Below is yet another meme which is so horribly incorrect. Did the
Pilgrims share their Thanksgiving meal with the local Indians, the Wampanoag
and Pequot? No. That never happened, at least as pictured here. That is, until
its inclusion in the "Thanksgiving Story" in 1890. The concept (openness
and welcome to those in need) has merit,
but memes like this are what the Far Right does, and we of the center and left
need to do better. There is so much wrong with this image that one scarcely knows where to start. First, it didn't happen. Look at the Anglo woman conversing with the indian woman. No indian woman would have been present, only an armed war party of men. Notice the unarmed Pilgrim men, one holding a serving bowl- not! This is a romanticized and historically inaccurate depiction of a fictitious event.
The REAL first
Thanksgiving Day did occur in the year 1637, but it was nothing like our
Thanksgiving today. In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men,
women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn
Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the
sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered
them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while
the terrified women and children who remained huddled inside the longhouse were burned
alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared
"A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children
had been murdered. Cheered by their
"victory", the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village
after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest
were murdered. Boats loaded with as many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports
of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many
deaths as possible.
Following an
especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford,
Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of "thanksgiving" to
celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off
heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the
friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness, as Metacom (King Philip) of the Wampanoag resisted (King
Philip's War), ultimately being captured. Metacom,
son of Massasoit, whose non-aggression had been critical to the Pilgrims
survival during their first 4 or 5 years at Plimoth Plantation, was drawn, quartered, beheaded, and his head
impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts -- where it remained on display
for 24 years.
Of course this
is the true story, but the Far Rightists in Kansas and Texas would scrub the
textbooks clean of the truth in order to further propagandize their children
that we (the USA) have always done everything right and with moral correctness! Of course this implies that we could never learn from our mistakes, because we never made any. The truth, as relates to our dealings with
native populations in North America is vastly different! Outside the US , this
story is almost unknown. This story
doesn't convey the same fuzzy feelings as the one where the Indians and
Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast. But we need to learn our true history so it
won't ever be repeated.
Thanksgiving as we celebrate it today is a
wonderful idea, with a generally unconditionally welcoming and inclusive national spirit which reflects well on the
nation as a whole, Next Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved
ones to be thankful for all your
blessings, think about those people, then and now, who only want(ed) to live their lives and raise their families
in peace. They, also took time out to
say "thank you" to Creator for all their blessings. We should not
treat them as the Pilgrims ultimately
treated the Pequots.
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