Food for Thought: More Truth about Thanksgiving as a National Holiday

Here are two histories that expand one's understanding of the beginning of this country, the nature of the founding European people, ~ the Pilgrims, and Puritans of the Plymouth Plantation ~ and yes, the beloved holiday, Thanksgiving.  And yes, plantation. Probably most of us relate the word "plantation" to the period of 1781 - 1860 in the American South, but William Bradford a founder, leader and Governor of Plymouth, entitled his book, a history of the colony "Of Plimoth Plantation, 1620-1647."

The second one,  by Lisa Cooper, a public school instructor in Georgia introduces how early white settlers were using slavery in the areas they colonized. In her own words she says, "I wish more teachers would spend a little of time discussing the Pequot War since it is one of the first major interactions between colonists and Native Americans. While it is mentioned in many of today’s textbooks being used in lower middle grade classrooms the war is not generally covered at an adequate level and it is usually grouped with King Phillip’s War which occurred almost thirty years after the Pequot War."

However you've spent this Thursday, eat, fast, gather with family....do what you want. Just make sure it reflects the integrity of your heart's highest intelligence and not someone elses' deluded myths and propaganda.
lovu,
Kendke 

One more thing~
Taking you deeper....

Here we are the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and I ran across something else to add to this post. Earlier, I used the phrase, "the *nature of the founding European people". Wikipedia says:"Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling and acting—which humans tend to have naturally, independently of the influence of culture."

"...independently of the influence of culture".  Uhm... I don't know. If that's so, then perhaps my sentence should have read, "the culture of the founding European people." Nature or Culture? Humans are always wondering about how that those two fit into the wholeness of 'What Is'.  I'll leave that for you to have some fun playing with....

At any rate, this post speaks primarily of the native people that were living on the land which the newly arriving Europeans coveted, and eventually took. Below the last human history, I've added a piece on what happened to the animals whose habitat these people also invaded and destroyed. I'm speaking of that one animal we all think of when we know Thanksgiving dinner is being prepared~ what was then, the abundant, wild turkey.

Cooking the History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre

November 22, 2009
Filed under News, Our Land

Is All That Turkey and Stuffing a Celebration of Genocide?

By Laura Elliff, Vice President, Native American Student Association

Thanksgiving is a holiday where families gather to share stories, football games are watched on television and a big feast is served. It is also the time of the month when people talk about Native Americans. But does one ever wonder why we celebrate this national holiday? Why does everyone give thanks?

History is never simple. The standard history of Thanksgiving tells us that the “Pilgrims and Indians” feasted for three days, right? Most Americans believe that there was some magnificent bountiful harvest. In the Thanksgiving story, are the “Indians” even acknowledged by a tribe? No, because everyone assumes “Indians” are the same. So, who were these Indians in 1621?

In 1620, Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower naming the land Plymouth Rock. One fact that is always hidden is that the village was already named Patuxet and the Wampanoag. Indians lived there for thousands of years. To many Americans, Plymouth Rock is a symbol. Sad but true many people assume, “It is the rock on which our nation began.”

In 1621, Pilgrims did have a feast but it was not repeated years thereafter. So, it wasn’t the beginning of a Thanksgiving tradition nor did Pilgrims call it a Thanksgiving feast. Pilgrims perceived Indians in relation to the Devil and the only reason why they were invited to that feast was for the purpose of negotiating a treaty that would secure the lands for the Pilgrims. The reason why we have so many myths about Thanksgiving is that it is an invented tradition. It is based more on fiction than fact.

So, what truth ought to be taught? In 1637, the official Thanksgiving holiday we know today came into existence. (Some people argue it formally came into existence during the Civil War, in 1863, when President Lincoln proclaimed it, which also was the same year he had 38 Sioux hung on Christmas Eve.)

William Newell, a Penobscot Indian and former chair of the anthropology department of the University of Connecticut, claims that the first Thanksgiving was not “a festive gathering of Indians and Pilgrims, but rather a celebration of the massacre of 700 Pequot men, women and children.”

In 1637, the Pequot tribe of Connecticut gathered for the annual Green Corn Dance ceremony. Mercenaries of the English and Dutch attacked and surrounded the village; burning down everything and shooting whomever try to escape. The next day, Newell notes, the Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony declared: “A day of Thanksgiving, thanking God that they had eliminated over 700 men, women and children.”

It was signed into law that, “This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequots.” Most Americans believe Thanksgiving was this wonderful dinner and harvest celebration. The truth is the “Thanksgiving dinner” was invented both to instill a false pride in Americans and to cover up the massacre.

Was Thanksgiving really a massacre of 700 “Indians”? The present Thanksgiving may be a mixture of the 1621 three-day feast and the “Thanksgiving” proclaimed after the 1637 Pequot massacre. So next time you see the annual “Pilgrim and Indian display” in a shopping window or history about other massacres of Native Americans, think of the hurt and disrespect Native Americans feel. Thanksgiving is observed as a day of sorrow rather than a celebration. This year at Thanksgiving dinner, ponder why you are giving thanks.

William Bradford, in his famous History of the Plymouth Plantation, celebrated the Pequot massacre:

“Those that scraped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escapted. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of, but the victory seemed a sweete sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie.”

The Pequot massacre came after the colonists, angry at the murder of an English trader suspected by the Pequots of kidnapping children, sought revenge. rather than fighting the dangerous Pequot warriors, John Mason and John Underhill led a group of colonists and Native allies to the Indian fort in Mystic, and killed the old men, women, and children who were there.

Those who escaped were later hunted down. The Pequot tribe numbered 8,000 when the Pilgrims arrived, but disease had brought their numbers down to 1,500 by 1637. The Pequot “War” killed all but a handful of remaining members of the tribe.

Proud of their accomplishments, Underhill wrote a book (above) depicted the burning of the village, and even made an illustration showing how they surrounded the village to kill all within it.

13 Things About the Pequot War

by Lisa Cooper

Here are 13 facts regarding a horrific time in colonial history:

1. The main events surrounding the Pequot War occurred between 1637 and 1638. The parties involved were the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies along with Native Americans from the Naragansett and Monhegan tribes against the Pequot tribe. The Connecticut colony was also involved.

2. The homeland of the Pequot tribe was along the Thames and Mystic Rivers. Growing European settlement found the Pequot tribe basically surrounded by English and Dutch colonies. They weren’t very happy about it as you can well imagine.

3. Causes of the war stem from the murder of eight Europeans in 1634. John Stone has been described as a privateer, slaver, and smuggler. He and his crew were attacked near the mouth of the Connecticut River by the Western Niantic, a tribe connected to the Pequots. The reason for the attack was earlier Dutch traders had lured a member of the Niantic tribe aboard a Dutch vessel and then held him for ransom. When the Pequot paid the ransom they received a corpse in return. John Stone figures into the picture because he had been committing atrocities as well. He had a habit of kidnapping Western Niantic women and children and selling them into slavery to the Virginia Colony.

4. Even though John Stone had been banished from Boston due to malfeasance colonial officials were extremely upset at the murders and made demands to the Pequot that the Western Ninantic tribe members responsible for the killings should be turned over to them. The Pequot refused.

5. In 1636, another colonists, John Oldham, was attacked near Block Island. He and his entire crew were killed and the ship was looted. Some scholars debate that many of the New England colonists blamed tribe members from the Naragansett, however, John Oldham’s murder and the murder of his crew is touted as a beginning point for the Pequot War.

6. Within a month John Endicott, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sent a group of men on a revenge mission to Block Island. In the whole scheme of things it was a small fracus with 14 members of the Niantic tribe loosing their lives. The village was burned to the ground and crops that had been stored were either destroyed or taken by the colonists.

7. Endicott then traveled to a Pequot Village where the demand was made again for payment regarding Stone’s murder and Oldham’s murder as well. The demand resulted in many of the Pequot escaping through the woods and the loss of their village and crops to fire. Endicott and the other Massachusetts Bay colonists went home.

8. The Pequots turned their anger on the Connecticut colonist and began a seige on Fort Saybrook. By 1637, the Pequot began attacking colonial towns. Buildings and fields were destroyed, a few colonists were killed, and even two young female colonists were kidnapped, but were eventually returned via Dutch traders.

9. Finally, on May 20, 1637, Connecticut colonists attacked the Pequot at a village known as Misistuck or Mystic. Many of the men of the village were gone having traveled to Hartford on a raiding mission. When the colonists attacked Mystic it was mainly inhabited by Pequot women and children. It was a massacre with the colonial leaders using God as a justification for the killing. Approximately 600-700 natives were at Mystic during the attack. Only seven or so were taken prisoner. Only another seven or so escaped. The remaider died.

10. The actions of the colonists so horrifed members of the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes who were along on the raid that they returned home. That was the end of their participation. The idea of “total war” was foreign to Native Americans. They stated that the warfare waged by the English was too furious and too the number of deaths were too numerous (from William Bradford’s Of Plimoth Plantation, 1620-1647).

11. From that point on the Pequot were hunted down, taken prisoner or killed systematically.

12. On September 21, 1638 the Treaty of Hartford was signed. Pequots who had survived were distributed to the Naragansett, Mohegan, and Metoac tribes as slaves, or shipped by colonist to Bermuda where they were sold into slavery. Some became household slaves belonging to colonists in Massachusetts Bay or Connecticut. Colonists declared the Pequot extinct and took their lands. They even outlawed the word “Pequot”.

13. The strong show of force by New England colonists assured peace for the next several years. As noted historian Alden T. Vaughan wrote in his book New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians 1620-1675:

“The effect of the Pequot War was profound. Overnight the balance of power had shifted from the populous but unorganized natives to the English colonies. Henceforth [until King Philip’s War] there was no combination of Indian tribes that could seriously threaten the English. The destruction of the Pequots cleared away the only major obstacle to Puritan expansion. And the thoroughness of that destruction made a deep impression on the other tribes.”

While many historians still argue over who was at the most at fault and over the number of Native Americans that were actually killed primary sources such as Captain John Mason’s account or the account of John Underhill are useful reads.

And on the American Wild Turkey~

*A fun history lesson from Yoni Appelbaum on America’s wild turkeys:

William Bradford, looking out at Plymouth from the Mayflower in 1620, was struck by its potential. “This bay is an excellent place,” he later wrote, praising its “innumerable store of fowl.” By the next autumn, the new colonists had learned to harvest the “great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many.”

Soon, they took too many. By 1672, hunters in Massachusetts had “destroyed the breed, so that ‘tis very rare to meet with a wild turkie in the woods.” Turkeys held on in small, isolated patches of land that could not be profitably farmed. But by 1813, they were apparently extirpated from Connecticut; by 1842 from Vermont; and from New York in 1844.

In Massachusetts—land of the Pilgrim’s pride—one tenacious flock hid out on the aptly-named Mount Tom for a while longer. The last bird known to science was shot, stuffed, mounted, and put on display at Yale in 1847, but locals swore they heard the distinctive calls of the toms for another decade. Then the woods fell silent for a hundred years.

My friends~ It is no idle choice, nor to beautify this post, that blue was selected for the font describing this last history.