This portrait of Powhatan from the Disney movie "Pocahontas" is reasonable. Powhatan's features as shown here are classic American Indian, although Powhatan Indians seemed to have straight noses. The real Powhatan was wearing a racoon skin cloak when he put Captain John Smith through his ordeal. Powhatan indians wore deerskin cloaks that might be painted, or decorated with so many feathers that the deerskin did not show. Chiefs also had deerskin cloaks decorated with shells (see below).

Real Indians behind the movie: Russell Means was the voice of Powhatan, and Irene Bedard was the voice of Pocahontas, in Disney's animated movie Pocahontas. They are seen here at Disneyland's 40th Anniversary Party in 1995.

One of Powhatan's actual cloaks, made of deerskin, decorated with "roanoke" (shell beads). Powhatan presented his old cloak and shoes to the English, after his "coronation" ceremony, as an exchange for those they had put on him. It made its way back to England, where it is still preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, of Oxford. The circles represent the chief towns of the tribes Powhatan controlled. Before some of the shells came off, there were 34 circles. Guess who is the man in the middle?