34x14 - Pocahontas Revealed

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR:
A powerful legend from the first
days of our nation’s history.

MARTIN GALLIVAN:
The story of Pocahontas’s
saving John Smith is

part of the origin myth
of the American experience.

NARRATOR:
A dashing adventurer.

Hold back smartly!

JAMES HORN:
John Smith has had
a lifetime of adventures

even before he embarks
for Virginia.

NARRATOR:
An extraordinary young girl.

DAVID SILVERMAN:
Pocahontas was
a special kind of person--

bold, vivacious,
obviously very, very smart.

NARRATOR:
English colonists seeking
fame and fortune

face off against a people
who have lived here

for thousands of years.

[men chanting, singing]

It’s the 400th anniversary

of the legendary rescue
of John Smith by Pocahontas.

GALLIVAN:
We don’t know if that event
actually took place,

but if it did take place,

it probably happened
somewhere around here.

DAVE BROWN:
About 70 feet going
north-south...

NARRATOR:
Major archaeological discoveries

are now filling holes
in the historical record

and revealing another side
to the tale.

CHIEF KIRK MOORE:
It’s an opportunity
for Virginia Natives,

so they can tell their story,
and that is really important

because we never had
that opportunity.

BILL KELSO:
This excavation just continues
to amaze me.

I mean it’s always a surprise.

NARRATOR:
Exploring an American myth:
"Pocahontas Revealed,"

up next on NOVA.

Captioning sponsored
by DAVID H. KOCH,

THE HOWARD HUGHES
MEDICAL INSTITUTE,

THE CORPORATION
FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING

AND VIEWERS LIKE YOU

PEGGY LEE [to jazz rhythm]:
♪ Captain Smith and Pocahontas

♪ Had a very mad affair...

NARRATOR:
The name "Pocahontas"
is recognized

almost everywhere
around the world.

♪ She said, "Daddy, oh, don’t
you dare..." ♪

Her story has been told over
and over in paintings and plays,

movies, novels, comic books
and advertisements.

♪ Fever!

It’s an interracial love story,

a tale of love at first sight.

A young Native American woman
risks her own life

to save that of an Englishman
named John Smith.

Thanks to the devotion
of Pocahontas,

Smith and his colony
at Jamestown survive.

More English come.

The colony prospers.

Jamestown is the first
successful English settlement

in the New World, the birthplace

of what will become
the United States of America.

It’s a powerful story,
but how much of it is true?

Until recently, virtually
everything known about relations

between Virginia Indians and the
first settlers was one-sided.

The English wrote down
their version of history;

the Indians had
no written language at the time.

New insights into the story
of John Smith and Pocahontas

will come with the collaboration
of modern Virginia Indians.

To re-create
and reexamine the past,

NOVA has received help
from traditional Indian artisans

with knowledge of ancient
crafts, costumes and makeup;

experts in weapons, boats
and 17th-century technology;

and archaeologists,

who are making major discoveries
in the Virginia soil.

The first step is finding
the places

where the legendary events
took place 400 years ago:

James Fort, site
of that first English settlement

on the James River,

and Werowocomoco, home of
Pocahontas, on the York River.

Locating Jamestown Island,
where the fort was, is easy,

thanks to English maps

and accounts written
by some of the first settlers,

but the actual wooden fort
where the first colonists lived

rotted away centuries ago.

The land was plowed under,
new structures were built,

and people eventually forgot
where the old fort had been.

When Bill Kelso came here
as a student,

he wasd
the historic location

had been washed away
by the river.

KELSO:
When I first came to Jamestown,
it was, like, 45 years ago.

One of the tour guides
pointed out into the river

and said, "The fort’s out
there"-- I asked where it was--

he said, "It’s out there and
you’re two centuries too late."

Back a little more.

NARRATOR:
In 1994, after becoming
an archaeologist,

Bill Kelso returned to the site
and began to dig.

KELSO:
We right away began
to find things:

clay pipe stems
and pieces of pottery

that I knew were old enough
to be James Fort period.

NARRATOR:
Contrary to what
other experts claimed,

only one corner
of the triangular fort

had eroded into the James River.

KELSO:
To find 87%
of the footprint of the fort

that was talked about and known,

the place where legendary people
were walking around.

We are walking around here,
right here.

You know, we know that.

NARRATOR:
The layout of the fort and
the events that occurred here

can now be reconstructed
with a level of detail

that would never be known
from written accounts alone.

The most famous
and colorful accounts

of Jamestown’s earliest days
were written by John Smith.

He and just over a hundred
other Englishmen-- no women--

arrived on three small ships
in May of 1607.

Smith was only 27 years old.

He had been born into a family
of middle-class farmers.

HORN:
John Smith fits the mold
of a classic adventurer.

He decides that neither farming
nor becoming a merchant is

for him,
and he takes up soldiering.

He goes first
to the Netherlands and France,

and then in subsequent years
he finds himself fighting

in Eastern Europe
against the Turks.

He’s captured in Russia,
he’s enslaved,

he walks several thousand miles
through Russia to escape.

So John Smith has had
a lifetime of adventures

even before he embarks
for Virginia.

NARRATOR:
The English knew
from previous explorations

that they would not be alone
in America.

Smith later published
his accounts

of the earliest encounters.

JOHN SMITH:
For six or seven days,
we had alarms and ambushes.

[screams]

A boy was slain in the pinnace.

Hold back smartly!

Ready! Aim!

Fire!

Man the m*rder*r!

Fire!

The Indians’ loss we know not,

but as they report three
were slain and divers hurt.

NARRATOR:
Bill Kelso and his team use
the eyewitness accounts

to help them interpret
what they find in the ground.

KELSO:
Right in this area here,

we found a burial of what looks
like a 15-year-old boy

that was k*lled
with an arrow in his leg,

and the arrow point
was still there.

And it wasn’t actually
in the bone,

but it was right next to it
and pointing right in.

That’s pretty poignant

because the first attack
of the Indians that’s recorded,

they say a boy was k*lled.

Could be him.

NARRATOR:
The excavations at Jamestown
are sponsored

by the Association
for the Preservation

of Virginia Antiquities.

BLY STRAUBE:
Of course we count every nail.

We sort out the nails with heads
and the nails without...

NARRATOR:
In over 12 years of work,
archaeologists here

have uncovered
more than a million artifacts,

making this one of the most
significant archaeological digs

ever conducted in North America.

Something we found
in the well...

NARRATOR:
In addition to 85 skeletons

from the early 1600s,

archaeologists have
recovered weapons,

dishes, coins and tools.

The tools in particular are
of great interest to historians

because they give us new insight
into the commercial aspirations

of the first settlers,

aspirations that put them
on a collision course

with the Virginia Indians.

KELSO:
I think one thing
that’s misunderstood is

how serious an operation
this was, and that

the first people
that landed here,

they hit the ground working.

NARRATOR:
These are the tools
of skilled craftsmen:

a fishmonger...
metallurgists... a botanist...

perfumer... glassmakers...
and a jeweler.

They came
to the New World looking

for exploitable resources
that could be shipped home

for a quick profit.

KELSO:
They are backed by a company
who has investors

and they want to make money
and they want to make it fast.

NARRATOR:
England’s Virginia Company,

which financed the venture,

expected settlers
to be very busy

with all of these
profitable industries--

so busy that they didn’t want
to waste too much time

on agriculture.

Rather than grow their food,

they planned to buy most of it
from the Indians,

using what they called trinkets.

Kelso’s team finds piles
of beads, bells

and scraps of copper
brought for trade.

Well, here’s the last
of these.

NARRATOR:
The English had heard
from survivors

of Roanoke-- the earlier, failed

English colony


that Indians would give
large amounts of food

in exchange
for these inexpensive items,

especially copper.

SILVERMAN:
The English knew

that native people wanted
to trade in copper.

That they would trade
not only in intact copper items,

such as kettles and the like,

but in scraps of copper,

or pieces of copper
rolled into beads.

And so, the English
came prepared,

ready to trade their copper
for native corn.

NARRATOR:
But four months after arriving,

the Englishmen have made
more enemies

among their new neighbors
than friends.

[cawing]

Trade with the Indians
has been sporadic,

and the meager stores of food
they brought with them are gone.

William, up.

He that shall not work
shall not eat.

[coughing]

[coughing continues]

"God being angry with us
plagued us

"with such famine and sickness
that by the tenth of September,

there was 46 of our men dead."

SILVERMAN:
John Smith was a man of action.

He was confident enough
to seize leadership

when he saw moments of crisis.

NARRATOR:
John Smith began
to explore further inland,

seeking out Indians willing
to provide food to the colony.

These explorations will lead him
to Pocahontas.

He wrote about
what happened next

in three widely-read books.

On the upper reaches
of the Chickahominy River,

Smith went ashore
with an Indian guide.

[Indians ululating]

SMITH:
Defending myself,
I seized my guide.

[groaning]

I was struck in the leg
with an arrow but without harm.

[Smith groaning]

SMITH:
I espied many Indians
drawing their bows,

which I prevented
in discharging a French p*stol.

At last, they took me prisoner.

[Indians whooping]

A month
those barbarians kept me.

Many strange triumphs

and conjurations
they made of me.

[tribe chanting,
playing rhythm instruments]

NARRATOR:
John Smith later drew this map,

showing where he was taken

during more
than three weeks in captivity.

[man singing
in local language]

He was prisoner
of the Powhatan people,

which included
the Rappahannock, Mattaponi,

Pamunkey, Nansemond, Appamattuck

and almost 30 other districts--

possibly 15,000 people in all--

who had been united under
a uniquely powerful chief.

He was known as Powhatan.

John Smith was eventually taken

to Powhatan’s political
capital-- Werowocomoco.

[men whooping]

SMITH:
At last they brought me
to Werowocomoco,

where was Powhatan,
their emperor.

[man grunting]

SMITH:
Before a fire,
upon a seat like a bedstead,

he sat covered with a great robe
made of raccoon skins.

Powhatan had such a grave

and majestical countenance,
as drew me into admiration

to see such state
in a naked savage.

[men shouting, whooping]

[speaking local language]

SMITH:
The queen of Appamatuck
was appointed

to bring me water
to wash my hands,

and another brought me
a bunch of feathers,

instead of a towel,
to dry them.

NARRATOR:
Today, Chief Powhatan

is much less famous than one
of his many daughters.

Later Englishmen wrote that
her birth name was Amonute,

but she had another name,
as well.

HELEN ROUNTREE:
When she joined
her father’s household,

she earned the nickname
Pocahontas,

which, in modern terms, means

"little, cruel, bawdy,

undisciplined brat."

She probably teased her father
half to death,

and he dubbed her with the name,
and it stuck.

NARRATOR:
English settlers guessed her age
as between ten and 14 years old.

Smith was just
a few days shy of 28.



John Smith will write the words
that launch the legend.

[speaking local language]

SMITH:
Having feasted me

after their best
barbarous manner they could,

the great stone was brought
before Powhatan.

[men ululating]

Then as many
as could laid hands on me,

dragged me to it,
and thereon laid my head.

And being ready
with their clubs

to beat out my brains,
Pocahontas,

the king’s dearest daughter...

[Pocahontas yelling]

...got my head in her arms,

and laid her own upon mine
to save me from death.

NARRATOR:
Many have imagined

that Pocahontas acted
on a romantic impulse,

but how can we know
if this event took place

as Smith described?

ROUNTREE:
He never saw fit to write about
that rescue by Pocahontas

until 17 years later.

His account right close
to the incident--

and historians, anthropologists,
journalists and cops

usually trust accounts written
closer to the incident--

talk about being feasted,

interviewed by Powhatan,
and then sent to bed.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible to know
what really happened

in that famous first meeting

between Pocahontas,
John Smith and Powhatan?

Can any of this be true?

The precise location
of Werowocomoco--

home to Chief Powhatan
and Pocahontas--

was forgotten centuries ago.

John Smith and others indicated

that Powhatan’s capital
was situated on the York River.

Scholars have spent years
trying to find it.

RANDY TURNER:
I first became interested
in Werowocomoco

when I was a graduate student
in the early 1970s.

Right near where
the boat dock...

Historical documents
are very clear

that Werowocomoco is located
in the Purton Bay Environs,

but no one had ever found
any definitive evidence

for it archaeologically.

NARRATOR
It turns out someone
was finding the evidence,

only she didn’t know
what it meant.

LYNN RIPLEY:
We bought the farm in 1996,

moved in in July,

and been finding artifacts
almost since then.

When I first started finding,
I thought,

well, nobody else has ever
looked for it or picked it up,

so it will eventually stop.

But I’m still
finding artifacts today.

The first piece I found,

I thought it was wet bark
on the beach,

because it was dark in color.

But one day I saw one
that had lines on it,

and I knew that
that had to be man-made,

that bark doesn’t look
like that, so I picked it up.

And I knew that
it was an old pot,

or jar or something like that.

How I knew that, I don’t know;
I just knew.

NARRATOR:
Within a few years,

Lynn had collected thousands
of Indian artifacts.

TURNER:
Lynn, I’ll never forget
the first time I came out here,

and you just pulled out
tray after tray after tray,

and as I looked at them,
I realized

that there was a scheme to how
you were classifying them.

Yeah.

But I got this very sick
feeling in my stomach,

because besides
the excitement

of knowing what
I was looking at,

I realized that you’d put
hours and hours of work

trying to sort these out,
but you’d used a scheme

that archaeologists
would not have used.

You’d classified
by color.
Mm-hmm.

And unfortunately,

when a vessel is fired,

you can get different types
of color on the same vessel.

So, I was thinking
to myself,

how in the world
am I going to tell her

that all this labor
she’s put into this collection

really isn’t going
to help us as archaeologists?

NARRATOR:
When analyzing
Native Virginian pottery,

archaeologists look
at two primary characteristics.

The first is surface treatment.

In Pocahontas’s day,
pots were often treated

with a process called
simple stamping,

using a paddle
wrapped in leather.

I’m using this, um,

uh, paddle to put, uh,

designs on it, on the pottery.

This stick is old.

It’s been handed down for years,
here at the reservation.

NARRATOR:
The second characteristic
an archaeologist looks at

is temper-- the material
that must be mixed with clay

before it can be fired
and used for cooking.

Because the temper
contains no water,

it resists shrinking
and cracking.

This is a temper.

And sand, too, is a temper.

Pieces of old pottery,
they used as temper.

And, uh, this one
has shell in it,

and this one would hold

probably temperatures
up to 1,200, 1,500 degrees,

where this would probably crack
at about 300 or 400.

NARRATOR:
After decades of study,

archaeologists have learned
how to match different tempers

with specific tribes
and time periods.

Using this information,
Randy Turner

can tell that these pieces were
made by Powhatan Indians

in about the time of Pocahontas.

...closer to today...

NARRATOR:
Another tool for determining
when Indians lived here

is the size of the arrowheads.

TURNER:
One giveaway that this

really was Werowocomoco
are these very nice

small points right here,
these five.

They’re a great indicator
for the 16th,

early 17th century.

NARRATOR:
Native American craftsmanship
evolved over thousands of years,

with a shift from spears
to bows and arrows.

When John Smith arrived,
skilled toolmakers were making

these tiny, and deadly,
arrowheads.

ABBOTT:
We’re talking about
an edge that,

in the case of certain kinds
of cherts and obsidian

and the higher-grade flints,

you can carry an edge
up to 200 times sharper

than an unused stainless steel
surgeon’s scalpel.

We didn’t start trading
with the Europeans

for steel and iron tools
because they were sharper.

They weren’t
necessarily sharper.

They were more durable.

NARRATOR:
Lynn Ripley and her husband

came to realize that their home
was on historic ground,

in the middle of what was once
one of the most important

Indian settlements
on the East Coast,

so they opened their property
to archaeologists.

A number of American Indians
have joined in the excavations.

JEFF BROWN:
When you get down to the dirt...

[light crunching]

you can hear...
the artifacts.

That’d be the little pieces
of flakes, stones, brick...

so you know that you have
something to pick up.

NARRATOR:
Martin Gallivan of the College
of William and Mary

directs the excavations
at Werowocomoco.

His team is carefully

screening dirt,
looking for artifacts

and even plant material
such as fragments of beans,

corn kernels and squash seeds.

They are the remains of meals

eaten by Powhatan Indians
long ago.

Archaeologists collaborate

with experts
in Indian traditions

and oral history.

Together, they reconstruct how
life was lived at Werowocomoco.

WYNN:
Succotash is basically
corn and lima beans.

Sometimes they put
a little fish in.

Of course, the women were

in charge of taking care
of the food,

the gathering
of berries and nuts.

The men were,
of course, the hunters.

But the young girls,
they could cook

just as well as the older women.

Maybe not carry as much stuff,

but, uh...
they were taught

at a very early age
how to survive.

ROUNTREE:
It took a lot of years
of training

while you were a little girl.

And Pocahontas had
to learn all that.

She was not a princess
in the European sense.

If she was,

then all the other daughters
of Powhatan would have been.

And Powhatan society
was not that specialized,

and was not that prosperous
that they could afford to have

people who simply passed
their lives in leisure.

NARRATOR:
These actors,
who are helping NOVA

reconstruct life
at Werowocomoco,

are Native American.

The 13-year-old actress
playing Pocahontas

is the granddaughter
of the chief

of the Rappahannock tribe,

which was once part
of Powhatan’s domain.

Most tribal leaders
in Virginia were men,

but there is also a history
of occasional female chiefs.

CHIEF ANNE RICHARDSON:
When I think about Pocahontas,

I think about myself,

and I think about, you know,
the generations before me,

being a fourth-generation chief.

She was the chosen child

to perhaps take this position.

And, therefore, she was
with her father all the time

because accounts
told us that she was.

So was I.

It wasn’t customary to have
a child at meetings,

but I was allowed
to go to meetings.

[speaking local language]

CHIEF ANNE:
She would have learned
about trade.

She would have
learned about diplomacy,

all of the things that
a chief would know about.

NARRATOR:
According to John Smith
and other colonists,

Pocahontas was
a remarkable child.

SMITH:
Powhatan’s daughter,
not only for feature,

countenance, and proportion,
much exceedeth

any of the rest of his people,

but for wit and spirit, she has
no equal in this country.

NARRATOR:
But even if Pocahontas
were no ordinary girl,

that doesn’t explain
why she would want to stop

John Smith’s execution.

An important goal here
at Werowocomoco

is to find Powhatan’s longhouse,

the building
where Pocahontas’s father

summoned the c*ptive John Smith.

The work of the archaeologists

is complicated
by almost four centuries

of farming on this land
after the time of Pocahontas.

Plows have churned up the top
foot of soil hundreds of times.

Archaeologists
must carefully scrape away

this top layer of dirt,
called the "plow zone,"

before they can see
into the prehistoric past.

Lining the riverfront,

the archaeologists have
found a residential area:

Indian longhouses,
work areas, trash pits.

That’s fairly typical for
a Virginia Indian settlement.

But 1,000 feet away
from the riverfront,

something highly unusual was
found beneath the plow zone:

two lines of dark soil.

The dark soil is rich
with organic matter.

When scooped out, two parallel
ditches are revealed.

GALLIVAN:
When we first come down
on these ditch features,

this is all we see,
that dark band of soil.

After excavation, we get
a better feel for its size

and shape in three dimensions.

And if you look over my
right shoulder, you can see

the cut grass indicates
where the ditches extend--

actually, south for about 400
feet from where we’re standing.

NARRATOR:
Almost 700 feet of ditches
have been found already.

Such large earthworks
are unheard of

in a Chesapeake Region
Indian settlement.

And archaeologists have made
another discovery.


underneath the plow zone,

they came down
on some circles of dark earth.

These were identified
as "postholes"

dating to the time of Powhatan.

Poles had been placed
in these holes,

probably to support
a traditional Indian longhouse.

But why would a home

be built so far from the river,

which the Powhatan Indians
relied on

for transportation and food?

TURNER:
The hypothesis that
we’re working under,

right now, is that the site
has intentionally

been divided into two areas.

One is a secular area,
down by the waterfront,

typical of a normal village.

And then to the east
of these ditches,

is an area of more
restricted access,

or perhaps even
of a sacred nature.

NARRATOR:
English documents indicate
that one Indian

did live far away
from the river:

Powhatan.

GALLIVAN:
John Smith describes
Powhatan’s house

as being 30 score
from the riverfront.

Now a score is 20.

We’re guessing that he
was referring to paces.

So 30 score would be 600 paces
from the riverfront.

Now we don’t know exactly

where he was starting from
and we’re not even actually sure

where the riverfront
was in 1607,

but it was probably fairly close
to the current shoreline.

We’ve lost a bit
of the shoreline to erosion,

but not too terribly much.

So this should be
an interesting experiment.

One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven,

eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13...

Okay, right now we’re at 470.

We actually have identified
an entrance in the earthworks

right where I’m standing
right now.

So this may have been
where people entered

the sacred area of the site,
the ceremonial area of the site

where certain
important events happened

in the early 17th century.

NARRATOR:
John Smith never mentioned
any ditches in his writings.

But he may have drawn
a picture of them.

This is the map showing
where John Smith

was taken while in captivity.

The location of Werowocomoco
is marked with a symbol

that has puzzled
many historians.

It looks like two "Ds,"
one inside the other.

GALLIVAN:
We are working on the hypothesis

that John Smith depicted
the ditches that he saw

on the ground while he visited
Werowocomoco as best he could.

NARRATOR:
Archaeologists have found
the ditches

making a sharp turn
away from the river.

Future excavations will
determine if they continue

in the shape of a giant "D."

Martin’s experiment
takes him to a spot

within this hypothetical,
D-shaped sacred area,

right to where the line
of post molds was discovered.

GALLIVAN:


Not 600, but darn close.

All the indications
from this little experiment

are that we are probably
digging in the right place

to find Powhatan’s house.

NARRATOR:
So far, all they have

is one line of postholes,
which they found last summer

and then re-buried
for preservation.

Throughout the entire


members of Gallivan’s team
carefully dig

and scrape, looking for a second
line of holes--

the other wall of a longhouse.

They’re trying to tease meaning

from many slight discolorations
in the subsoil.

Is this the site
of one of the most

famous meetings
in American history?

Or are these merely the marks
left by tractor tires,

burrowing rodents
or gnarled roots?

There are now only two days left
in the Summer Field School.

DAVE BROWN:
...top, and then excavated each

of the molds
that he saw at the base.

NARRATOR:
They found plenty
of dark circles,

but no complete longhouse.

If they don’t find it,

it will be another year
before they can try again.

Hey, Martin.

What you got?

Uh... found what may
be the western wall

to the longhouse
to the...

the posts that, uh,
Brian found last year.

We just found these posts
in this unit,

but they seem to extend
towards the south

and towards the north,
where Lauren’s digging.

GALLIVAN:
How many posts
do you have?

It’s about...


Okay.

NARRATOR:
A typical Powhatan longhouse

was about 15 to 30 feet long.

DAVE BROWN:
We’ve got

about 70 feet going
north-south,

uh, from where the back
dirt pile is there

all the way back down
to here.

That’s about, that’s
about 60 feet.

GALLIVAN:
Wow, okay,
we’re getting close

to having one
of the largest

long house structures
ever identified

in the Chesapeake region.




early 17th century--
so this is fantastic.

This is a remarkable
structure.

Dates to the colonial
period, and it’s big.

[speaking local language]

NARRATOR:
Another crucial piece

of evidence links this part
of Werowocomoco to John Smith

and to his famous meeting
with Powhatan.

Copper.

[onlookers gasp and murmur]

We also identified
a piece of copper,

which I’ve got
in my hand here.

It seems to have been half
of a rolled bead.

We found a great deal
of copper

in this part of the site
of Werowocomoco,

behind the earthworks.

The Indians in Tidewater,
Virginia, viewed copper

very much as today we view gold,

and if you possess copper,
you possess power.

NARRATOR:
The copper found in the ground
has turned black with age,

but when it was new,
it would have been shiny.

ROUNTREE:
We tend to take
for granted nowadays,

especially in the plastic age,
where everything is shiny--

we take it for granted
that things are going to gleam.

Very little gleamed
in the Powhatan world.

Copper really is pretty
when it’s polished.

And anybody who could accumulate
a lot of it,

and then deck himself out on it,

flaunt it, my dear,
on ceremonial occasions,

was automatically proving
himself the richest man in town,

and there you have your leader.

NARRATOR:
Like most precious commodities,

copper’s value for the Powhatans
was a function of its scarcity.

ROUNTREE:
The only halfway plentiful
source of native copper

in eastern North America is
in the Great Lakes region,

none of the stuff occurred
in Powhatan’s home territory.

It all had to come in by trade.

NARRATOR:
This copper is one key
to a different understanding

of that famous first meeting.

We have more copper.

SMITH:
Matassin. Matassin.

Powhatan promised
to give me corn,

venison or what I wanted
to feed us.

Hatchets and copper
we should make him

and none should disturb us.

NARRATOR:
The English had brought copper
across the ocean

to trade to the Indians
for food.

The archaeologists needed to
confirm that the copper found

at Werowocomoco was not
Native American copper,

but English copper brought
by the colonists.

A small sample was brought
to a chemist for testing.

LEANNA GIANCARLO:
What we’re going to try to do is

figure out the chemical
composition.

Different trace metals
will be indicative

of what ores were used,
where the ores came from,

how things were manufactured.

All of that will go
into the chemical composition

and the end result
of what the artifact is.

NARRATOR:
First, a tiny shaving
of a copper bead found

at Werowocomoco
is dissolved in acid.

The solution is then sprayed
into a device called

an inductively coupled plasma-
atomic emission spectrometer.

GIANCARLO:
The plasma is
about 10,000 degrees Kelvin,

so it’s a wakeup for the sample.

NARRATOR:
The sample is burned, releasing
energy in the form of light.

GIANCARLO:
As the spectrometer collects

this information about the light
that’s coming out,

what will be generated

on the screen is the peak
that goes along

with there being copper
in our sample

and giving off light at
approximately 327.4 nanometers.

NARRATOR:
Many wavelengths are revealed,

indicating that there are also
other metals in the sample.

GIANCARLO:
We’re able to report back

and say: All right,
the sample was 85% copper

and 5% silver,
and 2% zinc, and so on.

NARRATOR:
They had seen the same chemical
composition before,

in a test performed on copper
found 15 miles away,

at Jamestown.

The Werowocomoco copper is
English copper.

This is a sample of the more
than 10,000 pieces of copper

that have been excavated
at the site thus far.

And, as you can see, there’s
a range of different shapes.

And it’s my thought
that the bulk

of this material was simply
scooped off a workshop floor,

a workshop associated
with making kettles, pots, pans,

and carried over to Virginia
in waste form.

NARRATOR:
The English believed that their
industrial waste could be used

to hire the Indians
as a support staff,

to provide food
for the colonists.

[men whooping]

But Chief Powhatan had his own
plans to exploit the English.

GALLIVAN:
He seems to have believed

that he could control
the Jamestown settlers

and actually benefit
from this subservient group,

a subservient tribe
within his expanding chiefdom.

When Smith was brought
to Werowocomoco,

in the winter of 1607,

Powhatan seems to have decided

that the best course of action
would be essentially

to adopt him as a Powhatan.

SILVERMAN:
Generally,

when Native people adopted
an outsider,

they threatened
the outsider’s life

through t*rture or execution...

[shouting]

...and then offered a reprieve
at the last moment.

GALLIVAN:
Indian adoption rituals
place an awful lot

of decision-making authority
in the hands of women.

And one way of reading these
early events at Werowocomoco is

to read them as essentially
political theater,

in which Pocahontas was playing
her appointed role

as the decision maker,

as to whether or not John Smith
would be k*lled or adopted.

And if we’re to believe

John Smith’s later account
of these events,

the decision by Pocahontas was

to adopt John Smith essentially
as Pocahontas’s brother.

SILVERMAN:
And, indeed,

Powhatan called
John Smith "son,"

after freeing him from captivity
at Werowocomoco.

NARRATOR:
After his month in captivity,

John Smith returned
to find Jamestown

on the verge of collapse.

Of the original 104 Englishmen,

there were now only 38
sick and hungry men.

MAN:
Make ready!

Stand down, men.

NARRATOR:
Luckily for them,

John Smith’s newly adopted
family came to the rescue.

Give it to me.

SMITH:
Such was the weakness
of this poor commonwealth

as had the savages not fed us,
we directly had starved.

And this relief
was commonly brought to us

by this lady Pocahontas.

ROUNTREE:
There was a brief golden age

of everybody hoping
that they had put one over

on the other side
and become allies.

[speaking local language]

[Smith speaking
local language]

NARRATOR:
Recent excavations
at Jamestown provide

a surprising look
at this time of peace.

KELSO:
I think that there were Indians
in that fort,

a lot more visible than anyone’s
ever known before, and...

what we’re finding
archaeologically is

this tremendous amount
of Virginia Indian material,

ranging from far and wide
in Virginia:

lots of arrow points
and knife blades made of stone;

Indian-made beads, pottery.

NARRATOR:
Excavations indicate
that Indians did more

than simply deliver food.

Some stayed for a while.

ROUNTREE;
They have found evidence
of women’s activities--

Indian women’s activities--

in the English fort
at Jamestown Island.

SILVERMAN:
Native people who allied

with a foreign group would have
expected intermarriage.

I believe that sexual
relationships were taking place

between Englishmen at Jamestown
and Native women.

NARRATOR:
The English never wrote
about it, but Spaniards,

who collected
foreign intelligence

about Jamestown, did.

The Spanish said upwards
of 50 marriages

had taken place
between the groups.

We do know that there was
a relationship

between John Smith
and Pocahontas.

Was it romantic?

Unlikely, but we can’t be sure.

Some colonists suspected
that it might be romantic.

SMITH:
Some prophetical spirit
calculated

I would have made myself a king

by marrying Pocahontas,
Powhatan’s daughter.

NARRATOR:
The days of feasting
and good relations

with the Indians lasted
about seven months

at most: from January 1608
into the summer.

With the approach of autumn,

the Indians
stopped providing food.

ROUNTREE:
English people went around

trying to buy corn
from the Indian people,

but the Indians didn’t want
to sell.

NARRATOR:
More months of starvation

and misery followed
for the struggling colony.

Many historians have wondered

why the Indians stopped
providing food for the English.

Why, too, the English couldn’t
have found their own food.

Today, Virginia teems
with edible plants and wildlife.

DAVID STAHLE:
You can definitely fall
flat on your face

here in the swamp,
if you’re not careful.

NARRATOR:
Archaeologists at Jamestown
asked Dr. David Stahle

to find out if Virginia was

as lush and fertile in 1608
as it is today.

Well, we’re at Blackwater River,
Virginia.

This is an impounded bottomland
hardwood Bald Cyprus swamp.

Maybe only a thousandth
of one percent

of the original forested
bottomland hardwood region

remains today,

and so, that’s how precious
it is; it’s extremely precious.

NARRATOR:
David Stahle is a world-renowned
expert in tree ring dating.

STAHLE:
You know, the trees preserve,
in their annual growth rings--

which can be dated
to the calendar year

in which they were formed--
they preserve

a natural archive of
environmental history,

if you will.

They tell us about wet years
and dry years.

Got the Swedish increment borer.

It’s a forestry tool, been
around for over a hundred years

for testing the growth rate
of trees.

And here, I’m...

coring to the center of the tree

in order to extract out
the ring sequence.

Gorgeous, gorgeous.

I can say that, roughly,

these are about


so, like, 1900, 1800,



So this would be the late 1500s,

the late 16th century
if you will,

and Jamestown will probably be
in that general area.

NARRATOR:
Stahle and his colleagues
examined core samples

under microscopes,
carefully counting rings

and measuring their width.

STAHLE:
In drought years, these trees
would put on a narrow ring,

and the stronger the drought,
the more narrow the ring.

NARRATOR:
The findings solved the mystery:

growth rings from 1606 to 1612
were narrower

than the surrounding rings.

STAHLE:
A seven-year episode
that was drier

than any other seven-year
episode that we know of

in this region
of the Carolinas and Virginia

in the last 800 years.

NARRATOR:
This seven-year drought
would have affected

everyone in Virginia.

SILVERMAN:
The Indians simply didn’t have
enough of a surplus

of corn, beans and squash

to trade to the English and feed
themselves at the same time.

SILVERMAN:
Smith’s primary response

is simply to take
what he and the English wanted.

The English then begin
burning down Indian villages

and sh**ting up
Indian populations.

[whooping]

What we have, in essence, are
the beginning stages of a w*r.

NARRATOR:
The word "Werowocomoco" means

"place of chiefs"
in the Powhatan language.

It had been a religious
and political center

for more than three centuries
before the English came,

but not a large
population center.

Chief Powhatan
now decides to leave

for a safer part
of his territory,

farther away from
the rampaging newcomers.

TURNER:
The English accounts
are very clear that

the site of Werowocomoco
is abandoned in 1609.

And indeed,
it disappears after that.

There are no other mentions
of Werowocomoco.

NARRATOR:
In the early fall of 1609,

about six months after

Powhatan moved his people
away from the English,

John Smith is badly burned
in a gunpowder expl*si*n.

He is put on a ship to England.

SILVERMAN:
Pocahontas is not told

that John Smith is injured;

she’s told that Smith is dead.

NARRATOR:
Perhaps the settlers

expected Smith to die
of his wounds.

Pocahontas stops
her visits to the fort.

But Smith does not die.

He recuperates in England.

In 1614, he is back exploring,

mapping the coasts
of Maine and Massachusetts,

and naming that area
"New England."

He never returns to Virginia.

The years after
Smith’s departure

are the hardest
for the Jamestown settlers.

None of their early dreams
of easy wealth pan out.

But with resupply ships,
reinforcements

and the end of the drought,

their fortunes
soon turn for the better.

The colony grows.

Throughout this period,

there are continuing skirmishes
with the Powhatans.

In 1613, the English
kidnap Pocahontas,

in an attempt to gain leverage
over her father.

After a year in captivity,

Pocahontas converts
to Christianity,

taking the name Rebecca.

She marries a settler--
John Rolfe.

This marriage between members
of the two warring parties

marks the beginning
of a temporary truce.

In 1616, she is brought
across the Atlantic Ocean

with her husband
and their year-old son.

In London, she sits
for a formal portrait--

the only image we have
of the real woman.

She was an advertisement
for what the Virginia Company

was trying to do,
which was to get more people

to go to Virginia and settle.

HORN:
She was a living example

of how the Indians

could be redeemed
and could become English.

NARRATOR:
While in England,

Pocahontas is
surprised to learn

that John Smith is still alive.

After eight years apart,
they are finally reunited.

SMITH:
After a modest salutation,
without any word,

she turned about,
obscured her face,

as not seeming well contented.

SILVERMAN:
It crushed her not only

that the English had been
lying to her all along,

but that John Smith,
a man with whom

she had a personal relationship
of some sort or another,

had done absolutely nothing
to contact her,

to contact her father,
who called Smith his son.

SMITH:
But not long after,
she began to talk

and remembered me well
what courtesies she had done.

SILVERMAN:
Immediately,
she reminds him that,

"We were supposed
to be like family.

We were responsible
to one another."

The implication is,

"Do you know what has been
happening back in Virginia

to my people by your people
since you left?"

The implication is,
to John Smith,

that he could have made
a difference and did not.

NARRATOR:
Just a few months later,

Pocahontas will grow ill
and die in England.

SILVERMAN:
I think the larger lesson
of Pocahontas’s life

and her experience
with the English

is that there was a potential
in early relationships

between Indians and colonists
to set up something mutual;

to set up, as the Indians
would have it,

a family relationship,

in which the two people help
to meet one another’s needs

and live as a single people.

Those expectations
were sorely dashed.

NARRATOR:
As a girl, and as a young woman,

Pocahontas became a link between

two very different cultures
on the brink of w*r.

Ultimately, her actions failed

to soften the impact
of colonialism on her people.

But 400 years later,
she still offers hope

of bringing cultures together,

as we explore this important
place in our shared past.

CHIEF ANNE RICHARDSON:
We knew that this place existed,
we just didn’t know,

geographically, where it was.

The place was a place
of powerful worship

for the Powhatan people.

And now archaeology
is proving that.

But we know in our spirit
that it’s a part of who we are,

as we live our daily lives.

To be able to come here
and get confirmation

and validation of that
is really an amazing thing.