#matoaka

Even just working within the framework of Native Americans, here's a list of Indigenous women who were documented cases of being MMIW that came before Matoaka (who was kidnapped in 1613 & died in 1617):

Anacaona (Taíno ruler who was murdered in 1504)

Yuisa (another Taíno ruler who was murdered in 1515)

Higuanama (Taíno ruler who was hanged by the Spanish in 1502)

Yayo (Taíno cacica & wife of leader Orocobix, who was captured & enslaved alongside her husband in 1514)

Opossunoquonuske (Matoaka's aunt, Werowansqua of the Appomattoc within the Powhatan confederacy, who was wounded & killed by the English in 1610)

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day, everyone! 🪶

I want to celebrate this holiday by honoring all tribes including the Powhatan people of Virginia, especially honoring the legacy of the famous member: the late and great Pocahontas (1596-1617)

Yes, her. I drew her but as a preteen child because she was 10-11 years old when she first met John Smith and saved his life which sparked the legend behind her courageous nature. It’s too bad that Disney made a movie about her story based on Smith’s overrated yet exaggerated autobiographical works. 😅 As a kid, I loved the Disney movie but as I grew older to learn Pocahontas’s REAL story which shook my head. 🙂‍↔️😞

When she grew into a young woman, she played a diplomatic role — bringing food, delivering messages, and at times serving as intermediary between her people and the settlers. Though, her later life became tragic when she was held captive by the English, converted to Christianity and married a settler named John Rolfe in 1614. She traveled to England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 in 1616, where she was presented in English society, but died due to a sudden illness at the age of 21 before returning to her homeland. 😢

Her legacy lives on not only through the stories (and misconceptions) that have shaped American memory, but also in the deeper truths: she embodies resilience, adaptability, and the complexities of interaction across cultures at a time of profound change.

This is a beautiful portrait of Pocahontas, or Matoaka by her natural name, I’ve ever drawn before. 🙏🏽💯🦝Thank you.

Original artwork created by me — ink, acrylic paint, and colored pencils.

Original post:

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Cara

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Like we already know that's not her name and it's not some example of art for its own sake. Diseny wanted to present a version of history where the poor and kind settlers were scared of "savages" like no one is confused about what that movie is presenting.

But it also just makes me insane because it was when I really got that white women only care when bad things happen to other white women. Cause outside of everything else you already know about that movie, I will never get over the fact that Matoaka was a real person. That literally changes everything cause this isn't a fable to reflect anything random, it's the retelling of a real woman's story who was really kidnapped and killed.

Like you can't even read the real writings of John Smith without finding out he was so famously annoying that he had to pay two different people to put down his story cause he couldn't write it himself and the first guy quit, cause he was so annoying. Someone read the account of an indentured cobbler who ran off to be a mercenary and then a settler and whoes story is only known cause he accidentally shot his own dick with his own gun and thought we gotta animate him as a hero. He shot his own dick and that's american heroism disney had to have.

But Matoaka was a real person and they really took her and killed her husband and child. We know she is forced into a marriage in England and dies of illness after being paraded around like a novelty. I seeth in a different way every time I listen to her sing about the Riverbend because they really had someone sing that her husband was boring and stable and ended her dreams like could you imagine someone kills your partner and creates a version of you that tells the world actually he was boring and I wanted adventure.

You could write a book with everything that is fucked up about that movie but fuck me I cannot think of a historical woman who is disrespected to this degree. It is such a mockery of what happened to that real woman. And the real Kocoum is murdered and then animated to be killed AGAIN but in a way that makes him villainous. Insidious.