Lived: 1595-1617 Daughter to Algonquin leader Powhatan, Pocahontas found her place in history when an English colonist by the name of John Smith visited her father's village. Intrigued by the westerns - some say she threw herself upon Smith to spare him from execution - Pocahontas soon began visiting the English colonists on a regular basis, bringing them food or offering trade, and just generally improving relations between the two peoples. Despite her best efforts, however, relations between the natives and the English soured once more, and this time Pocahontas was taken hostage by the English. To calm hostilities between the sides, she married John Rolfe, becoming baptized as Rebecca Rolfe, and traveled to England where she died in 1617.