Question

what are the similarities between Squanto and Powhatan?

Answer 1

Not much is known about Powhatan. We know he was a chief, and thus a power to deal with. Powhatan did not have to kowtow to the newly arrived whites. Legend has it (and what we best know about him) is that after John Smith, the English soldier, was captured by Powhatan's tribe, what saved his life was the intervention of daughter Pocahontas. But whether he was ever in danger of being executed is now in doubt, as Smith was apparently not the most honest of story-tellers; his accounts having differed in various writings.

Yet friction developed, and as the English expanded beyond Jamestown, war erupted. Powhatan led a good number of different Indian tribes, and two of them are said to have been destroyed by the British, as a result of the war. What forced Powhatan to finally give up was his daughter's capture in 1613.

Powhatan evidently lost his aggressive touch during his later years, relinquishing power to his younger brother, who tried to oust the English twice, the second time in 1644 - leading to the near destruction of the Indian tribes. Powhatan died around the age of 73, around the year 1618.

Squanto, on the other hand, was no chief. His people were from Massachusetts/Rhode Island (Powhatan was from Virginia) and one of John Smith's men sold him into slavery. (Earlier, even years before the Pilgrims' arrival, he had actually the chance to travel to England with the friendly explorer John Weymouth, and thus learned to speak English. So says one account, anyway; another tells of his having been taken captive, which sounds far more realistic) Squanto either escaped, or formed friendly relations with another English captain (Derner), in the English plantation he was sent to. When he returned to America, Squanto discovered his tribe had succumbed to European disease. (In this respect, his people suffered the same fate as Powhatan's poor daughter.)

Ultimately, in 1621, Squanto became a member of the Pilgrim community at Plymouth Rock; he was valued as an emissary to the surrounding Indian tribes as well as interpreter. Squanto helped the Pilgrims survive by teaching them where to fish and hunt and how to raise crops. Unlike Powhatan, it sounds like Squanto "sold out" a bit to the whites (in as much as we can't blame him, the whites having inadvertently exterminated his people; of course he could have chosen to hook up with the other tribes, but probably life with the whites brought greater rewards. It is also said that he adopted Christianity which, if true, probably allowed him to feel a greater kinship with the white man), although he was regarded with suspicion by the English, as Squanto might have felt he had the power to manipulate both sides, controlling war and peace, perhaps to make himself seem more valuable. He died of fever in 1622, aged around 37, while serving as a guide in an expedition to Cape Cod.

Squanto's greatest claim to fame probably lies in his having mediated between the Pilgrims and the tribe of Chief Massasoit, leading both sides to have supposedly enjoyed a friendly Thanksgiving dinner.