Thanksgiving – Traditions and Truths

Thanksgiving is upon us again and the traditional notions of time with family and friends mixed with lavish turkey dinners and football seems to endure. How many times as kids did we outline our hands on paper and then make turkeys out of them?

As children we also remember the countless pictures of the fabled Thanksgiving feast enjoyed by the Pilgrims and their good friends the Indians. What a happy image. Group hug everyone.

Yes, I like Thanksgiving. It’s a great time to get together with family and perhaps see old friends we may have not seen for awhile. I like the paid holiday part of it. I like the football games. But how many of us know the actual origin of this holiday and the events leading up to and after it?

Here we go with more historical perspective. Something that perhaps is not pleasant to think about at this time of year but never the less is the truth.

We were all taught that the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in mid-winter of the year 1620 after two months at sea and this in fact is true.

But it is also true that six years before that historical event in the year 1614, a British expedition landed in the same spot. Before they left, taking with them 24 Indians as slaves, they had succeeded in introducing and spreading smallpox, syphilis and gonorrhea among the all the native tribes along what would later be known as New England. Some tribes were completely destroyed.

So even before the 102 Pilgrims had landed, great numbers of natives had already been killed off in that region.

The Pilgrims built their colony near the decimated Indian village of Pawtuxet. The only survivor of this village was named Tisquantum, or as the Pilgrims came to call him, Squanto. Remarkably, he had been kidnapped and taken back to Europe three times before finally returning to America to find that his entire tribe had been wiped out by the diseased British expeditions.

The Indians were great farmers and the Pilgrims had the luxury that first winter of eating off the abandoned cornfields left behind by the decimated Pawtuxet. The Pilgrims crop failed miserably but with the help from Squanto, who by then spoke very good English, they were taught how to properly plant and how to catch fish.

Nearby the new Puritan colony was the Wampanoag Indian village. Squanto once again helped the Pilgrims by assisting them in negotiating a peace treaty with this tribe which was led by Chief Massasoit. For almost two decades the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag lived in peace and prosperity with the Indians teaching the new-comers how to use the land.

In 1621, the colony’s governor, William Bradford declared a three-day feast to celebrate their good fortune. Although they never called this celebration “Thanksgiving” it is what we were all taught as kids was the origin of the holiday we celebrate today.

The pictures of this celebration we remember seeing as kids and the pictures they probably publish in school books today show many Indians attending the feast.

The truth is that the governor only invited Chief Massasoit. But the Chief decided that he would not attend this alone and brought about 90 of his tribe with him. This did not sit too well with the Europeans and the Chief was never invited back for any such celebrations.

It should also be noted that there was no turkey, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie served at this historic meal nor were any prayers offered.

For the next 15 years the Pilgrims prospered and grew in numbers establishing a firm foothold on along the coast. Once word got back to England that all was well and the land was rich and bountiful, boatloads of new settlers began to migrate to America.

Towns began to sprout up all along the coast and relations between the native Indians and the Europeans began to sour through no fault of the Native Americans.

Just as the Europeans brought over supplies and building materials they also brought along their legal system and greed.

The Wampanoag’s had been very generous to them and were willing to share their land in peace but the Pilgrims had different notions. They soon began to discuss who the legal owner of “all this land” was.

The Governor of Massachusetts declared the Indians had not "subdued" the land, and therefore all uncultivated lands should, according to English Common Law, be considered "public domain." To the Pilgrims this meant that the land belonged to the King and the Indians were left completely out of the “discussion”. They just seized the land without consulting them.

This was the beginning of a sequence of events that would lead up to the bloodiest war in America's history on a per capita basis. King Phillips War which began in 1675 was America’s first major Indian war. But that’s a whole story in itself and I urge you to look it up if at all interested in this stuff.

But back to our traditional Thanksgiving beliefs.

As mentioned above, the participants in that celebratory feast depicted in all of our history books never called it “Thanksgiving”

Some people argue that it was President Lincoln in 1863 who proclaimed Thanksgiving as a national holiday, but perhaps it goes back much further and from much darker origins than one could believe.

William Newell, the 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 colonists suspected that the killing of an English trader was done at the hands of the Pequot tribe of Connecticut. The brave colonists decided that rather than face the fierce Pequot warriors they would take out their revenge on the old men, women, and children who were gathered at the tribe’s 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. Those who escaped were later hunted down.

The next day 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." During this “celebration” the decapitated heads of Natives were kicked through the streets.

Puritan divine Cotton Mather rationalized their actions with these words:

"In a little more than one hour, five or six hundred of these barbarians were dismissed from a world that was burdened with them. It may be demanded...Should not Christians have more mercy and compassion? But...sometimes the Scripture declareth women and children must perish with their parents.... We had sufficient light from the word of God for our proceedings."

This year I will celebrate Thanksgiving as I have since I can remember. Family, food, football and probably a few beers and maybe a good cigar. I am very thankful for my family and friends and how lucky I was born in this country and how lucky I am to be able to live in this valley.

But as I am enjoying my day, I will also know and give thought to the real origins of this holiday and give thanks that the Native Americans have persevered in this country despite five centuries of annihilation and assimilation policies.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.

Sources:

http://www.geocities.com/the_playahata/Playahata__Thanksgiving.html
http://sci.tech-archive.net/pdf/Archive/sci.physics/2004-12/1305.pdf