Pocahontas Perplex

"The Native American woman like all women, needs a definition that stands apart from that of males, red or white."

Rayna Green's essay, The Pocahontas Perplex, mainly focuses on portrayal of Native American women as sex symbols and she makes the point that these representations of Native American women stem from the white male (and of European origin) perspective. I would like to elaborate on this point and explore the identity of the Native American woman. Some distinctions that Green makes in her article are the concept of the "good indian" as one who helps white men. She also distinguishes between the idea of the Squaw and the Princess. The Squaw is physically described in crude terms portrayed as sexually more 'savage' which may perhaps translate to the contemporary adjective, 'easy,'  than her 'sister' the Princess. On the other hand the Princess, descended from a barbarous, primitive indian Queen, resembling the European perspective of Natives of South America, is the morally transformed, closer to Caucasian in appearance, with adornments reminiscent of Roman dress and figure, yet somehow this makes her more 'American'. Equally so both identities were given to the Native American woman by European males. They controlled the identity of this demographic and their influence on the minds of people throughout history is profound. The images and the identity that white European males created for the Natives have stayed prominent throughout the course of history. Even Disney's interpretation of Pocahontas is heavily based on the notion of the Indian Princess. The virtue of Pocahontas is determined by the standards of white men.  She is good because she saved John Smith. She is good because she served as a liaison between conflicting groups of people, yet often seemed to remain in favor of the Virginia company. Additionally, even the way Pocahontas is depicted physically is determined by white men's standards. In the film she is incredibly thin with legs that extend for days. She unmistakably well endowed in hips and bosom. Her arms and fingers are gentile and feminine. She is portrayed this way because that is the way whites wanted to see her. Her identity comes from a desire to create something desirous out of a seemingly compassionate 10 year old. In the identity white males created for her, we lose sight of the reality that she was in fact a child when the Europeans first encountered her. Furthermore, the fact that her identity and the identity of Native women in general comes from white men is also a product of a cultural and language barrier. Unfortunately because of the influence of white culture in America there wasn't really a way, historically for whites to receive an identity coming from the Natives themselves. Unfortunately because of the few primary documents (most if not all of which containing a white bias) that exist of Pocahontas we may never truly understand Native American women as they were when the Europeans first encountered them. Thus the identity that whites created for them is the only one we can study and analyze, yet at the same time it is one that we can never trust.