The true meaning of Thanksgiving

[Guest guest]

Dear Ross,

I am new to the list, and joined it because I wanted some new recipes

for my Thanksgiving dinner.

I appreciate your telling us about the true origins of Thanksgiving,

and was very saddened by the origins of this holiday because, you

see, it it is my favorite American holiday.

I'm not Christian, and dislike the crass commercialism of Christmas.

I'm not Jewish, so Channukah means little to me. I try to go to India

each year to celebrate Diwali, our new year and biggest holiday, as

it is not celebrated here. And, as a rabbit rescuer and the founder

of a rescue organization (www.friendsofrabbits.org) I grieve for the

thousands of rabbits sold at pet stores as gifts for children on

Easter.

May 1, or May Day, is celebrated as " Labor Day " in the rest of the

world so it has little meaning for me, other than representing the

end of summer. Likewise, I celebrate, rather than mourn on Memorial

Day, because it suggests the beginning of the summer season.

And, as a native of India, a former British colony like the U.S. that

had to fight long and hard for its independence, I celebrate July 4th

with gusto.

But no American holiday resonates more with me than Thanksgiving

because I love the idea of setting aside one day to remind ourselves

of how much we have to be thankful for: family, friends, good health,

plenty of food, our beloved four-legged " fur-children, " and this free

society, where anyone can speak their mind, including reminding us of

the true origins of this holiday.

Thank you for reminding us of how precious these freedoms are.

Vineeta Anand

 

> 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 ~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~>