[Propertalk] Happy Thanksgiving!

[Peter Michaelson]

Many happy returns of the day, friends!

I am thankful for you and for our relationships, the great ones and all of
them.  Recently I have become more aware that those are the important
elements of life.

The following came to me via an old colleague, Sheryl Kujawa, now an
officer and professor at Claremont Graduate School of Theology.  The piece
is from the Indian Country Media Network, <
https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/the-wampanoag-side-of-the-first-thanksgiving-story/>.
It lifts up the nobility of the Wampanoag community of that place and time,
notwithstanding everything that came after (nor before).  It fills in many
details of the first Thanksgiving.  BTW It rings true and may serve as an
inspiration for us now about the way we may act in the midst of everything
around us.

FWIW the Wampoags are our neighbors here in RI nowadays.  Along with
Narragansetts, with whom they weren't friendly in the old days.

The Wampanoag Side of the First Thanksgiving Story
>From the Native perspective: The true story of Thanksgiving
Michelle Tirado • November 23, 2011

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.

Plimoth Plantation is one of Plymouth’s top attractions and probably the
place to go for the first Thanksgiving story. It is a living museum, with
its replica 17th century Wampanoag Homesite, a representation of the
homesite used by Hobbamock, who served as emissary between the Wampanoag
and Pilgrims, and staffed by 23 Native Americans, mostly Wampanoag; 17th
century English Village; and the Mayflower II, a replica of the ship that
brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth.

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.

Turner said what most people do not know about the first Thanksgiving is
that the Wampanoag and Pilgrims did not sit down for a big turkey dinner
and it was not an event that the Wampanoag knew about or were invited to in
advance. In September/October 1621, the Pilgrims had just harvested their
first crops, and they had a good yield. They “sent four men on fowling,”
which comes from the one paragraph account by Pilgrim Edward Winslow, one
of only two historical sources of this famous harvest feast. Winslow also
stated, “we exercised our arms.” “Most historians believe what happened was
Massasoit got word that there was a tremendous amount of gun fire coming
from the Pilgrim village,” Turner said. “So he thought they were being
attacked and he was going to bear aid.”

When the Wampanoag showed up, they were invited to join the Pilgrims in
their feast, but there was not enough food to feed the chief and his 90
warriors. “He [Massasoit] sends his men out, and they bring back five deer,
which they present to the chief of the English town [William Bradford]. So,
there is this whole ceremonial gift-giving, as well. When you give it as a
gift, it is more than just food,” said Kathleen Wall, a Colonial Foodways
Culinarian at Plimoth Plantation.

The harvest feast lasted for three days. What did they eat? Venison, of
course, and Wall said, “Not just a lovely roasted joint of venison, but all
the parts of the deer were on the table in who knows how many sorts of
ways.” Was there turkey? “Fowl” is mentioned in Winslow’s account, which
puts turkey on Wall’s list of possibilities. She also said there probably
would have been a variety of seafood and water fowl along with maize bread,
pumpkin and other squashes. “It was nothing at all like a modern
Thanksgiving,” she said.

While today Thanksgiving is one of our nation’s favorite holidays, it has a
far different meaning for many Wampanoag, who now number between 4,000 and
5,000. Turner said, “For the most part, Thanksgiving itself is a day of
mourning for Native people, not just Wampanoag people.”

At noon on every Thanksgiving Day, hundreds of Native people from around
the country gather at Cole’s Hill, which overlooks Plymouth Rock, for the
National Day of Mourning. It is an annual tradition started in 1970, when
Wampanoag Wamsutta (Frank) James was invited by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts to give a speech at an event celebrating the 350th
anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival and then disinvited after the event
organizers discovered his speech was one of outrage over the “atrocities”
and “broken promises” his people endured.

On the Wampanoag welcoming and having friendly relations with the Pilgrims,
James wrote in his undelivered speech: “This action by Massasoit was
perhaps our biggest mistake. We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white
man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end.”



- Rev. Dr. Peter Michaelson : )
  Warwick, RI
  401-780-9618
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