Support us on Patreon / Stephen and Yhana YouTube Channel
Become a Patron!
The 3rd August 2020 – 3rd August 2021 was Stephen and Yhana‘s first year on YouTube – To celebrate they are sharing one video a day across all of their favourite social media platforms – Facebook Page, Twitter and Website, as well as a daily shout out on their youtube community page. – So please check often incase you missed any of their videos during that first year.
They have also published their very first youtube almanac – Which was released 3rd august 2021.
The book will be available to buy via Amazon shortly – Although you can get a free signed copy by signing up and supporting their journey on Patreon
All Patreon‘s will get a regular mention on YouTube and on their channel publications – As your support is very much appreciated and will help to purchase filming equipment and trips to historical sites, so they can keep their films coming.
The Real Story of Pocahontas, Narrated by a Real Distant Cousin
Pocahontas | The Colors of the Wind | The History of and Biography of Pocahontas
Some stories can truly touch our hearts, The Real Story of Pocahontas is one such story.
This Sad story of Pocahontas has been narrated by a real distant cousin.
A branch of Stephen and Yhana’s family history they are truly proud off.
The Story of Pocahontas
“All must die. But ‘tis enough that my child liveth.”
It is believed that Those words, were the last that were spoken by Pocahontas as she lay on her death bed in Gravesend, Kent March 1617.
Pocahontas was born around the year 1595, she was the daughter of the powerful Chief Powhatan, Ruler of the Powhatan tribal nation.
She is a folk icon, and her life has been immortalised in literature, art, music and film. One of the most famous being – Disney’s animated classic Pocahontas.
Pocahontas was a brave soul, she helped keep peace and bring together two peoples, but to understand her life’s story we must turn back the clocks of time and venture into the distant past.
This is the story of Pocahontas and one of my family connections to one of histories most endearing characters.
We are cousins by marriage, distant in-laws, and although the connection is by far a distant one, it is a still a bright star that glares out from the very pages of mine and Yhana’s family history.
Pocahontas Matoaka
At Birth Pocahontas was named Amonute and went by the name Matoaka.
Her namesake Pocahontas, was supposedly a nickname she earned – It means “playful one,” because of her happy, inquisitive nature.
Even though Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, and had more luxuries than many of her peers, she still had to learn so-called women’s work such as farming, cooking, building a house, making clothes, jjjk3mn§and tanning hides.
Pocahontas and John Smith
The first English settlers arrived in Jamestown colony in May 1607. That winter, Pocahontas’ met John Smith. It is reported that she saved his life from an Indian Warrior, by placing her head on his. Preventing an injury that would have undoubtedly have killed him.
The event was a good sign, and although relations were strained she certainly did help strengthen relations between the colonists and the tribal nation.
It was not the last time either that she endeavored to help and protect.
She occasionally brought the hungry settlers food and helped successfully negotiate the release of Powhatan prisoners in 1608.
By 1609, drought, starvation and disease had ravaged the colonists and they became increasingly dependent on the Powhatan to survive. Desperate and dying, they threatened to burn Powhatan towns for food, so Chief Powhatan suggested a barter with Captain Smith.
When negotiations collapsed, the chief supposedly planned an ambush and Smith’s execution. But Pocahontas warned Smith of her father’s plans and saved his life again.
Soon after, Smith was injured and returned to England;
In 1610 it is thought that Pocahontas married an Indian named Kocoum. Off cause, if love existed between Smith and Pocahontas, it was without avail, as she solemnly believed he had died, or at least, this is what she was told.
Without John Smith, life was much harder between both nations in 1613 Pocahontas she was lured onto the English ship of Captain Samuel Argall and kidnapped during the First Anglo-Powhatan War.
Pocahontas imprisonment was used as a way to force chief Powhatan to release English prisoners, return stolen weapons and send the colonists food.
Much to Pocahontas’ dismay, her father only sent half the ransom and left her imprisoned.
During her captivity, Pocahontas lived in the settlement of Henricus under the care of a minister. Here she learned about Christianity, English culture and the English language. Pocahontas converted to Christianity, was baptized and given the name “Rebecca.”
It was during these years, that she met John Rolfe a widower and tobacco planter.
The couple decided to marry, likely for both love and political purposes – although the decision wasn’t an easy one for the staunchly Christian Rolfe until Pocahontas converted.
They sent word to Chief Powhatan that they wanted to marry; he consented as did the Virginia governor,
. It’s unclear what happened to Pocahontas’ first husband, but divorce was allowed in Powhatan culture.
Pocahontas married Rolfe in April 1614. The match was considered an important step towards re-establishing positive relations between the colonists and the Indians. Indeed, the marriage brought a season of peace to the region.
In 1616, Governor Sir Thomas Dale sailed to England to rally financial support for the Virginia Company.
The company also wanted to prove they had met their goal of converting Native Americans to Christianity, so Rolfe, Pocahontas, their infant son Thomas (born in 1615) and a dozen Powhatan Indians accompanied Dale on the trip.
In London, Pocahontas was revered as a princess and referred to as “Lady Rebecca Wolfe.” She attended plays and balls and was even presented to the royal family.
Whilst in London, Pocahontas encountered Captain Smith (whom she thought was dead). she was overcome with emotion upon seeing him alive and called him “father,” she also reportedly chastised him for his treatment of Chief Powhatan and her people.
In March 1617, Pocahontas, her husband and son set sail for Virginia. But they had hardly made progress when she became gravely ill and was taken ashore at Gravesend, England.
It’s uncertain what disease struck her down. Some speculate it was tuberculosis, pneumonia, dysentery or smallpox; others believe she was poisoned. According to Rolfe, Pocahontas said on her deathbed, “All must die. But ‘tis enough that my child liveth.”
Pocahontas was buried at St. George’s church in Gravesend on March 21, 1617. Rolfe returned to Virginia, but her son Thomas remained with relatives in England.
Thomas Rolfe’s. Eldest daughter Anna Rolfe (granddaughter of Pocahontas) born in 1633, became a ward of Anthony Rolfe of Tuttington and spent her childhood with his daughter Hannah Rolfe, who would later become a wife of my 3rd cousin Sir Thomas Leigh.
As for Thomas Rolfe, He returned to Virgina almost two decades later at age 20, leaving Hannah behind. He went to claim inheritances from his father and grandfather and became a successful gentleman tobacco farmer in his own right.
Chief Powhatan was devastated upon learning of his daughter’s death. He died about a year later and relations between the Powhatan and Virginia colonists declined rapidly.
Much of Pocahontas’ life has been romanticized and sensationalized in movies and books. But written accounts and Native American oral history show she lived a brief yet significant life.
She was instrumental to maintaining relations between her father and the Jamestown colonists and is believed to be the first Powhatan Indian to convert to Christianity. She is remembered as a courageous, strong woman who left an indelible impression on colonial America.
- Published: 3 December 2020
- Location: Essex, England
- Duration: 11:33
- Photography – Stephen Robert Kuta / Yhana Kuta
- Written by – Stephen Robert Kuta
Music –
Colours Of The Wind – Pocahontas (Native American style flute cover) – Midset – The Colours Of The Wind
Music Licensed by Epidemic Sound
Stephen and Yhana – History and Adventure Hunters Almanac
Support us on Patreon / Stephen and Yhana YouTube Channel
Become a Patron!
On the 30th of January, 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). In the following weeks, the virus quickly spread worldwide, forcing the governments of affected countries to implement lockdown measures to decrease transmission rates and prevent the overload of hospital emergency rooms.
The United Kingdom implemented lockdown on the 16th of March, 2020 and from this date and up until the 3rd August, 2021 the UK had suffered three national lockdowns which all included Restrictive measures on border controls, closing of schools, markets, restaurants, nonessential shops, bars, entertainment and leisure facilities, as well as a ban on all public and private events and gatherings. In between these lockdowns we saw tier systems and heavy restrictions on how we all lived our lives.
We all decided on different approaches on how we spent that free time as many people were on Furlough as their businesses were shut, only key-workers carried out their working duties. Although I continued working as a key-worker, I still had a lot more free time as Yhana was not at school.
Both Yhana and I spent those first few months experimenting with tiktok and photography, we explored our home village of Great Leighs and took some incredible photographs as spring and eventually summer took hold.
Tiktok was a short-lived adventure for us, although we enjoyed it all the same — tiktok like so many Social Media platforms had exploded during the pandemic but none more so then YouTube.
In 2020 alone YouTube had more than 9 billion views globally
66% of people used YouTube to develop a new hobby in 2020, and a whopping 94% of people in India used YouTube to learn to do things themselves, Whilst Globally, 82% used YouTube to the same. What were they learning to do, exactly?
• Views of beauty tutorials increased nearly 50% in 2020.
• There was a 90% increase in bike maintenance and repair videos.
• Daily views of videos with “raising chickens” in the title increased 160%.
• Videos related to learning guitar saw 160 million views from mid-March to mid-April.
• Videos about container gardening saw 6 million views in the same period.
• There was a 215% increase in daily uploads of videos related to self-care.
• There was a 458% increase in daily views of videos about making sourdough bread and a 200% increase in daily views of recipe videos for bubble tea.
• Videos of how-to videos for home haircuts also spiked in April.
Even though these giant increases in YouTube views began as early as March 2020, it took Yhana and I up until August of that year to begin our own channel, and Yhana’s encouragement certainly helped on that matter.
So it began, 3 August 2020 – We went out and filmed our very first video. To be honest I wasn’t sure what our plan would be for our channel, I had a rough idea of what kind of content I would like Yhana and I to make and as a historian I looked at the channel as a way to record at least one year of our life, not just any year either, but our life during the Covid-19 Pandemic. So for me, it was a great way to record a piece of social history.
This book in front of you developed from that period of our lives also, and is a showcase / diary / almanac of all the videos we created, many of the photographs we took, the treasure hunts we went on and some of the incredible finds we discovered just a short walk from where we lived. In truth, those finds would never have been discovered if it wasn’t for lockdown.
So for prosperity, social history, a window into our lives during the Covid-19 pandemic and a transparent visual look at what its like to create a YouTube channel in that first year including channelytics, descriptions of videos, thumbnail artwork, viewer comments and more.
We have written this full guide, our first joint book –
Stephen and Yhana – History and Adventure Hunters Almanac.
The book is available to buy through Amazon and via all good bookshops.
LINK BELOW –
RECEIVE A FREE SIGNED COPY BY SIGNING UP AND SUPPORTING OUR JOURNEY ON PATREON.
Support us on Patreon / Stephen and Yhana YouTube Channel
