"What you learned about the 'first Thanksgiving' isn't true. Here's the real story..."

[BigmanPigman]

https://amp.capecodtimes.com/amp/6283891002?itm_source=oembed&itm_medium=onsite&itm_campaign=storylines&itm_content=news&itm_term=3775150001&__twitter_impression=true

"Wampanoag and Pilgrims: A deal and a meal
As these debates were happening among the Wampanoag, the Pilgrims, most of whom were still living on the cramped and creaking Mayflower, struggled to survive the winter. Half of them died of illness, cold, starvation or a combination of the three."

"Throughout the season, the Wampanoag made their presence known but did not approach until February, when Samoset, a visiting Abenaki tribesman from Maine, approached Pilgrim leaders. He spoke English and carried a subtle message — the Wampanoag were ready for peace or war with their new neighbors, and the Pilgrims needed to make their intentions clear. Several weeks later, in late March, diplomatic relations between the two groups formally opened when Massasoit arrived in Plymouth, his face painted deep red, and flanked by about 60 intimidating warriors. With Tisquantum acting as a broker, the two groups worked out a kind of alliance through a series of visits, exchanges and the belief, at least on the part of the Wampanoag, that this small band of Pilgrims would stay just that: small."

"Several months later, after receiving help and protection from the Wampanoag, the Pilgrims held the harvest feast that would form the crux of the Thanksgiving myth centuries later. Wampanoag members were not even invited, but they showed up. A group of about 100 men and Massasoit came not to celebrate but, according to Peters, mostly as a reminder that they controlled the land the Pilgrims were staying on and they vastly outnumbered their new European neighbors."

“It’s not a fun story,” Peters said, but its telling brings the focus away from the white Europeans, the Pilgrims, and shifts the balance back to the people who were harmed. Its telling builds the empathy that has been sorely lacking when it comes to Native American lives. The Wampanoag have survived and clung to their culture despite centuries of systemic removal from their land, destruction of their culture and denial of their rights. More recently, the Trump administration has been working to revoke reservation status for hundreds of acres of previously recognized Mashpee Wampanoag tribal lands."

[moose65]

1. There are a lot of myths surrounding Thanksgiving

Most people probably think that the Pilgrims started the Thanksgiving tradition by having a harvest feast every year. The Pilgrims had exactly ONE harvest festival, in 1621. The next year their crops didn’t do well, so they didn’t have another. Massachusetts Bay Colony did have some festivals later, in the 1630s I think, but they didn’t refer to them as Thanksgiving. To the Pilgrims and the Puritans, a “thanksgiving” would have been a purely religious observance - not a secular feast.

The Pilgrims’ “Thanksgiving” was pretty much forgotten for over 200 years, until Josiah Winslow’s writings were rediscovered in the 1840s. When Lincoln declared a national Thanksgiving during the Civil War, the Pilgrims had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t until the 1870s or 1880s that some folks from Plymouth, wanting to build up tourism and help local businesses, sought to cash in on the Pilgrim legend. It’s kinda like when Betsy Ross’s family wanted to cash in on the legend of the first flag. The Pilgrims were conveniently declared the founders of Thanksgiving and the rest is history 😆😆

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. My favorite part of the story is that the Pilgrims

were met by Indians who already spoke English.

It tends to make the militant monolingualism of this country more understandable.

I'm sure that someday, when we land on a planet with intelligent aliens, some of them will already be speaking English. We will then set galaxy-wide standards of not learning other languages.

[stopdiggin]

3. The Pilgrims did encounter as least some

native figures that spoke English. This due to the fact that slavery had already seen native Americans transported to Europe (and England) and back to the eastern seaboard by the time the Pilgrims arrived. Squanto is the name most frequently brought forward -- but due to the fact that trade was already firmly established (and extremely coveted on both sides) between Europeans and natives -- there were most likely others.

(The real history involving European contact (trade, politics, enslavement, disease, rivalries, alliances, kindnesses and treacheries ...) -- is vastly more complicated than we've been given to understand. Including politics, double-dealing, greed and betrayal among the native people themselves. But it ALL is a long, long way from the "helpful Indian -- thankful Pilgrim" BS!!)