Pocahontas was a young Native American woman from the Powhatan Confederacy who is remembered for befriending English colonists and helping to foster peace between the English and Native Americans. Pocahontas did not marry John Smith. They met when she was about 12 years old and he was about 28. Smith wrote about how Pocahontas saved him from execution by placing her head upon his. However, there is no clear evidence to show that Pocahontas ever really intended to marry John Smith.