Malinche, Pocahontas & Sacagawea: Interpreters and Cultural Ambassadors

Hello and welcome to Moline Pocahontas and Sacha Julia misremembered

interpreters and cultural ambassadors presented by BRyn Quick and researched

by BRyn Quick Lydia lee you and Vanessa Sanchez Grayson.

It's quite possible that you've never heard of Malinche Pocahontas

and soccer Julia or if you have, you associate them

more with Disney musicals than with intercultural communication.

Through this presentation, we hope to introduce you to these

often sensationalized women and to give you an idea of

who they really were rather than who they are remembered

to have been To begin, Malinche was a novel woman

born near Coatzacoalcos in what is now Mexico circa 1500

too. She was the daughter of a local Aztec authority

which afforded her certain economic and educational advantages.

However, after her father's death, her family sold her to

a group of Mayan merchants who then sold her to

a to bask in classic or chief and he in

turn sold her to spanish invaders.

Hernan Cortes.

Melinda then acted as Cortez's primary interpreter and cultural adviser

during the spanish invasion and conquest of indigenous Mexico's Melinda

had a son with Cortez in 1522 and later married

and had a daughter with another conquistador Juan de Ha

Romeo in 1524.

It is thought that she died in Spain in 1528.

But historical records are unclear.

We have no written records from Moline herself.

But the records of Cortez and other colonizers highlight the

vital role that she played in the spanish conquest because

she had been forced into multiple culturally diverse environments from

such a young age.

She gained to enhance language skills.

Not only that, but she needed those linguistic talents just

to survive.

She was also keenly aware of the rising indigenous hostility

toward the ruling Aztecs and because of this political awareness,

she was able to mould the Conquistadors message including that

of Catholicism, to convince the indigenous peoples of the value

of spanish domination.

She seemed to have lived with one ft in each

world, constantly acting as mediator between the mexicans and Spaniards

and working to convince each camp of the others worth

because she was so influential in both the indigenous and

spanish worlds.

She was viewed differently by both groups to the spanish,

she was the baptized converted christian dona marina and enthusiastically

accepted the superiority of the spanish language, culture and religion.

She also worked to save the invading forces by uncovering

an indigenous conspiracy against Cortez and was crucial to the

Conquistadors negotiations with indigenous peoples for the indigenous nahuatl speakers.

She was Moline scene and was respected as an authority

working for their benefit.

They saw her actions as demonstrating a consistent effort to

minimize violence and facilitate the next cycle of civilization for

them. She was a bridge between indigenous and spanish cultures.

But how is she remembered in Mexico Now, her image

and story have shifted several times in modern Mexico.

She has been viewed as a feminine trader or Mexican

Eve by groups that wanted independence from Spain In the

19th and 20th centuries, she began to be used as

a proud symbol of the mother the Mestizo race In

the 21st century, she is often used in feminist works

and retellings of the Spanish invasion as well as used

as a major figure in the revitalization of our day

and deaconess mo While she is remembered differently and used

for various purposes by different groups, it is clear that

Melinda was a complex figure who played a significant role

in a turning point in Mexican history.

Mm Okay, Nearly 100 years later, far north from challenges

birthplace, another young woman would also be born who would

signify a turning point in history.

Pocahontas was a young woman born circa 15 95 in

what is now eastern Virginia.

In the United States like Melinda, she was the daughter

of a powerful ruler in this case, Chief politan of

the powhatan confederacy, Pocahontas also experienced an invasion this time

by English colonizers.

In 1607, the colonizers built the Jamestown fort near Pocahontas

village and initially relations with the palette and tribes and

invaders were tense but friendly Pocahontas met one of these

colonizers. Captain John Smith when she was 12 and he

was 27 Smith wrote that she saved him while he

was held as a prisoner by Putin at one point

but never indicated a romantic relationship with her.

A few years later, after indigenous and invading relationships had

turned violent, Pocahontas was kidnapped by Jamestown and held for

ransom in exchange for political prisoners from power.

Tan, however, she was never released.

Instead, she was married to colonizer john Rolph and went

with him and their son to England.

It was there that she died of an unknown illness

in 1617.

Like Malinche, Pocahontas played an important role in acting as

a cultural ambassador and to a lesser extent interpreter between

the indigenous and invading groups within her own culture.

It was expected that she would help facilitate contact with

colonizers because of her important position as Putin's daughter.

It is also important to note that while smith never

explicitly wrote that there was a romance between them.

His writings do hint at her having feelings for him,

but this is not confirmed by any other historical writings.

Any feelings he might have thought that he felt were

most likely the result of a cultural misunderstanding if they

were ever there in the first place.

Also, like Melinda Pocahontas was held up as an example

of a savage turned civilised Christian and a good Indian

who recognized the need for white domination.

The colonisers also viewed her as a peacemaker when she

chose to marry John Ralph, even after they burned power

10 villages, they then paraded her as a symbol of

colonial success and Dominion in the new world when she

was brought to and put on display in England.

However, in reality, all we really know about the real

Pocahontas comes from a handful of white male colonizers records

and no first person recorded narratives from Pocahontas herself like

millions. The invaders used her as a symbol of savage

acceptance of white colonization and Christianity.

She too, was viewed as a mother of a new

race of indigenous and british peoples after the birth of

her son with john ralph.

Finally, as we are all probably most familiar with Pocahontas

because of the Disney movie by the same name.

It is worth pointing out again that the supposed romance

between Pocahontas and smith almost certainly never existed.

But the idea of that romance reinforced white America's theme

of peaceful assimilation of indigenous peoples into white european culture,

which has been a useful narrative for white America throughout

its history.

Okay, More than 150 years after Pocahontas, a third woman

was born, who would be used to shape a historical

narrative. Savage area was born circa 17 88 in what

is now Idaho in the United States to the lemme

show me tribe at the age of 12, she was

captured by the head as a tribe of north Dakota.

A few years later, she was sold by the had

access to a french Canadian fur trader named toussaint charbonneau

and he took her as one of at least two

indigenous wives Around that time, american president thomas jefferson had

just purchased a large tract of land from the french

known as the Louisiana purchase and wanted the land to

be explored and surveyed by americans, he hired Merriwether, Lewis

and William Clark to do just that.

And they explore.

They formed an expedition team known as the Corps of

Discovery charbonneau and his wives, including Sake Julia, became part

of this team when Lewis and Clark realized they would

need someone who could speak the same language so that

they could negotiate for horses.

When they reached lemme, Shishani land, psychedelia filled this role

of interpreter.

It is believed that Saakashvili had died at the age

of 20 for a few years after the expedition ended,

but historical records are not entirely clear.

This begs the question who exactly was taco Julia, the

only primary source historical accounts that we have of her

come from the journals of Lewis and Clark and a

few other white male contemporaries.

We have no written accounts from Sake Julia herself.

We do know that she gave birth to a son

just a few weeks before setting off on the Corps

of Discovery expedition with the baby strapped to her back.

We also know from Lewis and Clark's writings, that she

played a vital part in keeping the men of the

expedition alive by using indigenous techniques of hunting and gathering

when food rations ran low.

We also know that she was reunited with the tribe

that she was once kidnapped from.

When the expedition reached.

Let me show me land and that she was the

one responsible for negotiating with the sessions for horses that

would further aid the expedition.

Lewis and clark also wrote that at one point she

rescued important expedition records and supplies after a raft capsized

in dangerous whitewater rapids.

They indicate in their journals that she died in 1812.

But several indigenous tribes, oral traditions claim that she went

on to live a full life among them until her

death in 1884.

So her fate is not truly known.

We also know that sake Julia was an extremely important

part of the Corps of Discovery, specifically for her linguistic

and cultural knowledge.

Like Merlin.

She and Pocahontas.

Sacha Julia experienced being kidnapped and suddenly dropped into a

new language and culture.

At a young age.

She had to learn to speak the head.

It's a language and adapt to their way of life

in order to survive.

This meant that her ability to speak Shishani and had

Atze allowed her to speak to charbonneau in his data

and he interpreted from his data to english This three

way interpretation is what allowed the expedition to pass through

Lemme Shishani lands and eventually reached the pacific ocean.

Thus completing the exploration, interestingly, Sacajawea is present as a

young woman with a baby.

Also encouraged indigenous tribes they met along the way to

view the expedition is peaceful, even if the consequences of

that expedition decades later would not be.

But how do we remember soccer Julia today?

Much has been done over the last 120 years, particularly

by white Americans to mold her into a character that

fits a very specific and often nationalist agenda first, like

Melinda and Pocahontas, she is held up as an example

of a good indian who recognized the inherent goodness of

white America's policy of land seizure from indigenous tribes and

the righteousness of manifest destiny.

Also like Palin chain Pocahontas, she had a child with

a white man and is therefore seen as the mother

to a new race of people.

Not only is it said that she willingly bore a

white man's child, but the visual depiction of her with

this child is often indicative of a Madonna and child

aesthetic likening her goodness to sainthood.

In 19 oh two, Sapa Julia's story was shaped even

further by the burgeoning women's suffrage movement and white american

women like Eva emery die romanticised her in novels in

order to highlight the importance of women's contributions to the

shaping of America More recently, her image has been used

as a figure that represents the melting pot of America,

Thus perpetuating the lie that America as a nation has

always been tolerant of non whites.

All of this means that the sake Julia that we

think we remember today is actually a tall tale and

a far cry from the young woman that she probably

was in reality.

In conclusion, all three women though separated by dozens or

hundreds of years have been used by invading forces in

remarkably similar ways.

The colonizers, misconceptions about them had lasting repercussions on how

indigenous women were depicted in historical records and lay the

foundation for the mythology that engulfed each woman as oppressed,

exploited and misremembered.

In reality, the women have relevant and important roles in

their native communities.

The lives of millions, Pocahontas and sake Julia were obscured

by centuries of deliberate mythic abstraction.

It is vital that we begin to view them as

the whole people that they were.

Malinche, Pocahontas & Sacagawea: Interpreters and Cultural Ambassadors

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