Pocahontas

Description

In striking counterpoint to the conventional account, Pocahontas is a bold biography that tells the extraordinary story of the beloved Indian maiden from a Native American perspective. Dr. Paula Gunn Allen, the acknowledged founder of Native American literary studies, draws on sources often overlooked by Western historians and offers remarkable new insights into the adventurous life and sacred role of this foremost American heroine. Gunn Allen reveals why so many have revered Pocahontas as the female counterpart to the father of our nation, George Washington.

“Allen’s Pocahontas … is a real visionary, a prodigiously gifted young woman … made manifest by Allen’s often lyrical and powerful writing.” “This is not your typical biography. It couldn’t be.” “Nothing less than a watershed event in the historiography of the Americas.” “Allen is a pathfinder.” “Paula Gunn Allen, a pioneer of Native American literary studies, tells Pocahontas’ story from the Indian perspective.” [In] Ms. Allen’s spirited revision, [she] insists that Pocahontas cannot be understood except within an Algonquin Indian context.

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