Chief Powhatan was a the chief of the Powhatan tribe (located near the York River), you may be able to tell from his name. Since he was the major chief in that area, he had many wives and daughters. Out of all his daughters, his daughter, Pocahontas was his favorite. Thus, she had to do a lot less work than her other sisters. Instead of a sitting on a throne, Powhatan sat on around 11 mats to show that he was the head of the tribe. When the English came, Powhatan had wanted to execute the Englishmen John Smith. Before the execution, though, Pocahontas ran out and saved John Smith. After this, there was a ritual and John was then dubbed a low-rank chief in the tribe. He was also now Powhatan’s “son” and Pocahontas’s “brother.” Powhatan had never seen a gun before in his life, so when first saw an Englishmen use one, he was amazed. He wanted some for himself. He tried to trade corn with the English for guns, but they always refused the trade. They thought it would be very stupid to give guns to someone they may go to war with someday. They also had plenty of food at the time. A couple months after Powhatan’s offer, the English started to run low on food. Suddenly the trade did not seem so bad. They willingly traded two muskets for only three bushels of corn. Through this type of trading, after about three to four months, Powhatan had seven muskets, and some English prisoners. He had what he wanted: guns and the upper hand with the English. Until the English kidnapped Pocahontas and he did not see her for over a year. Powhatan finally made peace with the English in 1614. Powhatan died in 1618/1619, the exact date is unknown.
English Arrival
The English arrived on Powhatan’s land in 1607. The captain of the ship that was first to come in was Christopher Newport. His men admired his name, Christopher, because it made him like Christopher Columbus. Pocahontas’s people spread many rumors about the English before they met them. One of the rumors was that they were magical people, with unheard of weapons. When one of the Englishmen, John Smith, arrived in Pocahontas’s hometown of Werowocomoco she was impressed with him. He was very confident with the intimidating Indians. He was also very bold with his actions. Powhatan was suspicious of the English people. He wonder why they came, and if they wanted his land or his people John Smith and Pocahontas’s Relationship
When John Smith first saw Pocahontas he was interested. She had such a lively spirit among some of the serious-faced Indians. John had become Pocahontas’s brother when she saved him from being executed by her father. Pocahontas served as a messenger between Powhatan, John Smith, and all the Englishmen overall. Whenever Pocahontas would deliver a message John would give her a present. Usually, the present was some type of colorful, articulate glass bead that John had gotten in England. Only did he know that these were very cheap to buy and were common in England. To Pocahontas they were very amazing and looked expensive. Sometimes, as a special present John would give Pocahontas copper kettles. Which were extremely rare to where she lived and they also served a purpose, you could cook with them. When Pocahontas heard that her people were planning a surprise attack on the English, she saved John Smith once again. Hours before the attack came, Pocahontas sneaked through the woods and told the English of the planned attack. The English then, got their weapons ready for battle. The Indians, though, must have heard the English were ready for them, because the attack never came. John soon got annoyed with the way things were going in Jamestown (their settlement), so he left for England. The Indians never saw him leave, so they thought he had been killed. The English never told them any different. When Pocahontas heard this news she was very sad, John was her “brother,” and she had loved him.
Pocahontas’s Kidnap
The English knew the best way to get Powhatan to give up everything he had was to take what was closest to him, Pocahontas. They thought Powhatan would willingly pay the ransom they had in mind to get Pocahontas back. The ransom and/or what Powhatan had to give back to the English was: their seven muskets that Powhatan had gotten from a trade, all Powhatan’s English prisoners, and food/crops, like corn. The English’s first step in kidnapping Pocahontas was to hire (bribe) the Indian man Japizaws. Japizaws was known for making deals with the English so he could get “precious items,” of theirs. Japizaws was to trick Pocahontas into getting on an English ship. With the help of his wife, Japizaws got Pocahontas to get on the boat by saying it was deserted. At first, Pocahontas refused to join them on the ship. Then Japizaws wife cried, yelled, and screamed that she really wanted to go on an English ship, to make her stop Pocahontas went on. Once Pocahontas was on the boat she ate a nice breakfast with the captain, who she found out was actually on the boat. The captain, Japizaws, and his wife convinced her to take a rest after her meal on the ship. Pocahontas quickly fell asleep. That was Japizaws and his wife’s cue to sneak off the boat with their reward of a copper kettle and a few other things. The boat then took off, with Pocahontas in it. And when Pocahontas woke up, she was in Jamestown. All by herself, the only Indian there.
Captivity
Once Pocahontas was in Jamestown, messengers were quickly sent out to Powhatan to tell him of the kidnapping and ransom. Powhatan was very unhappy about the ransom, he wanted to keep his guns! He refused to pay the ransom and planned to secretly take Pocahontas back from the English. Pocahontas herself was sure that she would not be captive for long. For her father cared for her very much. The English hoped to convert Pocahontas to a Christian during her captivity, because converting heathens was very important to them. Shortly after Pocahontas arrived in Jamestown, she was transferred to Rock Hall, a one-acre parsonage, because it was more protected. There was also better religious teachers there. At Rock Hall Pocahontas had many religious teachings with Alexander Whitaker, a teacher/priest. Pocahontas had at least three teachings a day, with many other small talks. The teachings were not really changing Pocahontas though, because she never really listened to them. She was still just waiting for Powhatan to come save her. After around five to seven months in captivity, Pocahontas got lonely. Suddenly, to her, the Christian words were comforting, and she started to listen and comprehend them. She also met someone at church that made her feel less lonely, and his name was John Rolfe.
John Rolfe’s Interest
John Rolfe was a 28 year-old widower who was a survivor of the Bermuda Shipwreck. He was also very interested in making money off of tobacco fields, that he hoped to plant near where Pocahontas was captive. It turns out he made a tobacco plantation in Henrico, which is another English settlement near the York River. He met Pocahontas at church. Since he was so lonely, due to the loss of his wife and daughter in the same year, he started to check in on her frequently. He thought she was very “strange” because she was foreign and not completely Christian, but he had fallen in love with her anyways. Pocahontas studied religion very hard to impress John, because she knew converted to Christianity he would marry her. Soon, Pocahontas could answer every religious question the reverend asked. There was then a ceremony where she denounced Okee, the Indian “God,” and officially was converted to Christianity. After this, John convinced himself to marry Pocahontas. He thought the English would like that he encouraged the conversion. John proposed in 1613. The wedding was on April 5, 1614, in a Jamestown church. Pocahontas wore a long flowing dress. Powhatan, at this time, was ready to make peace, and brought gifts of freshwater pearls and land. In a way, people said, Pocahontas had brought peace to Virginia. About one year after the marriage, Pocahontas gave birth to her first, and only, son, Thomas.
England
Pocahontas arrived in England in 1616, with Matachama, Tomococo, and Thomas Dale’s English party. People in England had heard about Pocahontas. They were very happy about John and her marriage. The English were also amazed at the conversion and thought she brought peace to Virginia. England really surprised Pocahontas, though, it was very loud and full of carriages and large buildings. It was very different from where she had grown up. Pocahontas found out that John Smith was alive in England, which made her very happy, and had just returned from exploring. Soon after Pocahontas arrived in England, Lady de La Warre took charge of her. She made sure she had proper clothes and good manners. She also took Pocahontas around to see the many kings and queens that admired her. After a while, though, England started to get old. The streets smelled, the air was dirty, the rivers were polluted and there were crazy people everywhere. Pocahontas just wanted to go home. Pocahontas also started to feel very sick all the time. During the trip to Virginia that the family went on in 1617/1618 (Pocahontas, John R., and Thomas), Pocahontas felt so sick she made them pull the boat onto the shores of Gravesend. She died there.
Aside from the name I’m not the most perfect looking person either. My dark brown-reddish hair has this tendency to be frizzy and poufy and Is extremely hard to tame. I’m also one of those people who don’t tan, so my skin is very pale. One thing that always catches people about my face, though, is my brighter-than-emerald green eyes. In a way I think they kind of scare people because the color is so bright and piercing. I’m thirteen now, and I’ve been at Dwindley’s for eleven years. In all these years I've never even gotten a second look from an adopter. You know, it just gets really old and thats why I am going to escape.
I looked at myself in the mirror. My face was beet red and beads of sweat were formed at my temples, that’s what running half a mile does to me. You see, at Dwindley’s orphanage they’ve just introduced the “Get Fit!” program. What this program is supposed to do, I think, is turn all us orphans into these fit, skinny, and “sporty” kids that anyone will love to adopt. There are just so many kids here at Dwindley’s, at least 60, and I know all the headmistresses and headmasters just want to get rid of us. That is not an easy task, though. I mean, Dwindley’s is this small, unheard of orphanage a few hundred miles from New York City. Only one or two kids get adopted per month usually (much to the discontent of the heads). Thus, whatever the heads can do to make us more “adoptable,” they will do.
Out of every kid in this orphanage the only ones who ever get adopted are those cutesy, smiley toddlers. Every once in a while you may get the occasional 6, 7, 8 year old adopted, but that’s real rare. Never does someone like me get chosen to be part of a big, happy family.
First of all, there’s my name, Leenor, it’s just such an unusual name. Seems I can almost see the confusion in an adopter’s face when I tell them my name. Some ask, “Did you say Eleanor?” and I always respond with, “No it is Lee-nor.” Nobody understands that the first part of my name, the “leen” part, is said actually like the word lean. People always try to turn it into some type of regular name, which it definitely isn’t.
Claymation: a word that I have become very familiar with over these past weeks working on this project. When I think about the word claymation it brings a lot of other words to my head: fun, difficult, complicated, and extensive. Overall, though, the claymation taught me so much about using cameras, computers, and programs.
To get any fulfilment out of a project I have to have some fun whiile working on it. Even though the claymation project was not even close to a piece of cake, it still had plenty of fun aspects. The part of the claymation that I enjoyed the most was making the clay people, background, etc. for each of the scenes in our claymation. I liked working the clay in my hands then trying to envision what I wanted the person or background to look like. Once I finally finished a clay figure/ person, I loved to see how it turned it out because usually I could get it pretty close to how I envisioned it to be. Even though making the clay figures was fun, it was also challenging because you have to make sure the figures can actually stand up by themselves while still looking good. Challenges and difficulty can be a good thing, though, so I didn’t mind.
When the going gets tough, the tough get tougher, that is a good saying to describe the difficult parts of this claymation. Since whenever there was a hard part in our claymation I think it only made our claymation better and made my partner and I tougher. The hardest part of this claymation, in my opinion, was the audio. The audio was very difficult because you have to make sure that you say what you want to say not too loud or too quiet, or else the audio sounds bad. Also, you have to make sure that every piece of audio that you do is matched up with the scene you want it to be matched up with. It seemed to take forever to make the audio because there was just so much to do. No matter how grueling the audio process is, after you finally get it perfect, your claymation automatically goes from O.K. to amazing.
I learned so much from this project about Apple computers and programs. Especially iPhoto and iMovie. I learned how to use special effects in movies and create titles for each scene. The main thing I learned, though, from this project is how to make a high quality claymation. How to use 400+ pictures and turn them into one fast moving slideshow that tells the story of an explorer. I learned that to make your acclamation as nice as possible you must keep your camera stable so the pictures will not bounce around . I learned how to keeps organized and make figure out of clay. Overall, this was an immense learning experience for me.
This claymation project was one of my favorite projects I have ever done. No matter how hard it was. Fun, difficult, and amazing, that is what it was. It was one of those projects you put all your heart into and when you are done you are very happy with the final product.
"No, you don't seem to understand that is MY DATA ANALYZER!" Coodles shouted just slightly impatiently. Doodles looked up from munching on the analyzer. " What is it?" " A data analyzer!" " Hmph. Don't know what that is. You can have it back, though, it doesn't taste so good." "Thank you," Coodles said exasperatedly.
Coodles knew Eugene’s analyzer was smashed last week so he attempted to hide it by placing it behind him. “What ya tryin’ to hide from us, Coodely- Woodely?” Sniffle said in a very mocking tone as he went to look behind Coodles back. “Nothing,” Coodles replied, knowing his data analyzer was about to be smashed into a thousand pieces, “There’s nothing back here, guys! “ Sniffle said to Pulverizer and T.J., “ Where’d you put that thing you were messin’ with?” asked T.J. “We saw you put it behind your back!” said Sniffle. Coodles replied “ I don’t know where it is, I promise,” and truth be told he didn’t. He figured the red fox running away in the distance had something to do with it, though. You realize, Coodles really liked that data analyzer so he ran as fast as he could after that fox. Coodles had completely forgotten about the bears that may have been following him, all he cared about was keeping his eye on that fox. He followed that fox into the forest and realized the bears were not following him. The fox was only 10 feet ahead of him and it had just stopped for a break anyways. Coodles ran up to the fox, so elated form knowing he had dodged getting hurt by the bears, he barely noticed that the fox was trying to eat his analyzer! “STOP!” He shouted at the fox, “STOP. That is mine!” The fox looked up and said, “Huh? This is my food, not yours. Mine. Mine.”
Coodles the bear and Doodles the fox were very interesting characters. Well, you see, theyt were opposites in many ways. Coodles was a smart, imaginative, scientific, awe-inspiring bear with many great ideas for his life. Doodles, on the other hand, was not the sharpest tool in the shed. he was a good friend, though, to Coodles and always tried to help Coodles with his many scientific "projects." Coodles and Doodles had been best friends since that one day when Coodles was 2 and Doodles was 2 1/2. When Coodles was 2 he was much smaller than the other bears, the bears allways tormented him because of his big glasses and his size. They would call him Nerdimus, Coodely- Woodely, Baby, and many other mean names. One day when he was conducting an experiment on a rose plant to find out even more information on photosyntheseis. The experiment he was doing complex involved the complex data analyzer his mother had given hi for his 1st birthday. As he was entering data into the analyzer from a rose plant he had been studying, he heard and saw the largest bears of his pack trudging up behind him threatingly. Their names were T.J., Sniffle, and Pulverizer. T.J. was a large black bear with brown feet, and he seemed to always have a crazy look in his eye. Sniffle was known for making smaller bears cry and sniffle, which is how he got his name. Now, Pulverizer was the scariest bear of all he was the strongest, largest, and most intimidating bear of all. The worst thing was all those bears were coming after him. T.J. was the first to talk, " What' cha workin' on today, Nerdimus?" Coodles, trying not to them mad, replied, "Oh, not much, right now." Coodles did not want to aggravate them, he didn't want his data analyzer smashed.
The boat was finally on the water. The launch had went amazingly smoothly and I was ready to reel in a fish! That morning was a perfect time for fishing, it wasn’t very hot and the waters were calm as they get. My dad was looking and driving around trying to find the perfect fishing spot.
We passed under a small bridge and we thought where we were looked like a great spot to drop our lines. I saw plenty of fish jumping so I was starting to think we might actually catch some fish. We slowed the boat until it was at trolling speed. All lines had been dropped, except for mine. I finally was ready to drop mine after my dad put a “wedding ring,” which is a lure, on my pole. Now, we were ready to catch some serious fish.
For thirty minutes we trolled back and forth, and had caught nothing, zip, zilch. Not even a bite! The big highlight of these thirty minutes was feeding the ducks that were following our boat our leftover bagel from breakfast. Which I thought was awesome because I love to feed ducks! Anyways, back to fishing, we went back out under the bridge to exit the completely dead fishing spot. We stopped our boat just about ten to twenty feet past these white buoys, that were on either side of the lake, that had the words “No Wake,” painted on them. We trolled out a bit from where we originally stopped, then we trolled back in towards the buoys. Right when we were only feet away from passing the buoys BAM! My dad’s pole had a fish on!! I had called the first fish, so my dad handed the pole to me. I reeled and I reeled the fish in (which wasn’t too hard) When I got it up to the boat my dad netted it. Turns out it was a small-medium size smallmouth bass, about .3-.5 lbs. Yes, the first fish of the trip!
We finally figured out where “the perfect spot” was, it was right where we had caught the first fish. Every time we trolled past there we caught a fish. The second time we trolled past my dad’s pole had a fish on, again! Since it was my brother’s turn he reeled it in. This fish was a big smallmouth bass around .7 or .8 lbs (big for a smallmouth bass)! As the day rolled on we caught two more smallmouth bass, both around .5-.6 lbs. We had caught just enough for dinner.
That night, our last night in Chelan, we had the fish for dinner. With a little bit of spice it was the perfect dinner, a dinner we caught ourselves.
