I had neglected for many years to write my opinion about the revision of our history that market the “origin” of the myth of Thanksgiving. I had hesitated many times to write my thoughts because of the feedback I often got from my friends and family. Things like “c’mon its supposed to be a time to spend with family and friends over a feast”… or “that was along time ago and times are different.” To me, the story of Thanksgiving illustrates how we often engage in “ritualistic” activities and question not their origin or meaning.
Why do we dress up as someone that we are not (often evil) and go door to door and ask for free candy?
Why do we search in the grass for eggs placed by a BUNNY?
Why do we spend time drinking eggnog waiting for a magical band of reindeer accompanied by a man in a red suit with a list of over 6 billion people that tells of their worthiness of “Christmas Cheer”?
I have a feeling that these rituals have a deeper meaning and in come cases a meaning on the astrological level.
But why is it that we celebrate the union of the Pilgrims and the “Indians” by binge-eating and being merry?
BEFORE WE BEGIN LET ME SAY THIS: “Family is very very important to me… Especially in times such as these when we are being brought together under times of difficulty and uncertainty. Every minute of every day, someone looses a family member to disease, or senseless violence. Therefore on days such as this, it is important to give thanks for FAMILY, another day on this blue and green rotating sphere, and the ability to live as people of peace.
NOW… LET US GET INTO THE NITTY GRITTY:
Excerpt via an article posted by Susan Bates:
“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 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.”
…Hmmm now this is quite different from the story of harmony we are taught in school where the Native Americans were invited by the Pilgrims to have a feast of corn, pie, and turkey. Since we are not theorists, lets see where the truth lies (no pun intended)
“In 1970, United American Indians of New England declared US Thanksgiving Day a National Day of Mourning. This came about as a result of the suppression of the truth. Wamsutta, an Aquinnah Wampanoag man, had been asked to speak at a fancy Commonwealth of Massachusetts banquet celebrating the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims. He agreed. The organizers of the dinner, using as a pretext the need to prepare a press release, asked for a copy of the speech he planned to deliver. He agreed. Within days Wamsutta was told by a representative of the Department of Commerce and Development that he would not be allowed to give the speech. The reason given was due to the fact that, “…the theme of the anniversary celebration is brotherhood and anything inflammatory would have been out of place.”
But why was he uninvited? I guess the answer is found in the declaration of the day itself…
The first official “Day of Thanksgiving” was proclaimed in 1637 by Governor Winthrop. He did so to celebrate the safe return of men from Massachusetts who had gone to Mystic, Connecticut to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children, and men. You see, it was colonization that drove the so-called pilgrims to seek inhabitants of Native American lands.
In the winter of 1620, the legendary ship Mayflower landed on the North American coast, containing 102 Puritan exiles. The original inhabitants of this land had already perished by way of smallpox and genocide.
John Winthrop, a founder of the Massachusetts Bay colony, considered this wave of illness and death to be a divine miracle. He wrote to a friend in England, “But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by smallpox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not 50, have put themselves under our protection.”
Lacking resources and the means by which to survive, the Pilgrims sought refuge in the expertise that the Native Americans had with survival in harsh conditions. Using Christian doctrine to justify the theft and massacre of the Native peoples, they actively sought to manifest destiny their way into hemispheric domination. Thanksgiving was used as an instrument to reinforce the “right” to take by force lands that were not theirs and how “grateful” they were for being able to slay their neighbors.
Further reinforcing the act of state sponsored terror was a law passed in 1695 in Massachusetts that gave colonists permission to; “kill Indians at will, declaring it was ‘lawful for any person, whether English or Indian, that shall find any Indians traveling or skulking in any of the towns or roads (within specified limits), to command them under their guard and examination, or to kill them as they may or can.’” Including these parts of history would have been quite difficult to explain in preschool, therefore it was completely omitted.
SO… we decided to include a brief reenactment for history sake…
So brothers and sisters, let us do four of four things:
- Let us give thanks for the freedom and prosperity that comes from the bloodshed and sacrifice of our ancestors and those whose land was taken in the name of liberty.
- Let us not forget the history that shaped this nation (no matter how dark it is) so that we may remember that which gives us our collective identity.
- Lets encourage the youth to be inquisitive and support their pursuit of the truth which often gets extinguished in their early years by lies and illusion (such as the Thanksgiving story).
- Let us love each other unconditionally
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