Every school child knows the story of how Pocahontas saved the life of Captain John Smith, but that's not the whole story. The Native American Princess, Pocahontas was born as the daughter of Powhatan, chief of the Powhatan confederacy. It was Pocahontas, known as Matoaka by her clan, who interceded on behalf of John Smith in 1608 and then persuaded her father to bring food to the starving colonists at Jamestown. She spent the remainder of her life acting as an intermediary between the Native Americans and the English.