The REAL Issue With Disney's Pocahontas

In recent years, Disney’s Pocahontas (1995) has been under constant scrutiny in the media. News sources such as The Atlantic and The Guardian have been analyzing and reviewing the contents of the children’s movie, and more and more negative articles keep coming out. They cover the basics: the story is fundamentally incorrect, the song “Savages” is terrible, and the stereotypes against indigenous peoples are shown every other second at best. However, one key fact is left out, and it’s one that we don’t really think about. There are a few key points in this story that could make one believe that Disney was simply cutting corners in telling the real Pocahontas story. Normally, this might not be taken seriously--but with a culturally significant movie done by a non-Native American, largely influential company, it simply comes off as ignorant.

Many people see Pocahontas as simply a Disney tale--her animated portrayal alone.

Many aspects of their movie are actually accurate. Pocahontas was a real woman (albeit much younger in real life); she was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of nearly 30 Algonquian-speaking tribes around the upper Atlantic coast and Great Lakes of America. However, there are too many bits and pieces in the story to indicate that Disney barely paid attention to the real story of Pocahontas. First of all, the romance between Pocahontas and John Smith is blasphemy. No, they didn’t fall in love, and no, their romance didn’t end a war. 

The Massacre Of Settlers, an engraving done by Matthäus Merian in 1634, depicting a scene from a surprise attack on colonists in 1622.

In fact, nearly 30 grueling years of suffering between the Virginia Colonies and the Powhatan followed John Smith’s alleged interaction with Pocahontas (he went to Virginia in 1608). What’s even worse is that Smith didn’t even mention Pocahontas in his first records of Virginia--he only included the Chief’s princess in a dramatic, exaggerated revision of his visit, which he wrote sixteen years later, making up an entire story about how she threw herself atop him to save his life--solely because she had become a local celebrity in London. Disney got that part right, at least! 

Pocahontas' memorial at St George's Church, her site of burial, in Gravesend, England.

The lack of respect that Disney broadcasted with their halfhearted representation of Pocahontas and the story of the Powhatan and Jamestown colonists is what has been fed to children ever since it came out. Under the name of a real influential figure, they were able to market a fairy tale that John Smith made up, and a lot of people believed the story and took it as fact. It’s a great movie on the outside: it has a strong female protagonist, classic romantic tropes, and humor. Whether the mix-up was a misunderstanding or intentional, it should not have been the case either way. Disney used to have and still has a responsibility as a source of children’s media to teach the truth. In this case, they are simply adding to the lie that John Smith made up in order to make himself seem cool, and once again indigenous truths have been bulldozed by a flashy white man who, honestly, wasn’t even that great.