Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma – Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key people, places, terms, and concepts from Camilla Townsend’s Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. Each card presents a term and its concise definition to help recall essential details and relationships from the notes.

Pocahontas

Powhatan daughter (real name Matoaka, also called Amonute); later Rebecca after baptism; married John Rolfe and traveled to England.

Matoaka

Pocahontas’s private or birth name, often translated as “Little Mischief.”

Amonute

Pocahontas’s ceremonial name given in her community.

Powhatan

Paramount chief of the Powhatan polity; ruler of Tsenacomoco with many subordinate werowances.

Wahunsenacaw

Powhatan’s birth name before adopting the title Powhatan.

Werowocomoco

The Powhatan capital village on the Pamunkey/York rivers, site of the chief’s residence.

werowance

A subordinate chief under Powhatan; a title for a local ruler within the confederacy.

werowansqua

A female werowance; the matrilineal line could place a queen or female ruler in power.

Tsenacomoco

Powhatan territory, the cultural landscape encompassing the four rivers (James, York, Rappahannock, Potomac).

Three Sisters

Corn, beans, and squash—agricultural companions central to the Virginia Tidewater diet and farming.

Jamestown

The first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1607 on the James River.

Pocahontas’s myth

The popular tale that Pocahontas saved John Smith; historically disputed and reinterpreted by scholars.

Namontack

A Powhatan envoy (youth) sent to London with John Smith’s expedition; later taken back to Virginia; associated with early exchange and diplomacy.

Uttamatomakin

Powhatan’s priest/wise man who traveled to London; served as an envoy and interpreter.

Manteo

Croatan warrior taken to England by Raleigh’s colony; later a translator/interpreter for English explorers.

Wanchese

Roanoke leader who turned against the English after initial contact; contrasted with Manteo.

Don Luis Velasco (Luis)

A young Indigenous noble abducted by the Spanish in 1561, educated in New Spain, later returned; used in narratives about European power.”

Capahowasicke

Area near Werowocomoco; a power center within Powhatan territory.

Pochins

Powhatan prince in some accounts; son of Kekoughtan, placed in power after defeat of a werowance.

Kekoughtan

A subordinate tribe/territory within Powhatan’s domain; part of the system Powhatan managed to control.

Paspahegh

One of the coastal tribes within Powhatan’s paramountcy; involved in early Jamestown contact.”

Paspatanzie (Pastancie)

Patowomeck village/area upriver from Jamestown; site of interactions with English expeditions and later Argall’s actions.

Pocahontas at London (Rebecca)

Pocahontas’s public London persona after her baptism—the Rebecca of her English hosts; symbolized cultural diplomacy.

The Vision of Delight

Ben Jonson’s 1617 masque honoring King James; included Pocahontas’s appearance as Rebecca.”

Tobacco (Rolfe’s crop)

The cash crop that transformed Virginia’s economy; Rolfe’s tobacco project linked to Pocahontas’s life.”

Three Rivers region (James, York, Potomac, Rappahannock)

Key waterways in Powhatan country that structured travel, trade, and power.”

Harriot

Thomas Harriot, whose Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia informed English readers about Virginia.”

Hakluyt

Richard Hakluyt, whose Principal Navigations and other works shaped English perception of exploration.”

Indigenous-English exchange dynamics

Trade, tribute, and diplomacy; Europeans brought advanced technology, while Indians controlled local resources.”

Tribute payments

English and Powhatan interactions often centered on payments in corn, copper, beads, and other goods.”

Capable language note: Powhatan language

Algonquian language variety spoken by the Powhatan and related groups; limited written records and need for interpretive reconstruction.”