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A review by oliviamnsnll
Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat by Paula Gunn Allen
4.0
Pocahontas by Paula Gunn Allen provides one of the most thought provoking biographies I've ever engaged with.
More than just a narrative of the "Mother of Our Nation", Allen's book incorporates the Algonquin worldview into the very fabric of her writing. Using Native Oral Tradition as her guide Allen tells Pocahontas's story alongside parallel myths and stories from Algonquin lore.
In addition to discussing how Pocahontas's life is reminiscent of Algonquin creation myths, she shows that Pocahontas was a spiritual adept - a medicine woman- and that her sojurns amongst the English and Johns Smith & Rolfe was part espionage for her people and the spirits of the land.
Native science is discussed and we learn how their magical-scientific worldview provided a more holistic understanding of the universe, than the modern western rational-scientific one.
This book has not only changed how I see Pocahontas, but how I see the world and all of its many parts.
More than just a narrative of the "Mother of Our Nation", Allen's book incorporates the Algonquin worldview into the very fabric of her writing. Using Native Oral Tradition as her guide Allen tells Pocahontas's story alongside parallel myths and stories from Algonquin lore.
In addition to discussing how Pocahontas's life is reminiscent of Algonquin creation myths, she shows that Pocahontas was a spiritual adept - a medicine woman- and that her sojurns amongst the English and Johns Smith & Rolfe was part espionage for her people and the spirits of the land.
Native science is discussed and we learn how their magical-scientific worldview provided a more holistic understanding of the universe, than the modern western rational-scientific one.
This book has not only changed how I see Pocahontas, but how I see the world and all of its many parts.