churchyard fire. The Princess Pocahontas myth represents a passive sex symbol, the “Good Indian” who unites the white man and the Native, the civilized and the savage, the past and the future. But—and this is a big but—through her attraction to white men she also affirms the superiority of white society over her own, and so functions as tacit permission for whites to conquer, assimilate, and destroy Native culture. Even her “princess” status was a fabrication (it is not a role that exists in Native cultures) that imbues the Pocahontas legend with gravity and weight, making her enthusiasm for
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