<\/p>\n
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. \u2014 Members of Virginia tribes that count Pocahontas among their ancestors said Tuesday that President Donald Trump should not use her name for political gain.<\/p>\n
The historical figure is well-known through a Disney movie and Halloween costumes but less so for her sacrifices to protect her people from British forces, historians say.<\/p>\n
The White House invited Navajo war veterans to Washington, D.C., on Monday to honor them for using a code based on their native language in World War II that the Japanese could not crack.<\/p>\n
But the story became less about the Navajo Code Talkers and more about Pocahontas when Trump said, \u201cWe have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas,\u201d referring to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in a bid to mock her claims about being part Native American.<\/p>\n
Anne Richardson, chief of the Rappahannock Tribe in Virginia, said Trump showed he knows little about the role Pocahontas played in establishing the United States and disrespected Pocahontas and the Code Talkers in taking aim at Warren.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe shouldn\u2019t use us to make his point about her,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cHaven\u2019t we been used enough?\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at Pocahontas and how people viewed the remark:<\/p>\n
Pocahontas is universally known as the main character in the 1995 Disney movie of the same name, characterized as a young girl who fell in love with an Englishman despite her father\u2019s disapproval. Unlike other Disney princesses, Pocahontas was a real person who lived in present-day Virginia in the 1600s.<\/p>\n
Rutgers University historian Camilla Townsend said Pocahontas wasn\u2019t a sexualized girl who turned her back on her people.<\/p>\n
Rather, Pocahontas was taken prisoner and agreed to marry colonist John Rolfe, not John Smith, in a diplomatic move to save her people from invading forces, Townsend said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the existing evidence unites to show she did it because her father wanted her to,\u201d Townsend said. \u201cThey needed the peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pocahontas was baptized as a Christian shortly after marriage and died in her late teens in England. The country marked the 400th anniversary of her death this year with festivals, exhibits and lectures.<\/p>\n
Warren, whom Trump referred to as \u201cPocahontas\u201d repeatedly during the 2016 presidential campaign, called his remark Monday a racial slur. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it wasn\u2019t and that the president didn\u2019t intend it as one.<\/p>\n
While the name Pocahontas itself isn\u2019t considered a racial slur, some say it turned into one because of the way Trump used it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the president uses the name of Pocahontas as a pejorative with the intent to insult, it becomes a racial slur,\u201d the Native American Journalists Association said.<\/p>\n
Jacqueline Pata, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, says she would not characterize it as a racial slur but that it was used inappropriately.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I hear people use it in a manner that\u2019s not respectful of who she was as a person, that\u2019s a different story,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The three Navajo Code Talkers at the White House event didn\u2019t visibly react to Trump\u2019s comment. But families of other Code Talkers say it was disrespectful to the men.<\/p>\n
Robert Gray is the chief of the Pamunkey Tribe, a community that once included Pocahontas.<\/p>\n
The tribe is Virginia\u2019s only federally recognized tribe with 200 members, a designation it received last year.<\/p>\n
Gray said Tuesday that Trump\u2019s comment was inappropriate and that he was hopeful people would seek out valid sources of information on Pocahontas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have the time or the resources to get involved every time President Trump uses nicknames for various people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kent Adams, chief emeritus of the neighboring Upper Mattaponi Indian Tribe, says Pocahontas is an icon of American Indian people and Trump should not use her name in a disparaging way or for political gain.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe should leave her out of it,\u201d Adams said. \u201cShe should not be included in this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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