the genealogy book

 , on Ed Norton, Pocahontas and John Rolfe,

American actor Ed Norton, who hears on a 2023 episode of Finding Your Roots that he is a descendant of Pocahontas (c. 1596-1617), the Native American woman born with the name Amonute, also known as Matoaka. She belonged to the Powhaten, the indigenous people who first associated with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, a site founded by the English settlers who first landed in 1607. Pocahontas married the tobacco planter, John Rolfe, in 1614, and gave birth to their son, Thomas, less than nine months later. Norton seems shocked that this research could even be possible, let alone what it reveals. There’s a paper trail, he’s told. It’s all there. Near the end of Norton’s episode, he speaks to how every single person “here” (presumably suggesting a white settler sentiment around either the United States of America specifically or the New World generally) is from somewhere else, away. Suggesting that everyone “here” is an immigrant, a sentiment that does Pocahontas, and so many, many others, a serious disservice. Where did Norton think Pocahontas was from, exactly? The host agreed, good naturedly so, yes. Is this why the Indigenous are so poorly treated across North America? Go back to where you came from, white settler descendants yell at First Nations protestors, all of whom stand on traditional lands. That absolute inability to realize that there are entire populations exactly and precisely from where you, sir, are standing?

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