Thanksgiving

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The Dark Historical Roots Of Our 'Thanksgiving'

Lest We Forget... by Tristan Ahtone

 

The arrival of Europeans on the east cost of North America occurred

not in 1620, but well before. French and Dutch fishermen and settlers

had been in the area as early as 1614, and had been responsible for

kidnapping Indians, selling them into slavery, and maliciously

infecting them with smallpox.

 

In 1620, the pilgrims arrived on the east coast and within two days

they had received assistance from the local Wampanoag Indian tribe:

The pilgrims stole their stored crops, dug up graves for dishes and

pots, and took many native people as prisoners and forced them to

teach crop planting and survival techniques to the colonists in their

new environment.

 

Luckily, for the colonists, an ex-slave named Squanto had recently

escaped slavery in England, spoke English fluently and was able to

instruct the pilgrims in crop planting, fishing, and hunting. Squanto

not only escaped from slavery, he was also one of the only survivors

of his tribe, the rest had been wiped out from the European smallpox

plagues years before.

When it came to helping the rag-tag team of colonists, Squanto, not

only was able to put aside his personal differences with the people

who had enslaved him and killed off his entire tribe, but also helped

make the colonists self-sufficient, and aided in brokering a treaty

with the Wampanoag tribe.

In 1621 Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoags, signed a " treaty of

friendship " giving the English permission to occupy 12,000 acres of

land.

 

In 1621 the myth of thanksgiving was born. The colonists invited

Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, to their first feast as a follow

up to their recent land deal. Massasoit in turn invited 90 of his

men, much to the chagrin of the colonists. Two years later the

English invited a number of tribes to a feast " symbolizing eternal

friendship. " The English offered food and drink, and two hundred

Indians dropped dead from unknown poison.

 

The first day of thanksgiving took place in 1637 amidst the war

against the Pequots. 700 men, women, and children of the Pequot tribe

were gathered for their annual green corn dance on what is now

Groton, Connecticut. Dutch and English mercenaries surrounded the

camp and proceeded to shoot, stab, butcher and burn alive all 700

people. The next day the Massachusetts Bay Colony held a feast in

celebration and the governor declared " a day of thanksgiving. " In the

ensuing madness of the Indian extermination, natives were scalped,

burned, mutilated and sold into slavery, and a feast was held in

celebration every time a successful massacre took place. The killing

frenzy got so bad that even the Churches of Manhattan announced a day

of " thanksgiving " to celebrate victory over the " heathen savages, "

and many celebrated by kicking the severed heads of Pequot people

through the streets like soccer balls.

 

The proclamation of 1676 announced the first national day of

thanksgiving with the onset of the Wampanoag war, the very people who

helped the original colonists survive on their arrival. Massasoit,

the chief invited to eat with the puritans in 1621, died in 1661. His

son Metacomet, later to be known by the English as King Phillip,

originally honored the treaties made by his father with the

colonists, but after years of further encroachment and destruction of

the land, slave trade, and slaughter,

Metacomet changed his mind. In 1675 " King Phillip " called upon all

natives to unite to defend their homelands from the English. For the

next year the bloody conflict went on non-stop, until Metacomet was

captured, murdered, quartered, his hands were cut off and sent to

Boston, his head was impaled on a pike in the town square of Plymouth

for the next 25 years, and his nine-year-old son was shipped to the

Caribbean to be a slave for the rest of his life.

 

On June 20, 1676 Edward Rawson was unanimously voted by the

governing council of Charlestown, Massachusetts, to proclaim June

29th as the first day of thanksgiving. The proclamation reads in

part: " The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his

Afflictive dispensations in and by the present War with the Heathen

Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things

against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we

evidently discern that in the midst of his judgments he hath

remembered mercyÖ The council has thought meet to appoint and set

apart the 29th day of this instant June, as a day of solemn

Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and FavorÖ "

 

It was not until 1863 that Abe Lincoln, needing a wave of patriotism

to hold the country together, that Thanksgiving was nationally and

officially declared and set forth to this day. At the time, two days

were announced as days to give thanks, the first was a celebration of

the victory at Gettysburg on August 6th, and the second one became

the Thursday in November that we know now.

 

The most interesting part of thanksgiving is the propaganda that has

been put out surrounding it. During the 19th century thanksgiving

traditions consisted of turkey and family reunions. Whenever popular

art contained both pilgrims and Indians, the scene was usually

characterized by violent confrontations between the two groups, not a

multi-cultural/multi-racial dinner. In 1914 artist Jennie Brownscombe

created the vision of thanksgiving that we see today: community,

religion, racial harmony and tolerance, after her notorious painting

reached wide circulation in Life magazine.

 

Adamant protests to the celebration of thanksgiving have taken place

over the years. As early as 1863 Pequot Indian Minister William Apess

urged " every man of color " to mourn the day of the landing, and bury

Plymouth Rock in protest. In 1970 Apess got his way. 1970 was the

" 350th " anniversary of thanksgiving, and became the first proclaimed

national day of mourning for American Indians.

 

State officials of Massachusetts asked Frank B. James, President of

the federated Eastern Indian League, to speak at the thanksgiving

celebration. The speech he submitted read: " Today is a time of

celebrating for youÖ but it is not a time of celebrating for me. It

is with heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my peopleÖ

The pilgrims had hardly explored the shores of Cape CodÖ before they

had robbed the graves of my ancestors, and stolen their corn, wheat,

and beansÖ Massasoit, the great leader of the Wampanoag, knew these

facts; yet he and his people welcomed and befriended the settlersÖ,

little knowing thatÖ before 50 years were to pass, the WampanoagsÖ

and other Indians living near the settlers would be killed by their

guns or dead from diseases that we caught from themÖ Although our way

of life is almost gone and our language is almost extinct, we the

Wampanoags still walk the lands of Massachusetts. What has happened

cannot be changed, but today we work toward a better America, a more

Indian America where people and nature once again are important. "

James was subsequently barred from speaking.

 

As a result, hundreds of people from around the country came to

support him by gathering around the statue of Massasoit that had been

erected in town. The protesters buried Plymouth Rock twice that day.

For the next 24 years, American Indians staged protest every

thanksgiving, in 1996 the United American Indians of New England put

a stop to the annual pilgrim parade and forced the marchers to turn

around and head back toward the seaside (symbolism?). In 1997 the

peaceful protestors were assaulted by members of the Plymouth police,

the county sheriffs department, and state troopers on horseback in

full riot gear. Men, women, children, and elders were beaten, pepper

sprayed and gassed. Twenty-Five people were arrested; blacks, whites,

latinos, Indians, and even a 67-year-old Penobscot elder were taken

to jail. Videotape was later produced to confirm the assault and

ensuing police brutality. Plymouth is known as " Americas Hometown. "

 

Finally in 1999 plaques were approved and dedicated to commemorate

" genocide " and other crimes against indigenous peoples of the

Americas. The plaque at Coles Hill, where the statue of Massasoit is

reads: " Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the pilgrims

and other European settlersÖ To them, thanksgiving day is a reminder

of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their

lands, and the relentless assault on their culture. " The second

plaque in the towns post office square honors " King Phillip " ,

Massasoits son.

 

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0Less Bush More Trees0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

I have found nothing better for good health than silence; study

is not the most important thing but meditation practice;

and whoever talks too much, mostly spoils the moment.

~ RossCannon ~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~>