Defense Date
2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
History
First Advisor
Gregory Smithers
Abstract
From the moment the Virginia Company landed at Jamestown, European colonists brought their western power structures and social mores, unconcerned with the Indigenous groups’ political and cultural structure. This contempt of Native groups in the first decades of contact sent ripples of distortion that culminated in myths made to favor white culture and colonialism. This problem affected the Pamunkey tribe deeper than most. Their ancestral ties to Pocahontas placed them within one of the most famous stories from the Jamestown Settlement, and Pocahontas’ proximity to explorer John Smith canonized her in the American origin story. However, her role in Smith’s writing immensely concealed her own tribal prominence in favor of European gender ideals. As a direct result, Pocahontas’ story was co-opted by white Americans while the Pamunkey were slowly excluded from the narrative, and continuously met with legislative restrictions on their sovereignty in the centuries after 1607.
This thesis centers Indigenous representation and the intricacies of authenticity in entertainment. Using various entertainment promotional materials and photograph from the nineteenth century, a societal framework is established that presents the way the Pamunkey navigate a country desperate to erase Native American existence. The core of this analysis is the Pamunkey tribe’s theatrical troupe created at the turn of the century, tracing the societal structures that American Indians had to contend with when determining their participation in the American design. I argue the Players optimize pre-established methods of telling stories to counteract erasure and better showcase Indigenous survivance and cultural importance.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-7-2026
Included in
American Studies Commons, Cultural History Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Social History Commons