Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

Working The Trapline — Pocahontas Face

January 22, 2022, by JimC

Reconstruction of historical figures through computer graphics and sometimes through forensics is one of the perks of the 21st Century. Recreating a historical personage as a “modern” person can humanize the past and bring it closer to us — something I am always keen to experience.

A Texan named Becca Saladin has made a nice gig for herself doing this work under the DBA Royalty Now. Here’s the caper:

Like most people, I’m so intrigued by history, yet always felt separated from the figures, likely because it’s difficult to relate to a stiff, formal portrait of a monarch. In early 2018, I created an Instagram account to share my hobby of transforming old portraits into lifelike modern-day images with fellow art and history enthusiasts. Since then, I’ve been able to expand Royalty Now to YouTube, Tik Tok & Etsy. It’s also expanded into different versions of my work – creating custom renaissance portraits for clients, retouching and colorizing old photographs, bringing an old family relative into the modern-day, and more.

Her most recent video reconstructs Pocahontas — along with giving a concise thumbnail portrait of her short but consequential life:

*

You’ve heard me gripe many times about documentaries that rehash the same frontier history over and over again — Billy the Kid, the Little Big Horn, Wyatt Earp, Daniel Boone. I recently discovered a Canadian series called Nations at War that takes on compelling but little-known frontier stories. Here’s the caper:

At the end of the 15th century two worlds which had stood apart for generations violently collided. The kingdoms of Europe and the Indigenous nations of the Americas. Despite being divided by language, culture and technology, it was the things they had in common which drove them to war. The quest for power, a desire for resources, and a will to survive.

Through the centuries of conflict that followed cultural and political alliances formed and crumbled, empires rose and fell, and two nations emerged to redraw the map of North America. These are the battles that shaped a continent. These are NATIONS AT WAR!

The docos are obviously shot on a limited budget, and there is some repetitive reenactment imagery, and a slightly disconcerting tendency to flip the image so that a lot of people are shooting left-handed flintlocks. But the history is solid, well-balanced, and the stories efficiently told.  Note: The Youtube videos usually include two 20-minute episodes, so the title episode may not be the first to appear. Eg. The Blackfoot Confederacy video actually starts with an episode on the Mi’kmaq. There’s a bunch of ’em.

Good stuff to watch while cleaning the guns…

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Comments

  1. Matthew says

    January 22, 2022 at 5:08 pm

    I recently just finished the Apache Wars by Hutton. It was very interesting. Geronimo does not come off well in it. Everyone, white or Indian, had flaws but Geronimo really did. I think maybe we should yell “Cochise” instead when we jump out of planes.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      January 22, 2022 at 5:16 pm

      Yeah, The Yawner was not an especially noble feller.

      Reply
      • Matthew says

        January 22, 2022 at 8:31 pm

        I knew that before I read the book, but what really got me was when he and a group of Apaches were surrounded and, to get away, suggested strangling the children.

        Reply
        • lane+batot says

          January 24, 2022 at 10:11 am

          Yes, that was rather drastic tactics, certainly, and thank goodness one of my favorite Apache figures–“Fun”–Geronimo’s own cousin, told Geronimo if he tried, he would shoot him dead on the spot! Yet, such desperate tactics were not a new thing to the Apaches, and must be viewed(to be fair) from their perspective, in their time. If crying babies had given away their escape attempts to the Mexican Army that had them pinned down, not only the babies, but ALL of the Apaches would likely have been massacred, with few or no survivors. Nothing noble about it, but thank goodness Fun objected, and they slipped away with their children anyway(luckily!). Some Indians “trained” their children from infancy not to cry(because of the danger it presented in being heard by the enemy) by pinching their noses and mouths shut every time they did cry, cutting off their breathing briefly, until they learned not to do it–or else! Harsh times called for harsh measures. No, Geronimo wasn’t particularly noble, that’s for sure, but he was one helluva survivor!

          Reply
          • Matthew says

            January 24, 2022 at 7:54 pm

            I’ve certainly heard of situations where that was necessary, but it turned out it wasn’t then.

            But yes whatever else he was Geronimo was a survivor.

          • JimC says

            January 25, 2022 at 6:33 am

            Article regarding Geronimo’s descendants:
            https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/meet-the-geronimos-descendants-talk-about-living-with-the-legacy

  2. Quixotic Mainer says

    January 24, 2022 at 9:11 am

    Wouldn’t have put the Micmacs and the Blackfoot together normally, but now I am intrigued. In synchronicity, both the CZ and the revolving carbine need a good swabbing out.

    Reply
  3. lane+batot says

    January 24, 2022 at 10:00 am

    WOW! I most definitely would like to watch these…..I read a book, long ago, that postulated that without the formidable Indian resistance, which forced the Europeans to eventually ally with each other, and create the United States of America(influenced at least partially by the Iroquois Confederation!), there never would have been a Untied States of America, but America would have been divided into different, smaller countries just like Europe. One of those “what if?” questions, certainly, but an intriguing one to ponder…..

    Reply
    • JimC says

      January 24, 2022 at 10:03 am

      It seems that the history of early America is finally really giving the indigenous peoples their due as players in the vast imperial game.

      Reply
  4. Lynda Sanchez says

    January 27, 2022 at 5:38 pm

    When I taught at Ruidoso (both High School and college students) I had many of the Apache descendants of the Geronimo, Victorio, Cochise (Naiche), Chatto (Chato), Kaydahzinnie and many other families in my classes. Some of those students were more traditional than what one would imagine, and they were very proud of their blood lines or genealogy. I had one young man who at age 15 was intent on becoming a medicine man, much as that young Geronimo gal was in the link Jim added. (Article regarding Geronimo’s descendants:
    https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/meet-the-geronimos-descendants-talk-about-living-with-the-legacy)

    Fun and Yanosha were also some of my favorites of the old warrior types. Both men stood up to the bully tactics of Geronimo. On the other hand, it is just too difficult to make value judgements today about what we might have done under the sheer misery, violence and rough country these people negotiated day in and day out.

    Read about the Ash Flat massacre and your vision of Geronimo might be changed a bit as learning about that awful time made me see Geronimo in a different light.

    Anyway, always good to read the Trapline. Lynda Sanchez

    Reply
    • JimC says

      January 27, 2022 at 8:37 pm

      Thanks Lynda. I think it’s safe to say that Geronimo was deeply traumatized.

      Reply

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