She was born in 1517. Ninety years before Jamestown. In a world the English had not yet reached.

Her name was Amopotuske — Scent Flower and she is Courtney's (Sisi's) 12th great-grandmother. She was born at the confluence of the Dan and Staunton Rivers in the Powhatan homeland of Tsenacomoco, a civilization of 30 tribal nations, 160 villages, and a political system so sophisticated the English colonizers couldn't read it when they finally arrived.

She lived her entire 83 years in an unbroken Powhatan world. She never saw what came next.

In this episode, we go back to the beginning. We examine the matrilineal society she lived in — where power flowed through women, where her son Opechancanough's authority to rule came directly through her, and where the English failure to understand this system led to 40 years o ...