Fwd: What is Thanksgiving?

[Guest guest]

, " Tony OClery " <aoclery>

wrote:

 

> Namaste Harsha,

>

> Happy Thanksgiving to all in usa, we already had ours in canada in

> october. The only people I omit are the native americans for it is

> really a sad day for them in some respects. The first thanksgiving

> in north america was actually in canada up in the arctic and there

> were others in massachusets before the pilgrims--that was just one

> day.

>

>

From alternate press review.

THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING

 

by Susan Bates

Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians

sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen - once.

 

The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home

to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery.

They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had

escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they

found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had

survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them

to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the

Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year,

the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.

 

But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the

new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the

boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to

be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they

seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing

the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty

Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one

of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.

 

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.

 

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 a 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. Their chief was beheaded, and his head

impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts -- where it remained on

display for 24 years.

 

The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of

thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre.

George Washington finally suggested that only one day of

Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and

every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be

a legal national holiday during the Civil War -- on the same day he

ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.

 

This story doesn't have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated

with it 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. Next Thanksgiving, when you

gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings,

think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and

raise their families. They, also took time out to say " thank you " to

Creator for all their blessings.

 

It is sad to think that this happened, but it is important to

understand all of the story and not just the happy part. Today the

town of Plymouth Rock has a Thanksgiving ceremony each year in

remembrance of the first Thanksgiving. There are still Wampanoag

people living in Massachusetts. In 1970, they asked one of them to

speak at the ceremony to mark the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrim's

arrival. Here is part of what was said:

 

" Today is a time of celebrating for you -- a time of looking back to

the first days of white people in America. But it is not a time of

celebrating for me. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon

what happened to my People. When the Pilgrims arrived, we, the

Wampanoags, welcomed them with open arms, little knowing that it was

the beginning of the end. That before 50 years were to pass, the

Wampanoag would no longer be a tribe. That we and other Indians

living near the settlers would be killed by their guns or dead from

diseases that we caught from them. Let us always remember, the

Indian is and was just as human as the white people.

 

Although our way of life is almost gone, we, the Wampanoags, still

walk the lands of Massachusetts. What has happened cannot be

changed. But today we work toward a better America, a more Indian

America where people and nature once again are important. "

 

--- End forwarded message ---