The Truth about Thanksgiving

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The Truth About Thanksgiving

As history teaches us, the greatest
conflicts and the bloodiest wars throughout
time have been waged because of belief systems
and boundaries. We can trace this from the
Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition through
Hitler to the "ethnic cleansing" now going on
around the world. This mentality does not tolerate
differing political, social and religious beliefs,
and it does not hesitate to sieze another's land
and property if it suits a purpose.

It was the custom in European countries to
mark the boundaries of land with fences ranging
from palisades to low rock walls.
Once word spread throughout Europe and Spain
about this wonderful land called The Americas,
which was wild, untamed and unclaimed,
this new territory became a safe haven
for outlaws, prisoners, exiles, and the
radical element of politics, social structure
and religious practices - the violent
and the non-conformists.

Even though the first explorers and early
settlers had been warned about the heathen
savages found in the "New World", they found
the First Peoples of this land curious about
these strange people, and more than willing to
teach them how to survive and live well in
their new surroundings. The flow of people
into this country was slow in the beginning and,
even though there was the occasional hothead
among the newcomers, life was generally a
peaceful co-existence for almost 150 years.

However, as the trickle of settlers turned
into a steady river,
the atmosphere began to change.
In 1614, a band of English explorers
had landed in the vicinity of Massachusetts Bay.
When they returned home, they took
with them Native slaves they had captured,
and left smallpox behind. By the time
the Puritan pilgrims sailed the Mayflower
into southern Massachusetts Bay, entire
nations of New England Natives were already
extinct, having been totally exterminated by
smallpox. The Puritans were religious radicals
being driven into exile out of England.
Since their story is well known,
I will not repeat it here. They settled
and built a colony which they called the
"Plymouth Plantation", near the ruins of
a former Native village of the Pawtuxet Nation.
Only one Pawtuxet had survived,
a man named Squanto, who had spent time as
a slave to the English. Since he understood
the language and customs of the Puritans,
he taught them to use the corn growing wild
from the abandoned fields of the village,
taught them to fish, and about the foods,
herbs and fruits of this land. Squanto also
negotiated a peace treaty between the
Puritans and the Wampanoag Nation, a very
large Native nation which totally surrounded
the new Plymouth Plantation.
Because of Squanto's efforts,
the Puritans enjoyed almost 15 years
of peaceful harmony with the surrounding Natives,
and they prospered.

At the end of their first year,
the Puritans held a great feast following
the harvest of their new farming efforts.
The feast honored Squanto and their friends,
the Wampanoags. The feast was followed by 3
days of "thanksgiving" celebrating their
good fortune. This feast produced the image
of the first Thanksgiving that we all grew
up with as children. However, things were
doomed to change.

Until approximately 1629, there were only
about 300 Puritans living in widely scattered
settlements around New England.
As word leaked back to England about
their peaceful and prosperous life,
more Puritans arrived by the boatloads.
As the numbers of Puritans grew,
the question of ownership of the land
became a major issue. The Puritans came
from the belief of individual needs and
prosperity, and had no concept of tribal
living, or group sharing. It was clear
that these heathen savages had no claim
on the land because it had never been subdued,
cultivated and farmed in the European manner,
and there were no fences or other boundaries marked.
The land was clearly "public domain",
and there for the taking.
This attitude met with great resistance
from the original Puritans who held their
Native benefactors in high regard.
These first Puritan settlers were summarily
excommunicated and expelled from the church.
With Bible passages in their hands to justify
their every move, the Puritans began their march
inland from the seaside communities.
Joined by British settlers, they seized land,
took the strong and young Natives as
slaves to work the land, and killed the rest.
When they reached the Connecticut Valley
around 1633, they met a different type of force.
The Pequot Nation, very large and very powerful,
had never entered into the peace treaty
negotiated by Squanto as had other
New England Native nations. When 2 slave
raiders were killed by resisting Natives,
the Puritans demanded that the killers
be turned over. The Pequot refused.
What followed was the Pequot War,
the bloodiest of the Native wars in the northeast.
An army of over 200 settlers was formed,
joined by over 1,000 Narragansett warriors.
Because of the lack of fighting experience,
and the vast numbers of the fierce Pequot warriors,
Commander John Mason elected not to stage
an open battle. Instead, the Pequot were attacked,
one village at a time, in the hours before dawn.
Each village was set on fire with its sleeping
Natives burned alive. Women and children over
14 were captured to be sold as slaves;
other survivors were massacred.
The Natives were sold into slavery in
The West Indies, the Azures, Spain, Algiers
and England; everywhere the Puritan merchants traded.
The slave trade was so lucrative that boatloads
of 500 at a time left the harbors of New England.

In 1641, the Dutch governor of Manhattan
offered the first scalp bounty; a common
practice in many European countries.
This was broadened by the Puritans to
include a bounty for Natives fit to be sold
for slavery. The Dutch and Puritans joined forces
to exterminate all Natives from New England,
and village after village fell. Following an
especially successful raid against the Pequot
in what is now Stamford, Connecticut,
the churches of Manhattan announced a day of
thanksgiving" to celebrate victory over
the heathen savages.
This was the 2nd Thanksgiving.
During the feasting, the hacked off
heads of Natives were kicked through the
streets of Manhattan like soccer balls.

The killing took on a frenzy,
with days of thanksgiving being held
after each successful massacre.
Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape.
Their chief was beheaded, and his head
placed on a pole in Plymouth,
Massachusetts -- where it remained for 24 years.
Each town held thanksgiving days to celebrate
their own victories over the Natives
until it became clear that there needed to
be an order to these special occasions.
It was George Washington who finally brought
a system and a schedule to thanksgiving when he
declared one day to be celebrated across
the nation as Thanksgiving Day.

It was Abraham Lincoln who decreed
Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national
holiday during the Civil War --
on the same day and at the same time
he was ordering troops to march against
the Sioux in Minnesota .....
(and subsequently ordered 38 Santee Sioux
hung on Christmas Eve for leaving the
reservation in search of food...
the promised supplies having never materialized)
In our society, it is not uncommon for our
modern celebrations to have arisen from black
and evil beginnings. Over the centuries,
Thanksgiving has become a special day to join
with loved ones in an offering of thanks for our
blessings. Some give of their time to help
with the homeless and the hungry. It is now
a day of giving, and of honor, and of true
Thanksgiving. I do not mean to diminish that.
In your Thanksgivings to come, I would ask
that you offer a silent prayer for the
spirits of those who were sacrificed so long ago.
You and I did not commit these atrocities,
and we are certainly not responsible for the
behavior of our ancestors; be they red, white,
black or yellow. However, we are charged with the
responsibility of learning our true history,
and of having the courage to behave with honor
and dignity toward our fellow man. Remember that,
if the lessons of history are not learned,
they will surely repeat themselves.
The todays and tomorrows of history are
ours to shape. Shape them carefully and with
respect to your fellow man.