What Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving? The Native American side of the story!
Greg Krasovsky
November 25, 2022
When I saw on Facebook "The Founding of the United States - The First Thanksgiving" (see below), it made me remember Native / Indigenous Americans and how they must view and "celebrate" Thanksgiving every year.
So I did a little research to honor the memory of all those Native Americans that perished at the hands and from the policies of White settlers.
Well folks, if you thought that Mark Twain was sarcastic and cynical (see below), then wait until you read and watch the accounts and opinions of Native Americans and their Indigenous Communities on Thanksgiving Day, the National Day of Mourning for Indigenous Peoples!
Afterwards, please try to make adjustments to your perception of Thanksgiving Day and your celebration in 2023!
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Mark Twain on Thanksgiving
"Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New
England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that
they really had something to be thankful for -- annually, not oftener --
if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians,
during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by
their neighbors, the Indians.
Thanksgiving Day became a
habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted
on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and
was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence
it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual
compliments."
- Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (University of California Press, 2010)
Image: The Mark Twain House & Museum
...
"The observance of Thanksgiving Day -- as a function -- has become general of late years.
The Thankfulness is not so general. This is natural.
Two-thirds
of the nation have always had hard luck and a hard time during the
year, and this has a calming effect upon their enthusiasm."
- Following the Equator
Image: The Mark Twain House & Museum
...
"There
is more real pleasure to be gotten out of a malicious act, where your
heart is in it, than out of thirty acts of a nobler sort."
- Mark Twain in Eruption
Image: The Mark Twain House & Museum
https://www.facebook.com/MarkTwainAuthor/
***
Thanksgiving is a Day of Mourning for Many Indigenous Communities
November 24, 2021
By Kisha James (Aquinnah Wampanoag and Oglala Lakota) and Mahtowin Munro (Oglala Lakota)
What are the foundational myths of the United States?
Who created them and who is erased and harmed? For the past 51 years, United American Indians of New England (UAINE) and supporters have gathered on so-called Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth, MA, to ask these questions, confront settler mythologies, and commemorate a National Day of Mourning for Indigenous Peoples devastated by settler colonialism and imperialism.
The National Day of Mourning protest was founded by Wamsutta Frank James, an Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribal member, and other Indigenous men and women in the region.
In 1970, Wamsutta had been invited by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to give a speech at a banquet commemorating the 350th anniversary of the arrival of the Pilgrims.
The organizers of the banquet imagined that Wamsutta would give an appreciative and complimentary speech, singing the praises of the American settler colonial project and thanking the Pilgrims for bringing “civilization” to the Wampanoag.
However, the speech that Wamsutta wrote, which was based on historical fact instead of the hollow fiction portrayed in the Thanksgiving myth, was a far cry from complimentary.
In his speech, Wamsutta not only named atrocities committed by the Pilgrims, but also reflected upon the fate of the Wampanoag at the hands of settlers.
He described how the English even before 1620 brought diseases that caused a “Great Dying,” and how they took Wampanoag people captive, selling them as slaves in Europe for 220 shillings apiece.
The Pilgrims themselves robbed Wampanoag graves immediately upon their arrival.
These settlers also led Wampanoag people to believe that, if they did not behave as the Pilgrims thought fit, they would dig up the ground and unleash the great epidemic again.
Moreover, although there may have been a meal provided largely by the Wampanoag in 1621, it was not a ‘thanksgiving.’
Rather, the first official “thanksgiving” was declared by the Puritans (not the Pilgrims) in 1637 to celebrate the massacre of hundreds of Pequot men, women and children on the banks of the Mystic River in CT.
Within fifty-odd years of the arrival of the Pilgrims and other Europeans, the Wampanoag along with many other Tribes had been devastated due to warfare, disease and dispossessed of most of their ancestral lands.
Those who resisted were killed and their families enslaved.
The suppressed speech also contained a powerful message of Native American pride.
“Our spirit refuses to die,” wrote Wamsutta. “Yesterday we walked the woodland paths and sandy trails.
Today we must walk the macadam highways and roads. We are uniting… We stand tall and proud, and before too many moons pass we'll right the wrongs we have allowed to happen to us.”
When state officials saw an advance copy of Wamsutta’s speech in 1970, they refused to allow him to deliver it, saying that the speech was too “inflammatory.”
The speech was clearly inspired by the fledgling “Red Power Movement,” which demanded equal rights and self-determination for Native Americans.
This without a doubt frightened the state officials, whose minds were likely drawn to think of the 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz, a 19-month long protest where Indigenous Peoples took over the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in California.
The Occupation of Alcatraz had been one of the first intertribal protests to garner national attention, and it had struck fear into the hearts of politicians and other settlers because it was becoming clear that Native Americans, like Black and other oppressed Peoples, were saying “no more.”
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/thanksgiving-day-mourning-many-indigenous-communities
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What Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving? The Wampanoag Side of the Tale
For Thanksgiving this year ICTMN spoke to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's Tribal Historic Preservation Officer to get a better understanding of what really happened 401 years ago at the first Thanksgiving, and what Wampanoags do today
Gale Courey Toensing
Updated: Sep 13, 2018
Original: Nov 23, 2017
The First Thanksgiving, 1621 Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930)
This is a popular image of the first Thanksgiving, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. But this is definitely NOT what happened.
When you hear about the Pilgrims and “the Indians” harmoniously sharing the “first Thanksgiving” meal in 1621, the Indians referred to so generically are the ancestors of the contemporary members of the Wampanoag Nation.
As the story commonly goes, the Pilgrims who sailed from England on the Mayflower and landed at what became Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620 had a good harvest the next year. So Plymouth Gov. William Bradford organized a feast to celebrate the harvest and invited a group of “Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit” to the party.
The feast lasted three days and, according to chronicler Edward Winslow, Bradford sent four men on a “fowling mission” to prepare for the feast and the Wampanoag guests brought five deer to the party.
And ever since then, the story goes, Americans have celebrated Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.
Not exactly, Ramona Peters, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s Tribal Historic Preservation Officer told Indian Country Today Media Network in a conversation on the day before Thanksgiving 2012—391 years since that mythological “first Thanksgiving.”
What’s the Mashpee version of the 1621 meal?
You’ve probably heard the story of how Squanto assisted in their planting of corn? So this was their first successful harvest and they were celebrating that harvest and planning a day of their own thanksgiving. And it’s kind of like what some of the Arab nations do when they celebrate by shooting guns in the air.
So this is what was going on over there at Plymouth. They were shooting guns and canons as a celebration, which alerted us because we didn’t know who they were shooting at. So Massasoit gathered up some 90 warriors and showed up at Plymouth prepared to engage, if that was what was happening, if they were taking any of our people. They didn’t know. It was a fact-finding mission.
(WATCH: A Wampanoag retelling of Thanksgiving [see below])
When they arrived it was explained through a translator that they were celebrating the harvest, so we decided to stay and make sure that was true, because we’d seen in the other landings—(Captain John) Smith, even the Vikings had been here—so we wanted to make sure so we decided to camp nearby for a few days. During those few days, the men went out to hunt and gather food—deer, ducks, geese, and fish.
There are 90 men here and at the time I think there are only 23 survivors of that boat, the Mayflower, so you can imagine the fear. You have armed Natives who are camping nearby. They [the colonists] were always vulnerable to the new land, new creatures, even the trees—there were no such trees in England at that time. People forget they had just landed here and this coastline looked very different from what it looks like now.
And their culture—new foods, they were afraid to eat a lot of things. So they were very vulnerable and we did protect them, not just support them, we protected them. You can see throughout their journals that they were always nervous and, unfortunately, when they were nervous they were very aggressive.
https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/what-really-happened-at-the-first-thanksgiving-the-wampanoag-side-of-the-tale
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A Wampanoag retelling of Thanksgiving
A Wampanoag citizen retells us the true story about the first meeting between the Wampanoag people and the pilgrims.
Plus, more on the handful of Native people who ran for public office in Tuesday’s election
ICT
Nov 4, 2021
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving.
Joining ICT's newscast is Wampanoag citizen Steven Peters. He is the creative director of Smoke Sygnals and share how his work aims to advance the true narrative of his tribal nation.
https://indiancountrytoday.com/newscasts/steven-peters-11-04-2021
***
The Wampanoag Side of the First Thanksgiving Story
The story of the first Thanksgiving is often told only from the Pilgrims perspective, but what about the Wampanoag view of the feast?
Michelle Tirado
Updated: Sep 13, 2018
Original: Nov 23, 2011
Michelle Tirado
Special to Indian Country Today
Too often the story of the 1621 Thanksgiving is told from the Pilgrims’ point of view, and when the Wampanoag, who partook in this feast too, are included, it is usually in a brief or distorted way. In search of the Native American perspective, we looked to Plymouth, where the official first Thanksgiving took place and where today the Wampanoag side of the story can be found.
According to a Plimoth Plantation timeline, the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth Harbor on December 16, 1620. The Pilgrims settled in an area that was once Patuxet, a Wampanoag village abandoned four years prior after a deadly outbreak of a plague, brought by European traders who first appeared in the area in 1616.
The museum’s literature tells that before 1616, the Wampanoag numbered 50,000 to 100,000, occupying 69 villages scattered throughout southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. The plague, however, killed thousands, up to two-thirds, of them. Many also had been captured and sold as slaves.
And yet, when the Wampanoag watched the Mayflower’s passengers come ashore at Patuxet, they did not see them as a threat. “The Wampanoag had seen many ships before,” explained Tim Turner, Cherokee, manager of Plimoth Plantation’s Wampanoag Homesite and co-owner of Native Plymouth Tours. “They had seen traders and fishermen, but they had not seen women and children before. In the Wampanoag ways, they never would have brought their women and children into harm. So, they saw them as a peaceful people for that reason.”
But they did not greet them right away either. The English, in fact, did not see the Wampanoag that first winter at all, according to Turner. “They saw shadows,” he said. Samoset, a Monhegan from Maine, came to the village on March 16, 1621. The next day, he returned with Tisquantum (Squanto), a Wampanoag who befriended and helped the English that spring, showing them how to plant corn, fish and gather berries and nuts. That March, the Pilgrims entered into a treaty of mutual protection with Ousamequin (Massasoit), the Pokanoket Wampanoag leader.
https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/the-wampanoag-side-of-the-first-thanksgiving-story
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The History of Thanksgiving from the Native American Perspective
Nov 23, 2022 | Native Hope
There are always two sides to a story. Unfortunately, when it comes to the history of Thanksgiving, generations of Americans have been taught a one-sided history in homes and schools.
The dominant cultural and historical story has been told from the perspective of the white colonialists who landed near Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts in 1620. In this version of the Thanksgiving story, the holiday commemorates the peaceful, friendly meeting of English settlers and the Wampanoag tribe for three days of feasting and thanksgiving in 1621.
Every year, news outlets and social media are a-buzz with Thanksgiving themes.
There is little coverage of the fact that November is Native American Heritage Month or that the day after Thanksgiving, known to most as Black Friday, is Native American Heritage Day.
The Real History of Thanksgiving
The mainstream version of the Thanksgiving story paints a picture of courageous, Christian settlers, braving the perils of the New World and with the help of some friendly Natives, finding a way to make a new life for themselves.
In the days around Thanksgiving, many teachers focus on this happy story, helping students make American Indian headdresses out of construction paper and holding Thanksgiving reenactments in their classrooms.
Very few teachers realize that construction headdresses and school re-enactments create a lump stereotype that Native Americans all wear the same regalia.
These school activities also encourage young students to think it is okay to wear culture as a costume.
This makes it hard for students to recognize the diversity of Native American tribes and makes students believe it’s okay to mimic Native American traditional wear, without having an understanding of its spiritual significance.
Very few teachers get a chance to tell students about the massacres of Native tribes like the Pequot that took place in the years that followed.
They also do not mention that English settlers robbed Wampanoag graves and stole food from them in order to survive during their first years on this new continent.
Here’s a look at some of the reasons why Thanksgiving is a complex holiday, and one that all Americans should approach with greater sensitivity.
https://blog.nativehope.org/what-does-thanksgiving-mean-to-native-americans
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What Does Thanksgiving Mean to Indigenous Peoples?
11/01/2022 | Holidays & Seasons, History
Many American families gather for Thanksgiving, a day to share food, family memories, and gratitude for both.
While the arrival of early settlers and the colonization of North America is part of our shared history as Americans, it is important to learn and remember the full history of colonization and the reality that it included genocide, the theft of land, discrimination, and oppression.
Indigenous Peoples in America recognize Thanksgiving as a day of mourning. It is a time to remember ancestral history as well as a day to acknowledge and protest the racism and oppression which they continue to experience today.
Since 1970 there has been a gathering at the Plymouth rock historic site in Massachusetts on Thanksgiving Day to commemorate the National Day of Mourning.
The United American Indians of New England will host the 53rd Annual National Day of Mourning on November 24, 2022. Watch their website for livestreaming information on that day.
https://www.indypl.org/blog/for-adults/thanksgiving
Watch this video from the National Museum of the American Indian.
This video from the National Museum of the American Indian provides good information and perspective to begin thinking about the meaning of Thanksgiving.
It is hosted by Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche), co-curator of the exhibit Americans.
Paul discusses why the Thanksgiving story is so important to the United States’ image of itself as a nation.
https://www.indypl.org/blog/for-adults/thanksgiving
***
The Myths of the Thanksgiving Story and the Lasting Damage They Imbue.
In truth, massacres, disease and American Indian tribal politics are what shaped the Pilgrim-Indian alliance at the root of the holiday.
Claire Bugos
Correspondent
November 26, 2019
In Thanksgiving pageants held at schools across the United States, children don headdresses colored with craft-store feathers and share tables with classmates wearing black construction paper hats.
It’s a tradition that pulls on a history passed down through the generations of what happened in Plymouth: local Native Americans welcomed the courageous, pioneering pilgrims to a celebratory feast.
But, as David Silverman writes in his new book This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, much of that story is a myth riddled with historical inaccuracies.
Beyond that, Silverman argues that the telling and retelling of these falsehoods is deeply harmful to the Wampanoag Indians whose lives and society were forever damaged after the English arrived in Plymouth.
Silverman’s book focuses on the Wampanoags. When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, the sachem (chief) Ousamequin offered the new arrivals an entente, primarily as a way to protect the Wampanoags against their rivals, the Narragansetts.
For 50 years, the alliance was tested by colonial land expansion, the spread of disease, and the exploitation of resources on Wampanoag land.
Then, tensions ignited into war. Known as King Philip’s War (or the Great Narragansett War), the conflict devastated the Wampanoags and forever shifted the balance of power in favor of European arrivals.
Wampanoags today remember the Pilgrims’ entry to their homeland as a day of deep mourning, rather than a moment of giving thanks.
...
What is the Thanksgiving myth?
The myth is that friendly Indians, unidentified by tribe, welcome the Pilgrims to America, teach them how to live in this new place, sit down to dinner with them and then disappear.
They hand off America to white people so they can create a great nation dedicated to liberty, opportunity and Christianity for the rest of the world to profit.
That’s the story—it’s about Native people conceding to colonialism. It’s bloodless and in many ways an extension of the ideology of Manifest Destiny.
What are the most poignant inaccuracies in this story?
One is that history doesn’t begin for Native people until Europeans arrive.
People had been in the Americas for least 12,000 years and according to some Native traditions, since the beginning of time. And having history start with the English is a way of dismissing all that.
The second is that the arrival of the Mayflower is some kind of first-contact episode. It’s not.
Wampanoags had a century of contact with Europeans–it was bloody and it involved slave raiding by Europeans.
At least two and maybe more Wampanoags, when the Pilgrims arrived, spoke English, had already been to Europe and back and knew the very organizers of the Pilgrims’ venture.
Most poignantly, using a shared dinner as a symbol for colonialism really has it backward.
No question about it, Wampanoag leader Ousamequin reached out to the English at Plymouth and wanted an alliance with them.
But it’s not because he was innately friendly. It’s because his people have been decimated by an epidemic disease, and Ousamequin sees the English as an opportunity to fend off his tribal rebels.
That’s not the stuff of Thanksgiving pageants.
The Thanksgiving myth doesn’t address the deterioration of this relationship culminating in one of the most horrific colonial Indian wars on record, King Philip’s War, and also doesn’t address Wampanoag survival and adaptation over the centuries, which is why they’re still here, despite the odds.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thanksgiving-myth-and-what-we-should-be-teaching-kids-180973655/
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THANKSGIVING: A Day of Mourning
By Roy Cook
Most school children are taught that Native Americans helped the Pilgrims and were invited to the first Thanksgiving feast. Young children's conceptions of Native Americans often develop out of media portrayals and classroom role playing of the events of the First Thanksgiving.
The conception of Native Americans gained from such early exposure is both inaccurate and potentially damaging to others. Therefore, most children do not know the following facts, which explain why many American Indians today call Thanksgiving a "Day of Mourning".
Traditional hospitality and generosity have and continue to be constant Tribal virtues to be practiced at all times.
One of a series of feasts reaching back into the group memory has been seized upon by the current modern society. The Wampanoag feast, called Nikkomosachmiawene, or Grand Sachem's Council Feast.
It was because of this feast in 1621 that the Wampanoags had amassed the food to help the Pilgrims thereby creating a new tradition European tradition known today as "Thanksgiving Day.”
This Wampanog feast is marked by traditional food and games, telling of stories and legends, sacred ceremonies and councils on the affairs of the nation.
Massasoit came with 90 Wampanog men and brought five deer, fish, all the food and Wampanog cooks.
Before the Pilgrims arrived Plymouth had been the site of a Pawtuxet village which was wiped out by a plague (introduced by English explorers looking to grab a piece of the New World land) five years before the Pilgrims landed
These Native peoples had met Europeans before the Pilgrims arrived.
One such European was Captain Thomas Hunt, who started trading with the Native people in 1614. He captured 20 Pawtuxcts and seven Naugassets, selling them as slaves in Spain. Many other European expeditions also lured Native people onto ships and then imprisoned and enslaved them.
These expeditions carried smallpox, typhus, measles and other European diseases to this continent. Native people had no immunity and some groups were totally wiped out while others were severely decimated. An estimated 72,000 to 90,000 people lived in southern New England before contact with Europeans. One hundred years later, their numbers were reduced by 80%.
It was the English Captain Thomas Hunt's expedition that brought the plague, which destroyed the Pawtnxet.
The nearest other people were the Wampanoag. In modern times they are often simply known as the Indians who met the Pilgrim invasion, their lands stretched from present day Narragansett Bay to Cape Cod. Like most other Tribal peoples in the area, the Wampanoag were farmers and hunters.
Wampanoag is the collective name of the indigenous people of southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. The name has been variously translated as "Eastern People", "People of the Dawn", or more currently "People of the First Light".
...
The key figure in the treaty talks and in later encounters was Tisquantum. He was Pawtuxet who had been kidnapped and taken to England in 1605. He managed to return to New England, only to be captured by Captain Hunt and sold into slavery in Spain. He escaped and returning to this continent, on board ship he met Samoset.
Tisquantum found that all of his people died of the plague, so he stayed with the Wampanoags, some of whom had survived the disease. Tiquantum remained with the Pilgrims for the rest of his life and was in large part responsible for their survival. The Pilgrims were not farmers nor woodsmen. They were city people and mainly artisans. Tisquantum taught them when and how to plant and fertilize corn and other crops. He taught them where the best fish were and how to catch them in traps, and many other survival skills.
Governor Bradford called Tisquantum "a special instrument sent of God" The Native nations along the eastern seaboard practiced tribal spirituality, hospitality, and generosity.
Ironically, the first official "Day of Thanksgiving" was proclaimed in 1637 by Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop. He did so to celebrate the safe return of English colony men from Mystic, Connecticut.
They massacred 600 Pequots that had laid down their weapons and accepted Christianity. They were rewarded with a vicious and cowardly slaughter by their new "brothers in Christ (Note 2)
http://americanindiansource.com/mourningday.html
***
Recognizing Native American Perspectives: Thanksgiving and the National Day of Mourning
Students analyze a primary source to learn about a Native American’s perspective on the arrival of the Pilgrims and discuss differing viewpoints about the significance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Grades 9 - 12+
Subjects Social Studies, U.S. History
Contents 1 Link, 2 PDFs, 3 Images
Background Information
Every year, on the fourth Thursday of November, Americans celebrate the national holiday of Thanksgiving.
Though feasts of thanksgiving date as far back as the first Christian explorers in North America, the “First Thanksgiving” is often associated with the feast shared between the Wampanoag Native Americans and European settlers at Plymouth Plantation in 1621.
The gathering came on the heels of a peace treaty, forged between Wampanoag leader Massasoit and Pilgrim leaders, vowing nonaggression and mutual defense.
It was a treaty and a friendship between the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims that endured for a little over 50 years, until King Philip’s War in the 1670s.
Today, Thanksgiving is a holiday rich with tradition. Whether gathered around a table enjoying turkey, stuffing, and cranberry, or around a television set watching a football game, it is a time when many Americans come together with family and friends to celebrate and give thanks.
The Wampanoag people, however, hold a different view of Thanksgiving. Disagreeing with the holiday’s celebration of early European settlers in North America, Native Americans have gathered annually on Thanksgiving Day since 1970 to commemorate a National Day of Mourning.
The day is a time to remember and reflect on the genocide and mistreatment of millions of Native Americans, to honor ancestors, to recognize the ongoing struggles of Native Americans, and to come together as a people.
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/recognizing-native-american-perspectives-thanksgiving-and-national-day-mourning/
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[LIVE] National Day of Mourning 2022 (November 24, 2022, 12PM ET)
hate5six
Streamed live 5 hours ago
2022 National Day of Mourning
11.24.22 12 noon
Cole's Hill, Plymouth, MA (hill above Plymouth Rock)
WHAT IS NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING?
An annual tradition since 1970, Day of Mourning is a solemn, spiritual and highly political day.
Many of us fast from sundown the day before through the afternoon of that day.
We are mourning our ancestors and the genocide of our peoples and the theft of our lands.
NDOM is a day when we mourn, but we also feel our strength in action.
Over the years, participants in Day of Mourning have buried Plymouth Rock a number of times, boarded the Mayflower replica, and placed ku klux klan sheets on the statue of William Bradford, etc.
WHEN AND WHERE IS NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING?
Thursday, November 24, 2022 (U.S. "thanksgiving" day) at Cole's Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts, 12 noon SHARP. Cole's Hill is the hill above Plymouth Rock in the Plymouth historic waterfront area.
WILL THERE BE A MARCH?
Yes, there will be a march through the historic district of Plymouth. Plymouth agreed, as part of the settlement of 10/19/98, that UAINE may march on National Day of Mourning without the need for a permit as long as we give the town advance notice.
PROGRAM: Although we very much welcome our non-Native supporters to stand with us, it is a day when only Indigenous people speak about our history and the struggles that are taking place throughout the Americas. Speakers are by invitation only.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VZpy2GhNxc
***
Native American Girls Describe the REAL History Behind Thanksgiving | Teen Vogue
Teen Vogue
Nov 23, 2016
6 Native American girls school us on the REAL history of Thanksgiving.
Transcript:
Happy Thanksgiving America!
I'm Duannette and I'm here with my friends to tell you the real history behind this holiday.
Growing up I knew that what they told you in school about Thanksgiving wasn't true.
That's not the true story,
That you started behind Thanksgiving was after every killing of a whole village these European settlers celebrated it and they called it Thanksgiving,
But it wasn't until Abraham Lincoln became president that it became an official holiday.
He ordered 38 Dakota men to be hung for war crimes after the sacred holiday Christmas.
We take this time to remember our elders who lost their lives due to what really happened.
Usually my mom makes a Native American dish for us and we prayed.
Growing up I'd be kind of annoyed that they didn't know what actually happened on Thanksgiving and that they're actually celebrating the deaths of many people and many tribes that were lost.
Whether it's to give thanks or to be with your family, you should learn how that holiday was established in the first place.
I'm thankful for being born indigenous to this continent.
I'm thankful that I still have my culture. I'm thankful that my elders kept our culture alive all these years.
I'm thankful to be indigenous [for Julie and her life.]
I'm thankful for us also be able to stand together and stand strong and stand this one.
Happy Thanksgiving America!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7jLeBWMA0U
***
Native Americans on: THANKSGIVING
johnnykimberlyg
Nov 15, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PabVX73zTAA
***
Honor the Truth About Thanksgiving
Roqué Marcelo
Nov 20, 2020
Thank you for watching! This short film is intended to encourage discussion and spread awareness. Feel free to speak openly about its ideas, do your own extensive research, and ask your own questions.
Above all, I encourage you to see through a lens of compassion. How do we move forward in ways that honor the tragic losses of the past and continue a process of healing?
The answers and the truth are out there.
Transcript:
When I think of Thanksgiving what comes to mind is not thankfulness or a big turkey
What i think of is far more important and serious
[Music]
Every year at the end of November families all across the united states celebrate the thanksgiving holiday
This occasion has evolved into a time of expressing gratitude and sharing a bountiful meal with family
Relatives have awkward conversations while a huge turkey is scarfed down around a table
[Music]
When i was in grade school my history books depicted the first thanksgiving meal as a peaceful gathering between white European settlers and native American people
But there is a lesser known truth behind this narrative.
This thanksgiving origin story that i was taught in school was a revisionist and whitewashed version of what actually happened
Following the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the shores of America in 1492 a steady stream of white European families traveled across the Atlantic ocean to settle in this new territory
At first they were ill-equipped to handle the harsh realities of its wilderness and climate, but indigenous tribes fed them and taught them how to grow corn and other crops to live on the land.
Then everything took a turn for the worse.
This is where the revisionist whitewashing in this story happens.
Because it was not a peaceful coexistence between Native American tribes and white colonial settlers.
Empowered by their religious beliefs and a racist disdain for the indigenous tribes, white European settlers murdered and stole from the indigenous communities who had been thriving on this land for thousands of years and multiple generations.
These colonial settlers destroyed indigenous cultures by eradicating them and even sold captive tribal members off to slavery.
This brutal and racist genocide continued throughout the expansion of the united states westward to the pacific ocean.
Five-term governor of Plymouth Colony William Bradford described Native Americans as "savage people who are cruel barbarous and most treacherous".
at every level the settlers were intent on vilifying and dis-empowering indigenous people.
Thanksgiving has been whitewashed as a symbol of kind gratitude expressed by the white European settlers toward native tribes.
This revisionist history only serves to silence the stories and voices of the millions of indigenous people who were slaughtered under a heartless and cruel colonialist agenda.
Since 1970 the united American Indians of New England have carried out a national day of mourning during the u.s thanksgiving holiday.
This is what they have to say about it:
Thanksgiving day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of native people the theft of native lands and the relentless assault on native culture.
Participants in National Day of Mourning honor native ancestors and the struggles of native peoples to survive today.
It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which native Americans continue to experience.
As you enjoy your turkey over thanksgiving you have the power to acknowledge the impossibly sad and deeper truth behind the occasion.
Talk about it and share this truth or perhaps do not even celebrate the holiday at all.
People often say that ignorance is bliss i would take this a step further and say that ignorance is a complete lack of compassion.
We need more compassion in the world, compassion toward the indigenous survivors who continue to face this oppression.
Within our hearts and minds we need compassion that honors the lives and dignity of the millions of murdered indigenous people of America.
[Music]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoxNyM9M1K4
***
Thanksgiving from Wampanoag Youth
Mashpee TV
Premiered Nov 26, 2020
Listen to hear us dive into Thanksgiving with some members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOCISNKFNEY
***
Thanksgiving Through Native Eyes
Mashpee TV
Jan 29, 2021
Award winning show at the 4th Annual Mass Creator Awards!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3zRW36O5bY
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The First Thanksgiving: What Really Happened
Uncivil History
Oct 7, 2018
An educational animation that tells the in-depth story surrounding the first "thanksgiving".
Hope you enjoy!
Bibliography at bottom of description
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This video is meant to give a non-bias account of the events which unfolded in the years leading up to the First Thanksgiving, and the several years following the feast (roughly 1614-1622).
I apologize for any pronunciation errors with Native American names;
I have a deep respect for the native peoples of America, but I am ignorant on speaking their languages.
I hope I have not offended anyone!
To keep the video below 7 minutes, many details were negated, so everything inside my video is what I consider essential to receiving a well-rounded view and understanding of this very interesting event.
For instance, we still don't know what the epidemic of the Great Dying of 1616-1619 was, despite numerous theories.
Squanto died in 1622, never admitting any involvement in a plot to overthrow Massasoit.
The events that happened after 1622 could fill several more videos!
There is no political agenda behind this video.
I am a student of history with and I have tried to give an account of the first Thanksgiving that is as close as we can possibly get to the truth.
Transcript:
The first Thanksgiving. American schools generally teach a conventional story about the meeting of Pilgrims and Indians that finished with an amazing dinner.
The end.
But there's more to the tale.
This video will explain the events around the first Thanksgiving and how it's not the image ingrained in
tradition.
At the start of the 17th century, southern New England was home to a variety of busy communities within several confederations.
These were the People of the First Light and they called their home the Dawn Land.
Political leaders were known as sachems and had been trading with Europeans for over 100 years before the pilgrims.
Relations soured only after deceitful Europeans kidnapped locals to sell as slaves.
Permanent European settlement was impossible due to the already high population of native occupants.
But in 1616 tradesmen introduced a disease to the Dawn Land, whose inhabitants died in
droves from a lack of immunity.
In three years up to 90% were wiped out in several Confederations, including the Wampanoag.
Their head sachem, Massasoit, was aware of how close they were to being subjugated by their untouched enemy, the Narraganset.
He was determined to save his people from such a fate. This was the political world the pilgrims were about to enter.
The pilgrims were not called pilgrims by their contemporaries. They were known as Separatists, a branch of the English Puritans.
King James hated Puritans and began persecuting them in 1604, so the Separatists fled to Holland where they were free to worship.
But because they feared losing their national and communal identity, the congregation wanted a new place to plant their church.
They decided on America and asked King James for a patent that would grant them rights to build a colony.
They planned to make a profit catching fish to pay off the debts to their investors. The Mayflower set sail on September 6.
Two months later, Cape Cod was spotted and sixteen men were sent ashore to inspect the area.
Unfortunately the settlers didn't know how to fish, and food was running out. They resorted to stealing from graves, homes and storage pits to keep everyone alive.
Then came their first hostile encounter with natives, but no one was killed. on December 12th they reach New Plymouth.
They did not land on any specific rock, but folklore insists they did. Construction began in
January.
By winter's end, 44 settlers would be dead from bad conditions.
In March they were surprised when a man named Samoset walked into New Plymouth, greeting them in English.
He told them they were building on top of village called Patuxet, whose residents had all died from the recent epidemic.
It belonged to the Wampanoag, and their chief, Massasoit, was watching them.
The settlers were eager to trade, so five days later Samoset returned with furs and companions including Tisquantum.
Known famously as Squanto, he had come to tell them in perfect English that Massasoit had arrived. After years of dealing with Englishmen, the sachem did not trust the newcomers.
Edward Winslow was sent to be a hostage and declared the settlers' peaceful intentions.
Satisfied, Massasoit walked into New Plymouth and was regally greeted by the governor. A peace treaty was created, ensuring mutual protection if attacked by enemies.
With the help of Squanto, New Plymouth's settlers began to fare better. He taught them how to grow crops and was absolutely vital as an interpreter. To the Separatists, he was a gift from God.
But in fact, Squanto had been kidnapped from Patuxet in 1614 and shipped to Spain to be sold into slavery.
He ended up in London at the home of a merchant who taught him English and arranged for Squanto's returne to the Dawn Land in 1619.
But Patuxet was now gone; wiped away by the epidemic.
Massasoit took him in with suspicion because of his years abroad, but needed a
translator to parley with the newcomers. He eventually sent his warrior Hobamok
to live among the settlers and keep an eye on Squanto.
By fall the settlers had a bountiful harvest and a feast was held to celebrate.
Massasoit showed up with 90 warriors and five deer for the meal.
For three days the English and Wampanoag ate and entertained one another.
This was the famous first Thanksgiving children learn about in school. However, the word "thanksgiving" would not have been used by these settlers to denote a harvest feast.
For Puritans, a day of thanksgiving was a day of fasting while giving thanks to God in prayer. But the story of Pilgrims and Indians does not end here.
During New Plymouth's first year, Squanto had been up to something.
Realizing his substantial power as the only English speaker of his people, he conceived a plan to overthrow Massasoit.
He persuaded locals he could command the English to make war or peace at his will.
Hobamok was suspicious of Squanto and warned governor Bradford.
Soon enough they discovered Squanto's plot and informed Massasoit, who was furious.
He demanded Squanto be handed over for a swift execution. Bradford refused;
the interpreter was too valuable to give up.
But according to the treaty, Squanto's life belonged in the hands of his sachem. Bradford finally conceded. He was about to hand over Squanto when an unidentified ship appeared.
The alarm it caused delayed Bradford and worried Massasoit's envoys.
Angered and impatient, they left. The ship carried 60 Englishmen planning to build a colony
near Boston.
They abused the Massachusett locals, initiating a conspiracy to kill the colonists.
Warned about the plot, New Plymouth's leaders launched a preemptive strike to save their impudent countrymen. It bought peace, for a time.
In that time more Puritan settlers arrived, soon outnumbering the natives.
And while the pilgrims' treaty with Massasoit lasted until the sachem's death, other Puritans were not concerned with such alliances.
Their fanatic religious principles ensured no peace between the two cultures could last. To Puritans, Native Americans were the "other": wild, savage, godless.
With such an ideology, the outcome was inevitable.
If they did not convert to Christianity and surrender their cultural identity, they had to be
eliminated.
The first Thanksgiving was a brief moment of harmony between two worlds, but sadly it was short-lived.
The capitalist opportunities the Dawn Land presented, combined with zealous puritanical beliefs, were incentive enough to wipe away the native inhabitants.
There is nothing wrong with sharing a feast of thanks with loved ones, but remember the true events that started the holiday, and not the fairy tale.
Sources:
Abbott, John S. C. King Philip: Makers of History. ebook, 2009.
Adams, Charles Francis. Three Episodes of Massachusetts History (Vol. 1). Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1892.
Berkhofer, Jr., Robert F. The White Man’s Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.
Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Plantation, ed. Charles Deane. Boston: Privately printed, 1856.
Bragdon, Kathleen J. Native Peoples of Southern New England, 1500-1650. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
Cave, Alfred A. The Pequot War. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1996.
Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.
D’Argenio, Joseph Ronald. “Building a Pilgrim Utopia; Identity, Security and the Contradiction of Cross-cultural Affairs at New Plymouth, 1620-1640.” Master of Arts, Lehigh University, 2004.
Demos, John. A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Drinnon, Richard. Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating and Empire-Building. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997.
Jennings, Francis. The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest. New Work: W.W Norton, 1976.
Johnson, Michael G and Richard Hook(Illustrations). American Woodland Indians. London: Osprey Publishing, 1990.
Konstam, Angus and Angus McBride (Illustrations). Elizabethan Sea Dogs 1560-1605. Great Britain: Osprey Publishing, 2000.
Kruer, Matthew. “Red Albion: Henocide and English Colonialism.” Master of Arts, University of Oregon, 2009.
Mann, Charles. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
Mason, John. A Brief History of the Pequot War: Especially of the Memorable Taking of their Fort at Mistick in Connecticut in 1637. Boston: S.Kneeland and T. Green, 1736.
Roberts, Keith and Stephen Walsh (Illustrations). Matchlock Musketeer 1588-1688. Great Britain: Osprey Publishing, 2002.
Roberts, Keith and Angus McBride (Illustrations). Soldiers of the English Civil War 1 Infantry. London: Osprey Publishing, 1989.
Standard, David E. American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Tincey, John and Angus McBride (Illustrations). Soldiers of the English Civil War 2 Cavalry. London: Osprey Publishing, 1990.
White, John. “Index of White Watercolors and De Bry Engravings.” http://www.virtualjamestown.org/image...
Williams, Roger. A Key into the Language of America. London: Gregory Dexter, 1643.
Winslow, Edward. “Good Newes from New England: or a true Relation of things very remarkable at the Plantation of Plimoth in New-England.” In Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth, from 1602 to 1625. Edited by Alexander Young. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1841.
Winthrop, John, ed. John Beardsley. “A Model of Christian Charity.” The Winthrop Society Quarterly, 1997.
Wood, William. New England’s Prospect. Boston: John Wilson and Son, 1865.
Young, Alexander, ed. “The Company’s First General Letter of Instructions to Endicott and His Council.” In Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, from 1623 to 1636. Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1846.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ociHVDWxDaY
***
The Invention of Thanksgiving
SmithsonianNMAI
Jan 18, 2018
Voice: Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche)
From the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian exhibition "Americans."
nmai.si.edu/americans | #NDNsEverywhere
© 2018 National Museum of the American Indian
American Indian images, names, and stories infuse American history and contemporary life.
The images are everywhere, from the Land O’Lakes butter maiden to the Cleveland Indians’ mascot, and from classic Westerns and cartoons to episodes of Seinfeld and South Park.
American Indian names are everywhere too, from state, city, and street names to the Tomahawk missile.
And the familiar historical events of Pocahontas’s life, the Trail of Tears, and the Battle of Little Bighorn remain popular reference points in everyday conversations.
"Americans" highlights the ways in which American Indians have been part of the nation’s identity since before the country began.
It will surround visitors with images, delve into the three stories, and invite people to begin a conversation about why this phenomenon exists.
Pervasive, powerful, at times demeaning, the images, names, and stories reveal the deep connection between Americans and American Indians as well as how Indians have been embedded in unexpected ways in the history, pop culture, and identity of the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPEuQNp0nII
***
Smoke Signals - Why the Story of Thanksgiving is a Lie
FNX TV
Nov 29, 2017
The history and truth behind the first "Thanksgiving" and why the myth of Pilgrims and Indians shouldn't be taught to Kindergartners.
Sources:
"The Real Story of Thanksgiving" - History Channel
- The First Thanksgiving, 1621 - http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/thanksgiving.htm
- THANKSGIVING: A Day of Mourning - http://americanindiansource.com/mourningday.html
Transcript:
Every year in November a story is taught to America's schoolchildren.
It goes like this:
After a harsh winter the pilgrim alone with the help of a native named Squanto high reaped a successful harvest celebrated by inviting the local Indians for a friendly feast and started a yearly tradition
Almost every part of the stories historically inaccurate and it's time to clear up the myths and lies surrounding the story of Thanksgiving.
The pilgrims were an English sect of the Puritans, the separatist Protestant congregation
These Puritans didn't call themselves pilgrims, didn't come seeking religious freedom and dint wear buckle hats.
By the time of the pilgrims arrival in 1620 2/3 of Massachusetts indigenous tribes had already been killed by new diseases brought by British explorers or kidnapped into the European slave trade.
Plymouth Rock lay in the centre of the territory of the recently extinct pantauxent tribe which had been wiped out by a plague.
Upon landfall, one of the first things the pilgrims did was to rob the graves of the Wampanoag tribe and steal as much of the tribes winter provisions as they could get their hands on.
This caused tension between the Wampanoag, who ruled over Massachusetts and the Puritans, which continued to increase until 1621, when Massa Witt the leader of the Wampanoag found it politically advantageous to form an uneasy truce heavily slanted in the Europeans favor.
For the Wampanoag, the Alliance was a necessity which allowed them to focus on fighting off other tribes invading their territory.
Squanto were his real name - Squanto was a member of the pautaxent tribe whose territory the pilgrims had colonized.
Captured by British slavers six years before the arrival of the pilgrims, he was sold into slavery in Spain, escaped to England, then returned to North America where he worked with British merchants seeking to exploits New found land.
He eventually returned to New England to find his entire tribe dead and the Pilgrims living in what had been his tribes summer village.
Squanto would become the key for survival of the Puritans, as he showed them how to plant and fertilize corn and other native vegetables, where to fish, and how to communicate with natives.
The feast of 1621, which we think of as the first Thanksgiving, was not an annual dinner, but rather a celebration of a successful harvest after a harsh winter.
A letter written by one of the fifty Puritans at the dinner, Edward Winslow, recounts that they survived this winter because of the Wampanoags, but didn't see them as equals and didn't invite the natives to the feast.
During the celebration the Puritans fired off muskets and cannons for sport which put the Wampanoag on full alert.
90 armed natives marched to Plymouth to see what was happening in the state to make sure the British weren't planning anything violent.
The eventual feast was not one of thanks and respect, but one of distrust and aggressive action another.
Thanksgiving would only come 16 years later when the Puritans were celebrating their recent massacre of the Pequot tribe.
Even this wasn't what we think of as Thanksgiving today but instead a day-long Puritan fast and remembrance of God.
The holiday and concept we know as thanksgiving started in George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving
proclamation where the Puritans start being mentioned.
The holiday wasn't celebrated nationwide until 1863 when Lincoln declared it a national holiday
to try to keep the country united.
Even the myth about the Indians and the pilgrims didn't even come about until the 1900s, yet still this story is taught as fact in schools across the country.
So this holiday season forget about this made-up story of kindly Indians, grateful friendly pilgrims, and instead, honor the natives of then and now with Native American Heritage Day!
https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/events/what-really-happened-at-the-first-thanksgiving-the-wampanoag-side-of-the-tale/#
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When is Thanksgiving? Colonizing America: Crash Course US History #2
CrashCourse
Feb 7, 2013
In which John Green teaches you about the (English) colonies in what is now the United States.
He covers the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the various theocracies in Massachusetts, the feudal kingdom in Maryland, and even a bit about the spooky lost colony at Roanoke Island.
What were the English doing in America, anyway? Lots of stuff. In Virginia, the colonists were largely there to make money. In Maryland, the idea was to create a colony for Catholics who wanted to be serfs of the Lords Baltimore.
In Massachusetts, the Pilgrims and Puritans came to America to find a place where they could freely persecute those who didn't share their beliefs. But there was a healthy profit motive in Massachusetts as well. Profits were thin at first, and so were the colonists. Trouble growing food and trouble with the Natives kept the early colonies from success.
Before long though, the colonists started cultivating tobacco, which was a win for everyone involved if you ignore the lung cancer angle.
So kick back, light up a smoke, and learn how America became profitable. DON'T SMOKE, THOUGH! THAT WAS A JOKE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o69TvQqyGdg
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"Thanksgiving was an act of GENOCIDE" - Cannon's Class
Nick Cannon
Nov 21, 2018
A special Holiday edition of #CannonsClass.
Myself and Dr. Carr break down the origin of Thanksgiving.
Truth is fulfilling not Turkey!!
LOL Should we really be celebrating Thanksgiving?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFtu2v6Pnt0
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The Real Story of Thanksgiving
Cody Bonds
Nov 21, 2018
Discover the true story behind an event that started an enduring national holiday.
But don't expect the Pilgrims and Native Americans to look like what you see in post cards.
This the real story of the first Thanksgiving.
This video features the music Autumn: Meditativo and Winter is Coming: Adagio - First Snow by Dee Yan-Key.
As well as artwork from The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower by P.J. Lynch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6krH93pU5Y
***
The real story of Thanksgiving
The 700 Club
Nov 22, 2018
Here we go again, time for thanksgiving, but whats the true story behind thanksgiving?
What role did the native Americans play in the story and what was it like living during that time?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiYaivj7cek
***
Thanksgiving (United States)
Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the United States, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.[2]
It
is sometimes called American Thanksgiving (outside the United States)
to distinguish it from the Canadian holiday of the same name and related
celebrations in other regions.
It originated as a day of
thanksgiving and harvest festival, with the theme of the holiday
revolving around giving thanks and the centerpiece of Thanksgiving
celebrations remaining a Thanksgiving dinner.[3]
The dinner
traditionally consists of foods and dishes indigenous to the Americas,
namely turkey, potatoes (usually mashed or sweet), stuffing, squash,
corn (maize), green beans, cranberries (typically in sauce form), and
pumpkin pie.
Other Thanksgiving customs include charitable
organizations offering Thanksgiving dinner for the poor, attending
religious services, and watching television events such as Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade and NFL on Thanksgiving Day.[1]
Thanksgiving
is regarded as the beginning of the Christmas and holiday season, with
the day following it, Black Friday, being the busiest shopping day of
the year in the United States.
New England and Virginia colonists
originally celebrated days of fasting, as well as days of thanksgiving,
thanking God for blessings such as harvests, ship landings, military
victories, or the end of a drought.[4]
These were observed through church services, accompanied with feasts and other communal gatherings.[3]
The
event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was
celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in
October 1621.[5]
This feast lasted three days and was attended
by 90 Wampanoag Native American people[6] and 53 Pilgrims (survivors of
the Mayflower).[7]
Less widely known is an earlier Thanksgiving
celebration in Virginia in 1619 by English settlers who had just landed
at Berkeley Hundred aboard the ship Margaret.[8]
Thanksgiving has
been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, with a proclamation
by President George Washington after a request by Congress.[9]
President
Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe the holiday, and its celebration
was intermittent until President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, proclaimed a
national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who
dwelleth in the Heavens", calling on the American people to also,
"with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience
.. fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the
wounds of the nation...".
Lincoln declared it for the last Thursday in November.[10][11]
On
June 28, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Holidays
Act that made Thanksgiving a yearly appointed federal holiday in
Washington D.C.[12][13][14]
On January 6, 1885, an act by
Congress made Thanksgiving, and other federal holidays, a paid holiday
for all federal workers throughout the United States.[15]
Under
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the date was moved to one week earlier,
observed between 1939 and 1941 amid significant controversy.
From
1942 onwards, Thanksgiving, by an act of Congress received a permanent
observation date, the fourth Thursday in November, no longer at the
discretion of the President.[16][17]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)
***
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States,
Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia and Costa Rica.
It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessings of the harvest and of the preceding year.
(Similarly named harvest festival holidays occur throughout the world during autumn, including in Germany and Japan).
Thanksgiving
is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the
fourth Thursday of November in the United States and around the same
part of the year in other places.
Although Thanksgiving has
historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been
celebrated as a secular holiday as well.
United States
Family saying grace before Thanksgiving dinner in Neffsville, Pennsylvania, 1942
Main article: Thanksgiving (United States)
Thanksgiving,
celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November since 1941 due to federal
legislation, has been an annual tradition in the United States by
presidential proclamation since 1863 and by state legislation since the
Founding Fathers of the United States.
Traditionally, Thanksgiving has been a celebration of the blessings of the year, including the harvest.[57]
On
Thanksgiving Day, it is common for Americans to share a family meal,
attend church services, and view special sporting events.[58]
In
addition, Thanksgiving is celebrated in public places with parades such
as Macy's Thanksgiving Parade[59] in New York City, ABC Dunkin' Donuts
Thanksgiving Day Parade[60] in Philadelphia, America's Hometown
Thanksgiving Parade in Plymouth, Massachusetts, McDonald's Thanksgiving
Parade in Chicago, and Bayou Classic Thanksgiving Parade[61] in New
Orleans.
What Americans call the "Holiday Season" generally begins with Thanksgiving.[62]
The first day after Thanksgiving Day—Black Friday—marks the start of the Christmas shopping season.[63]
Thanksgiving is usually celebrated with a family meal.
Beginning
in the 2010s, a new tradition has emerged to also celebrate
Thanksgiving with a meal with friends, as a separate event on a
different day or an alternate event on Thanksgiving day.
This is referred to as Friendsgiving.[64]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
***
The Founding of the United States
The First Thanksgiving
"In
the Fall of 1621, the Pilgrims famously shared a harvest feast with the
Pokanokets; the meal is now considered the basis for the Thanksgiving
holiday.
It took place over three days between late September
and mid-November and included feasting as well as games and military
exercises.
Most of the attendees at the first Thanksgiving were
men; 78 percent of the women who traveled on the Mayflower perished over
the preceding winter.
Of the 50 colonists who celebrated the
harvest (and their survival), 22 were men, four were married women and
25 were children and teenagers.
The Pilgrims were outnumbered
more than two to one by Native Americans, according to Edward Winslow, a
participant who attended with his wife and recorded what he saw in a
letter, writing:
“many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men.”
Winslow
records eating venison from five deer killed by the Native Americans
along with chestnuts, cranberries, garlic and artichokes—all native wild
plants the English were learning to use.
Turkey was potentially served as well.
By
the late 1600s, Thanksgiving had become an annual fall tradition. It
wasn’t until 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln named the last Thursday
in November a national holiday."
History.com Editors
______________________________________________
The first Thanksgiving
Barney Burstein/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images
https://www.facebook.com/Wranglewood/
***
The hidden story of the third Thanksgiving: 1623 -- giving thanks for freedom
By Selected News Articles @ 5:31 PM
National News
by Jim O’Keefe
Thursday, November 24, 2022
Thanksgiving is a very special time for many of us. Some of our fondest memories are of shared feasts with dear friends and family members, some no longer with us. The aromas, sights and tastes of the feasts shared serve to cement those memories for us, memories to last a lifetime.
Growing up in New England, I heard the story of the first Thanksgiving repeated endlessly, reenacted with excitement and stage jitters by many a grade school child (including the author), with proud parents in attendance. The funny looking clothing, black britches and the hat with the big belt buckle. The story about how the Native Americans, the Pakonoket Wampanoag, led by their sachem Massasoit to be more exact, saved the starving Pilgrims from another brutal winter by showing the settlers how to grow corn in the flinty New England soil. We can all picture the scenes in our minds’ eye. But the story we’ve known all our lives is incomplete....
The first Thanksgiving took place in 1621, as the history books tell us. But it was not so much a celebration of the bounty of nature as it was the last meal of a condemned man. The first winter had been brutal, with forty four of the original one hundred and one pilgrims dying of scurvy and exposure. While the Pilgrims managed to grow some corn that next summer, it wasn’t nearly enough. The following winter took more settlers’ lives. While the Pilgrims – as hardy, adventurous and motivated a group of settlers as ever lived - knew how to farm, how to husband animals, how to hunt and fish, something kept them from being as productive as they needed to be to feed and clothe themselves throughout the New England winters. When the Pilgrims came to this new land, they had decided that they would pool their resources and share their production. Those more capable would do their part, and those more needy would get their share. Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford called this system "communism", two hundred ninety six years before the Russian revolution. (The Russians met with the same results, but took seventy years and 30 million dead to figure it out.)
But after two successive harsh, hungry winters had nearly destroyed the Plymouth Colony, the elders of the community, led by Governor Bradford, decreed a change in how food was produced and distributed.
In 1623, they allotted a parcel of land to each settler, and allowed them to keep the produce of those parcels for themselves, instead of putting them into the common stores and distributing them equally, which had been the practice up until then.
Governor Bradford wrote in his journal that ending communism:
"...had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.”
“The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labour and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labours and victuals, clothes, etc., with the meaner and younger sort, thought it some indignity and disrespect unto them. And for men’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it."
They had tried collectivism and, finding it destructive to human nature, had changed course.
The following November, 1623, saw a Thanksgiving Feast that was truly a celebration of abundance, a bounty created by the enterprise of free men and women, toiling on their own behalf and, in the process, creating a richer society.
Today we call this system free enterprise, or the free market. Of all the things that have come down to us from the Pilgrims to today’s America, that is their most precious gift to us.
We hope that your Thanksgiving Day celebration will provide you the warmth, sustenance, and joy bequeathed us by the Pilgrim settlers, and their inspiration to lay the foundation of a rich, just and generous America.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Jim O’Keefe
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/Articles-Main/ID/1358/The-hidden-story-of-the-third-Thanksgiving-1623-giving-thanks-for-freedom
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