States, a man as gifted in all the arts of leadership as Tecumseh was would have established an empire that enclosed all of eastern America and surpassed that of the Aztecs in greatness. Certainly Tecumseh was a rare individual who came close to becoming for his people what George Washington was for his. This book untangles fact and fiction and gives us the story of one of the great men of the North American continent. It is a hefty, fulfilling read.



4. John Sudgen's "Tecumseh: A Life" is one of the more recent biographies of the famous Shawnee leader. Upon first reading of this book, I was not greatly impressed as the text was rather dry and languid. However, after delving more deeply into other works on Tecumseh's background and history of the War of 1812, I felt this work perhaps deserved another look.

   Tecumseh of course is the famous Shawnee war leader who resisted American expansion into the Northwest Territory in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He has been the subject of many books and movies, many of them fanciful presentations of the mythical image that has grown up around the man that many have called the greatest Indian leader of all time. Tecumseh's dream of a powerful pan-Indian confederacy was visionary in scope as he hoped to unite not just a few, but ALL the Indian tribes east of the Missisippi and beyond against the flood of white settlers pouring across the Appalachian Mountains. Tecumseh came closer than any others to succeeding in that vision, but the British defeat in the War of 1812 and Tecumseh's death at the Battle of Moraviantown in 1813 ended that dream forever.

   Sudgen's book helps to dispel many of the myths and tries to present the known facts about Tecumseh's life. While not nearly as engaging as Allan Eckert's "A Sorrow In Our Hearts", this book serves as a decent, if still somewhat slow going telling of the life of an undeniably capable leader. Sudgen also takes time to bash research of other historians who have done work on Tecumseh, ostensibly to help clarify the many myths and misconceptions that have grown up around the Shawnee leader in the past 200 hundred years, but the chapter comes off as more of a rant against other authors and diminishes the impact of the book. After reading Sudgen's work, I would recommend checking out not only Eckert's books on Tecumseh, but also "A Wampum Denied" by Sandy Antal and "The Shawnee Prophet" by R. David Edmunds for a more in-depth understanding of Tecumseh's life and times.




5. I am a fan of Tecumseh's, and this book was a good read. However, it fails in comparison with the works of Alan Eckert. Eckert's book, titled "A Sorrow In Our Heart", is a much better read and goes into more detail of Tecumseh's life and the life of his people. If you were going to read a book on Tecumseh I would only recommend Eckert's version. It is much more engrossing and by far much harder to put down. It is also three times the length of John Sugden's version.

No comments about The Song and the Silence: Sitting Wind: The Life of Stoney Indian Chief Frank Kaquitts.

No comments about Sundance the Robert Sundance Story.

No comments about On Native Ground: Memoirs and Impressions (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series).

3 comments about Etok: A Story of Eskimo Power.

1. I was a childhood friend of Charlie. We called him "Etook," not "Etok," if the spelling is any indication of pronunciation. It's a curious difference that makes me wonder about the real depth of the author in penetrating this man's story, but it's certainly accurate in respect to the living conditions and culture I knew as a young white boy, the son of a missionary, living in the village of Barrow.



2. Etok is my uncle. I knew it had a lot about Alaska Native land claims, but it was so much more. I learned more about my own family, more about Inupiaq culture, and of course, more about Native rights and the political resurgence of Alaska Natives. It was a really good book! I couldn't put it down.
   
   I recommend it to anyone who's interested in Native Land Claims, or Native rights in general.



3. The author has captured the man who is Etok and at the same time given us a look into politics in early Alaska statehood. Etok's intensity of feelings for his people and his land was powerful and unharnessed. This is demonstrated well here. Also, we get a look into both congressional and presidential politics of this era. This book is more than about this one man.

5 comments about The Last Comanche Chief: The Life and Times of Quanah Parker.

1. Good, well put together book about Quanah Parker.
   If you like native American history, this is one book you should defiantly have for your personal library.



2. I received the book in a timely manner and it is everything I hoped it would be.



3. This is a very good book if you are interested in the life of Quanah Parker. . . Very Good
   
   Thank You,
   Lehman Tiller



4. Written okay, but I mean REALLY! Why not saint the individual who is the subject of this book? Perhaps he could walk on water to among all of his other superhuman qualities???? If you take the time to read the reviews here - all by people who are wannabe Indians and/or haters of their own heritage and race - you'll get a very distorted view of what this book contains - which is a record of brutality, sadistic butchery, and mindless aggression against other peoples, until of course, elements such as the Texas Rangers took the starch out and fight out of said noble Red Aristocrat.
   But there is an even more important point that needs to be addressed. This point concerns how ANY modern-day writer can possibly write about a long-dead individual of a completely alien culture in an accurate way. That is, its one thing to write about what this particular Indian ( or any other individual Indian of any other tribe ) did during his life according to what is known of his ACTIVITIES, but it is utterly impossible to write about his FEELINGS, his DESIRES, his MOTIVATIONS, his THOUGHTS, etc. Since the writer cannot "get inside the mind" of this Indian, how can he possibly offer the reader anything except story, not fact concerning this Indian's character and personality? This author, and many like him, simply weave their own biases and tastes into a personality profile of one Indian or another, and then offer this trash to the reader as FACT, when in fact it is mere story telling.
   If you happen to be interested in the Comanche, read "Comanches - Pimlico Wild West Series", and get FACTS, not modern-day fiction-as-fact. For example; take note that the Comanches slaughtered other Indian tribes without mercy ( almost exterminating many groups of the Apeches ) and ran a bustling slave trade in which they sold captives among themselves or to the Spanish. They also acted as mercinaries, accepting money from the Spanish to exterminate Apaches in the northern Provinces of Mexico ( in one year, the Comanches were paid 18,000.00 Pesos for Apache scalps - 6 Pesos per scalp! ).
   And except for the Kiowa, who often had their bloody, horrific, sadistic outrages mistaken for depredations of Comanches, the Comanches were easily the most brutal and fiendish of all the Plains Tribes when it came to abuse, torture, and inhuman treatment of captives ( Red, White, or Mexican ). No, there is a LOT the reader should be aware of in books dealing with Indians such as these, but such FACTS are carefully kept out of the reader's awareness by books like this one. Read on through this review of mine and learn!
   
   This sort of quasi-sob story type of literature (proliferating these days) which deals with long-dead Amer-Indians and events of the past really are annoying. Much better books are Three Years Among the Comanches: The Narrative of Nelson Lee, the Texas Ranger and Nine Years Among the Indians, 1870-1879: The Story of the Captivity and Life of a Texan Among the Indians as well as Scalp Dance: Indian Warfare on the High Plains, 1865-1879 and lastly, Life Among the Apaches (Bison Book). And be sure not to miss The Kiowas (Civilization of the American Indian Series). Each of these books which I recommend is superb in its own way and for specific reasons, and all will serve to blast the reader straight out of the present Politically Correct SPELL of Fiction-As-Fact concerning the American Indians of the Western Frontier - a spell which has been cast by the likes of Dee Brown with his psuedo history-fantasy "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" and movies like K. Costner's imbecilic "Dances With Wolves" ( or more appropriately, "DUNCES With Wolves").
   
   Thanks to crack-brained leftist snivelers making one highly slanted documentary after another, and of course the hack writers who seek to twist historic record and fact so it conforms to their own civilization-depreciating schemes, we are swamped with PC Sob Story works like this one that leave the unknowledgeable reader with a completely FALSE impression about what actually happened under the vast and lonely skies of the center of this continent only a few hundred years ago.
   
   Consider this problem seriously. You are being fed half-truths, distorted information, and twisted facts in many cases by books such as this one. Now, if you're interested in an ACCURATE perspective on the Wild Frontier, read the titles I've recommended for you here, especially "Comanches - Pimlico Wild West". If you're one of these well-programmed PC flunkies who thinks he or she "has it all figured out" when it comes to the poor, helpless, hounded AmerIndians of yesteryear, then you absolutely must read the titles I've recommended here! I DARE YOU! Do this and THEN read this book and other trumped-up trash literature such as "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" and watch "Dunces With Wolves" and you'll see just how the wool's been pulled over your eyes!



5. Bill Neeley gives new life to the legend of Quanah Parker, Numu Paraiboo. More than just a biography, this book gives valuable insights into the culture and lifestyle of the Numunuu people and the training of the "Lords of the Plains", the best mounted cavalry in the world. Highly recommend for its accuracy and truth. Five stars

3 comments about Wind Wolf Woman: The Story of a Medicine Woman.

1. The real-life story of the evolution of a modern-day Sioux medicine woman. A very down to earth and inspiring story. Trained by her grandmother and other elders, Mahinto travelled the world until she became ready to return and "take on the mandtle" of the ancient ones. Her pain and suffering led to wisdom. She has helped many women find their true internal powers and strength. Great book and story.



2. This is by far one of the best books I have ever read.It takes you to places you can only dream about.



3. I have not only had the pleasure of reading this book, but meeting the author. A truly amazing 70+ year old woman who has the ability to take her life's lessons and transform them into a prose that will capture anyone who is interested in the American Indian way of life. This "fictional autobiography" was designed not only to be read cover-to-cover, which will keep you turning the pages, but can be opened at random, and within a few sentences you will get a message on how to (or not to) travel The Red Pathway.

   The book is filled with every type of emotion: Love, hate, fear, humor and dispicable behavior. All of which show how we are all related, not only on this earth but throughout the universe.

   You will not be dissapointed!

3 comments about Painting the Dream: The Visionary Art of Navajo Painter David Chethlahe Paladin (Park Street Press).

1. I was greatly moved by the life story, poems, and art of this remarkable person named David Chethlahe Paladin in "PAINTING THE DREAM".

   Through his colorful life, suffering, and cultures; he brought me to an understanding of our inter-connectedness with one another and the universe.

   It is relevant that we learn from his knowledge base, in order to live better, healthier, and a more harmonious exsistance. We must understand that there is so very much more for us to understand.

   David opens up a window you have never looked through before.

   No matter who you are, where you came from, your sorrows and joys of your life experience; there is no way that you can walk away- after reading this book and experiencing the essence of this exceptional human being- that you won't be positively inspired for the rest of your life.




2. I always come back to this book. It contains more than magnificient paintings. It contains wisdom, peace, light, dreams. An incredible perspective of life. Everything in this book is made with beauty: the words, the thoughts, the paintings, the stories. It opens our eyes to the world of the chamans. And, strangely, it also opens our eyes to our own inner world! Magnificient.



3. I bought this book after hearing Carolyn Myss's version of Paladin's story. I was surprised to read Paladin's version which is quite different; Myss seems to have invented some facts. All that aside, this a deeply moving book. You feel what it is to be a shaman, and visually it is beyond description. I wondered why a paperback was so expensive, and then I saw the 31 plates. I would be thrilled to have any of this art in my home. The back of the book says you can buy it. If I had the money I would. This is a stunning book for anyone interested in healing.

1 comments about Sister to the Sioux: The Memoirs of Elaine Goodale Eastman, 1885-91 (Pioneer Heritage).

1. Mrs. Eastman should be considered a pioneer in more ways than one. She was one of the first educators to teach in the Dakota territory. Mrs. Eastman advocated day schools which allowed the native children to remain with their families (a concept which was strongly discouraged by the church boarding schools of the time), she took the time to learn the D/Lakota language and conversed in it, and she lived within the community (as opposed setting herself against it). Mrs. Eastman worked many years while she was a single person (which was quite unusual). She also reported with accuracy what was really occuring on the reservations (often upsetting those in charge-including government and church officials).

   Among many things within this book, one can learn about: what works and does not work when teaching individuals whose first language is not English, the Native Americans of the Dakotas, a Feminist before her time, and the account of The Wounded Knee Massacre from someone who tended the few left alive.