Indians and Pilgrims

It’s November yet again, for us the excitement of Thanksgiving starts the very first day of the month. The planning on who’s house everyone will gather to, who’s going to bring what or cook what. For many places, there’s also the Football game featuring their home team to watch as well. The cooking of the feast is rightfully and traditionally timed right around this event. The tradition in many American households to gather up their “fixins,” and gather around the TV to watch the game, has become almost the standard of “what to do” on Thanksgiving Day.
At this point you may be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with politics?” Actually a great deal, also this article will deal with a great amount of what were taught and are told when we’re growing up. To really elaborate on it all, I’ll give you the following in the viewpoint of an average American person, the Native American, and of course the historical facts.
First, to many Native Americans, this isn’t a Holiday to celebrate, in fact, a big majority do not. Personally my family and I do, although like many people, it’s really a glorified reason to get together and eat some tasty food. I don’t discount the values of a family getting together to share a day. Especially in this day and age, where you don’t find many opportunities to really sit down and have a meal with your family.
The mindset of most Native Americans is that the Holiday is really just a normal day, with normal values one should extend everyday. However that isn’t the focus of this article, to really understand it all, keep reading..
The tale popular in school and folklore is that the Indians sat down with the Pilgrims for a friendly Harvest Feast. Having a large community feast after the fall harvest was a common thing in Europe. Flash forward to 1970, the 350th anniversary of the pilgrims landing in Massachusetts. Abraham Lincoln had proclaimed Thanksgiving a holiday, and it was a fairy tail of a feast that was allowed to exist until that day. When Frank B. James, President of the Federated Eastern Indian League was asked to speak for a Plymouth banquet.  Exposing the Pilgrims for having committed, among other crimes, the robbery of graves of the Wampanoag's. He wrote:
“We welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people.”
Officials told him he couldn’t deliver such a speech, and offered to write him another. He declined, and on Thanksgiving day hundreds of Native Americans from around the country came to protest.
So what really happened in Plymouth in 1621?



Well according to a single paragraph account of one Pilgrim, a harvest feast DID take place in Plymouth, probably in Mid-October, however the Indians who attended were not even invited. Though it later became known as “Thanksgiving,” the Pilgrims of course never called it that. Behind the image of this peaceful picnic of two different races, is probably one of the most terrifying massacre in “New World” history.
It’s documented that the crops planted had failed terribly that year, it goes without saying that the Native American crops had flourished, having the generations of agricultural experience behind them. They had given them 20 acres of corn crops, without which the Pilgrims would have perished. This was a normal facet of Native American values, to provide for your neighbor. The lack of food could be attributed to the way food was preserved back then, any meats had to be smoked, and even then they had to be consumed in a timely fashion. Items like fruit and vegetables of course have to be consumed within a week or so in most cases. So a focus was on stocking the ships with plenty of food, and even the livestock would have to be sacrificed for nutrition. So it’s no surprise that when they landed, they were quite ill prepared to cultivate food.
The Pilgrims invited Massasoit to their feast, and it was him who engaged in the tribal tradition of “equal sharing,” who then invited ninety or more of his brothers and sisters to the annoyance of the 50 or so Europeans. There was no turkey, cranberry sauce, or pumpkin pie; they likely ate duck, geese and the venison brought by Massasoit. IN fact, most if not all of the food was brought and prepared by those Native Americans.
The Pilgrims of course wore no black hats or buckled shoes, these were the inventions of artists hundreds of years after. These were lower class Englishmen who wore brightly colored clothing.
Contrary to lore of storytellers generations since, no Pilgrim prayed at the meal, and the supposed good cheer and fellowship dissipated quickly once the Pilgrims picked up weapons to intimidate their guests away. It was noted that each Pilgrim drank at least half a gallon of beer a day. It’s told that the Natives had their heads hacked off to be kicked around like balls. The Chief was also beheaded, but instead of sharing the same fate, his head was put onto an 11 foot pole, and put on display for 24 years. 
That’s what happened, and for someone like me, I fought myself each year, like many Native Americans, during history classes to keep quiet whenever November rolled around, and the learning of “Thanksgiving” was being done. The teacher has no ill intention, this is what she’s learned to teach.
It’s a personal dream of mine that one day, these history books will tell a tale a what really happened. Not just Thanksgiving, but the real accounts of what happened from the time that the Europeans landed here, to current day. What was the interaction between these two peoples? What was the influence of the Native Americans? Are any of these influences surviving today? Should the leaders of each Native American Nation have a role in our government? They are Sovereign governments after all.
Why not let them take part in a Governor role? I can tell you right now there are Republicans,Democrats,Conservatives,
Liberals, and so on. This isn’t the 1600’s after all :)
The only REAL difference in this sense, is despite the political tags, all the Nations carry a “bipartisan” mentality, and even that is a horrible label to describe the mentality found in a community where helping your neighbor regardless of who they are, is a paramount and integral part of the culture. This cultural staple is something politicians talk about needing all the time with folks on the other side. Perhaps it would be a chance to really put forth a nudge to getting the country back to a focus of taking care of each other.
Don’t let this article dishearten or leave a daunting taste in your mouth. The modern Thanksgiving isn’t a bad thing at all. We live in a very busy world now, and something like Thanksgiving is a day where everyone slows down, everyone relaxes, and spends time with family. Even if you and your company don’t collectively sit at the table and share what you’re thankful for, the thought still crosses the mind even if you are chomping down mashed potatos while the quarterback is throwing the ball.
This time around, take a peek at your family and friends in the room and be thankful. No matter what your political affiliation is, it feels nice. 
-Aaesop at the D.W.