A True Story of Thanksgiving

Nov 14, 2011 by HHNSTAFF

By: AZGreen Magazine Contributor

Harvesting Gratitude: For centuries, a bountiful harvest has been celebrated with gratitude in nearly every culture of the world.  Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln more than 200 years after the infamous feast occurred at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts.  Popular American folklore traces the origin of the Thanksgiving tradition to 1621, when Pilgrims arrived in the New World.  The story goes that native Wampanoag Indians were invited by the Pilgrims to partake in a feast to commemorate a successful negotiation for land that would become Plymouth Plantation. History books most of us read as children portray a very pleasant account of the events surrounding that first Thanksgiving celebration, which account has been challenged by historians for generations due to the absence of some cultural accuracies.

What many of us don’t know is that when the European and English immigrants arrived into North America, they relied heavily on the Native American Indians’ knowledge about the nature of the unfamiliar new world. The Wampanoag Indians were well versed in seasonal planting as well as nutritional and medicinal properties of indigenous plants, considered wild animals to be their brethren, and regarded all nature with reverence.  They also treated newcomers with the same respect they paid to each other. Hospitality toward visitors was a very important part of Indian custom, and despite the cultural differences, most welcomed the visitors and offered to assist them with harvesting of food and negotiating the wilderness.  Their hospitality was not always reciprocated.  In the 1500s, brutal battles ensued when some new settlers converged on land already occupied by Native Americans. Indian villagers were massacred; many who survived the invasions were captured, taken to Europe or the West Indies and sold as slaves.

According to a study of The Fourth World Documentation Project, a collaborative endeavor of the Center for World Indigenous Studies, one survivor from the Wampanoag Tribe named Squanto was befriended by an English explore named John Weymouth, who taught him English and took him to England.  Shortly after his return to New England, Squanto was captured by a British slave trader, sold to Spaniards and taken to the Caribbean.  A Spanish Franciscan priest aided his escape, which took him back to Europe where he met Samoset, another Native American from the Wabanake Tribe who had made a similar journey to England.  Both men returned to New England shortly before the Pilgrims arrived in 1620.  When Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, they were challenged by their new way of life in the northeastern wilderness.  It is reasonable to assume they were surprised to find two native Indians speaking English when Squanto and Samoset approached them.  Squanto taught them about survival, indigenous plants and how to cultivate the land for seeds they had brought from Europe.

With this assistance, the pilgrims eventually adapted to their new life, and their harvest successfully provided enough food for the coming winter.  As was a traditional observance in England, the pilgrims celebrated the harvest with a feast to give thanks for their bounty, and invited Squanto and Samoset to bring their families.  When the Indians’ 90 family members arrived, the pilgrims were caught unprepared for such a large gathering, so Squanto and Samoset sent for more food including corn, beans, squash, wild turkeys, fish and berries.

“The Wampanoag were actually invited to that Thanksgiving feast for the purpose of negotiating a treaty that would secure the lands of the Plymouth Plantation for the Pilgrims. It should also be noted that the INDIANS, possibly out of a sense of charity toward their hosts, ended up bringing the majority of the food for the feast,” historian, author and educator Chuck Larsen wrote in The Fourth World Documentation Project study.

While that moment of gratitude for the bounty of a harvest is celebrated annually in today’s tradition, what may have been forgotten is that the harmonious coexistence of two vastly different cultures began with an appreciation for nature and a custom of hospitality.  The harmony was short lived – followed by decades of battles over territory instigated by a next wave of pilgrims who may not have been aware of the hospitable assistance received by their predecessors.  Despite the subsequent violence, the essence of that Thanksgiving feast has been celebrated ever since.  According to Larsen, “Its theme has truth and integrity far above and beyond what we have been taught.”

This Thanksgiving, as our society struggles with economic hardships, cultural inequities and daunting environmental perplexities, we would be well served to reflect on the bounty that flourished as a result of contrasting cultures embracing their differences, working together and respectfully adapting to nature.  Despite current events, we Americans have a lot to be grateful for, and stand to gain so much by rekindling a Native American reverence for the earth, as well as an unconditional respect for one another and tolerance of our cultural differences.  Gratitude for life’s bounty is a universal gift we can share in fellowship every day.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Editorial note: The Fourth World Documentation Project was a collaborative endeavor of the Center for World Indigenous Studies (a non-profit  501(c)(3) organization) in an effort to raise awareness in historical education. For more information, visit www.cwis.org.