The Mistakes of Disney's Pocahontas...

The Disney movie, Pocahontas, is a widely known film made in 1995 for the enjoyment of children.  Now although you may think it's just a child's movie, it is extremely controversial. As a child, there are certain things that you won't notice, even as an adult won't notice things, especially in a movie where they don't know what's right and what's wrong. Pocahontas was most people's first view of Native Americans, and like most things a child first sees, they think that is accurate. There are a lot of mistake in Disney's Pocahontas, but today I will tell you about nine of those mistakes

This is Pocahontas in the Disney
movie age: 19 NOT 10-12
source: Hollywood Movie Codes

#1: Pocahontas' age and relationship

In the movie, Pocahontas is portrayed as a 19-year-old girl, but in real life, she was only about 10 or 12. Pocahontas and John Smith fall in love during the Disney film. However, since Pocahontas was really only 10-12 years old, that makes their relationship in the movie quite hard to imagine. 

#2: Pocahontas' marriage

Sorry to ruin the movie, but Pocahontas and John Smith never actually fell in love. Pocahontas did not marry John Smith as shown in the movie,. Instead, she was actually captured by him and taken to England on a ship. She did marry a Native American man before she got captured thought to be around 1610. While imprisoned, she fell in love and married John Rolfe in 1614.  

Captain John Smith
source: Chester River Water Trail

John Rolfe, Pocahontas' real husband
source: Prabrook

#3: Tattoos

Native Americans were covered in tattoos, however, in the movie, there is very minimal exposure to tattoos. Although Pocahontas has one tattoo, she would have had many more. Because she was portrayed as 19-year-old women int the movie, she would have most likely has tattoos all over her body. The men in the movie are not portrayed with tattoos, except war paint and they would have had tattoos as well. 

These are the tattoos, Pocahontas
could have had
Source: Artist.com

This is how woman and children
actually looked
source: The York Historian

#4: The language barrier

Yes, there is a moment of differences in languages, but it is quickly overcome. While it is a cute way to show children how they understand each other, it does not accurately depict the truth. It would have taken way longer for the two of them to understand each other's words. This a major flaw in the Disney movie because they obviously do not speak the same language, and yet understand each other through singing a song. 

This is during the Colors of the Wind song when
they suddenly speak the same language through holding hands
source: youtube video of Colors of the Wind

                                                                                  #6: Saving John Smith

Pocahontas saving John Smith which never happened
source: Pinterest

Pocahontas throws herself across John Smith so that her father does not kill the love of her life in the movie. However, this action is not accountable for. This edition of the story was published way after the original events occurred by John Smith. The story of a 10-12-year-old girl saving a man she does not know, and disobeying her father, the chief, is highly unlikely. Also among his other journals, John Smith claims to also be saved by a Turkish Princess when threatened to be killed. Due to those reasons, people believed the dramatic story, even though it is not historically correct. 

                                                                                  #7: White men

Pocahontas would have known what a gun was, yet
she was not scared when John Smith pointed it at her
source: WordPress.com

In the movie, Pocahontas claims to have never seen white men or ships before. When she first sees England's ships, she thinks they are clouds, but we know that white men have already settled in North America before. The Powhatans fought the Spanish white settlers before, so Pocahontas would have known what their ships looked like, as well as her tribe knowing how dangerous a gun was.

#8: Weapons

The weapon that the Chief in the Disney movie was going to kill John Smith with was not an accurate portrayal of a Powhatan killing a white man. Clubbing was only used within the tribe; it was not used to kill people outside of their tribe. They would have used a different weapon. 

Powhatans fighting with arrows
source: Museum at York Town

The Chief using a club= inaccurate!
source: Indian Country Today

                                     #9: Supervision

Chief Powhatan
source: twitter

Pocahontas was never left alone in real life. Since she was the chief's favorite daughter, she was guarded and followed 24/7. She would not have been able to sneak away like she did in the movies, let alone meet a white man and be able to talk to him. In the movie, she ran away numerous times which would not have been allowed.

There are many things that Disney got wrong in Pocahontas. Things that could have easily been researched, so it could have been an accurate movie, as well as fun. Pocahontas has many mistakes in it, and it is unfortunate because it is so widely known that it puts false ideas into people's heads. It is one of the reasons why people have misconceptions of what happened with Pocahontas and the Native Americas and could say hurtful things about Native American. Now you know what actually happened, so spread the word and help people to become educated on this topic.

Sources:

Graham, Beckett, and Susan Vollenweider. "Pocahontas." The History Chicks, Podcast audio. 

       December 23, 2017. Accessed October 29, 2019. http://thehistorychihcks.com/episode-99-

       pocahontas/.

Townsend, Camilla. American Indian History: A Documentary Reader, Malden, MA: Willy-

      Blackwell, 2009.