Thanksgiving Day means different things to different people. For the Wampanoag tribe that descends from the original Native Americans, Thanksgiving Day is both a day of remembrance and a day of mourning:
Plaques were erected by the Town of Plymouth on behalf of the United American Indians of New England. I would like to share what it says because I think too many history books have left out the truth:
“Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture. Participants in the National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience.”
School children are taught that the first Thanksgiving was a 3 day celebration in which the Pilgrims celebrated the 2nd harvest of 1621 with the Native Americans who helped them survive the winter of 1620. The Pilgrims landed in December of 1620 and had no time to prepare for winter in New England. Colder, snowier months were still to come, but as anyone alive today knows, December in Massachusetts can be brutal with just the minimum of protection from the elements and scarce food supplies.
During that winter 46 of 102 pilgrims were lost. Some claim that the Native Americans showed the Pilgrims how to hunt and fish and plant corn; however, evidence shows that most already know how to hunt and fish, they mostly didn’t know where and feared wandering too far from their encampment. Native Americans did share their hunts and fish catches with the Pilgrims and taught them about corn or maize – a product that would help them survive many winters yet to come and for that all of America should feel indebted to our Native American brothers and sisters. Imagine the potential change in history had this first, most vulnerable settlement from Europe failed.
As to the 2nd winter survival, it was more successful than the last, but by the time winter was nearly over people were again dying of starvation. In school, we are taught (or at least we were when I was just a boy) that the native Americans provided the settlers with enough skill in hunting, fishing and corn growing that they actually finished that second winter successfully, and that success was celebrated by inviting 91 native Americans to a 3 day English style harvest festival. Of course, it helped survival immensely simply by being able to plant corn when the winter of 1620-1621 ended and spring had arrived. I have never tried, but I suspect planting corn in December in New England would not exactly be productive venture.
The journal of Governor Bradford, however, tells a different tale. It tells a tale of trials of 1621 and 1622 during which famine continued and settlers, even with the help of the Wampanoags, and settlers settled for a diet of rats, cats, dogs and horses once the normal fare ran out: Governor Bradford, the 1st Governor of Massachusetts:
“So as it well appeared that famine must still ensue the next year also, if not some way prevented,” wrote Gov. William Bradford in his diary. The colonists, he said, “began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length after much debate of things, [I] (with the advice of the chiefest among them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves. … And so assigned to every family a parcel of land.”
Up until that time, the Pilgrims farmed communally, sharing everything with everybody; even those who failed to plant, to harvest or to produce in sufficient quantities to feel his own. Teachers do teach children about sharing as part of their Thanksgiving Day lesson. But how many of them teach that the nation’s first experiment with communalism was an abysmal failure that resulted in needless deaths and horrible suffering by all. This is not an abstraction, the quotes are in Governor Bradford’s records and with some time and energy, you can view them for yourself. The phenomena of communal starvation is now known as “The Tragedy of the Commons”. and this is but one example of many that can be found with a google search.
After the discussion regarding abandoning communal farming and trying, instead, the first example of how the granting of individual rights leads to the acceptance of individual responsibility blossomed into a mini-model of a concept as yet unknown but destined to become the Hallmark of the greatest and most powerful nation on the planet in modern times — A nation that twice saved the world from global destruction or dominance by dictators, this nation; the United States of America. More from Governor Bradford:
“This had very good success,” Bradford wrote, “for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. … By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many. … “
Let’s all hope for a successful and joyous Thanksgiving for all throughout the nation and especially for all of our friends and family members who we hold dear.
Happy Thanksgiving to all,
–Rick
