At birth, the leader’s daughter received the name Amonut, but among her relatives she was known as Matoaka. Pocahontas was the nickname given to her by her father. In the language of her people, this meant something like “prankster” or “playful child”. About 30 local communities, united by language and culture, were subordinate to the leader Paukhatan, all together they formed the Pouhatan tribe. Pocahontas first saw Europeans, probably in 1607 or in 1608, these were colonists from Jamestown, an English settlement in Virginia. One of the directors in this colony was the same captain John Smith.
