First California Company has invited all Society companies and members in California, Nevada and Arizona to join us in commemorating the 400th wedding anniversary of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. This luncheon meeting will be held on Sunday, March 2nd at 1 PM at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott, 5855 Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90045.
LA Airport Marriott
The April 5, 1614 wedding was significant for the establishment of our nation, as it ended the first Anglo-Powhatan war and enabled the first permanent English settlement in the New World to begin growing tobacco that became its major export product and economic foundation. This new industry empowered Jamestown to become the first boomtown in America and, later, would similarly help support our Revolution.
Our program will feature Karenne Wood, Director of Indian Programs for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. She will discuss “Pocahontas and Women’s Role in Virginian Indian History.” We expect that she will likely include the wedding from an Indian perspective, Pocahontas as a member the Virginia tribe who met the Jamestown settlers and daughter of its paramount chief, and their culture.
We also will recognize those Pocahontas descendants who attend.
The cost of the event is $50, offering a choice of steak or vegetarian entrees. Reservations are due by February 15 and should be sent to First California Company Treasurer Harry Holgate, 115 West Fourth Street #208, Long Beach, CA 90802-2312.
Karenne Wood
Karenne Wood is an enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation and serves on the Monacan Tribal Council. She directs Virginia Indian Programs at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Wood is currently a PhD candidate and Ford Fellow in anthropology at the University of Virginia, working to reclaim indigenous languages and revitalize cultural practices. She edited The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail, now in its third edition, published by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, led the “Beyond Jamestown” Teachers’ Institute, and curated the “Beyond Jamestown: Virginia Indians Past and Present” exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. She recently contributed a chapter on Southeastern Indians for National Geographic’s Indian Nations of North America.
This regional meeting of the three California Jamestowne Society companies and the Arizona-Nevada Company is open to anyone interested in early American history and we will welcome guests.
To request an invitation, please contact our Secretary.
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