“The impact of what she did as a young person is so compelling and it changed so many lives,” said Margaret Vanderhye, a former Democratic state lawmaker and one of the commissioners. “Sometimes the history finds the people.”
The commission’s vote was 6-1, with the lone dissent coming from Anne Richardson, chief of the Rappahannock Tribe, who cast her vote for Pocahontas, an iconic figure from the beginning of the first English colony who was one of the other five finalists the commission had in front of it.
“In the time period we’re in when we’re going back and trying to correct history, removing statues … the Native American people who have been left out of everything should have a place in history,” she said.