{"id":33664,"date":"2021-11-25T10:31:41","date_gmt":"2021-11-25T15:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/after-400-years-native-people-reflect-on-the-real-story-of-the-first-thanksgiving\/"},"modified":"2021-11-25T10:31:48","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T15:31:48","slug":"after-400-years-native-people-reflect-on-the-real-story-of-the-first-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/after-400-years-native-people-reflect-on-the-real-story-of-the-first-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"After 400 years, Native people reflect on the real story of the \u2018first Thanksgiving\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Debra Utacia Krol,<\/p>\n

Arizona Republic<\/p>\n

As Americans sit down to a table full of food this Thanksgiving Day, many may retell a story they learned in elementary school, about the Pilgrims who befriended the local Indians after the Mayflower dropped its anchor in Cape Cod Bay in 1620. It\u2019s that story that has endured in mythology, the image of European settlers giving thanks with Native Americans.<\/p>\n

But 401\u00a0years after the establishment of the famed Pilgrim colony in what\u2019s now called Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Wampanoag, the people the English Protestants encountered after fleeing religious oppression in their homeland, want the real story of the fateful landing and the events that followed told.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a story of friendship betrayed by greed and intolerance, of a nation\u2019s lands, economy and religion whittled away in the name of manifest destiny. A story of\u00a0that nation\u2019s long road to recovering its sovereignty and dignity and one of its most important cultural and historic artifacts:\u00a0its national wampum belt.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s a story Indigenous people say has parallels as settlers moved across the continent in search of new lands and sources of wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never ceases to amaze me that year after year Americans need to be reminded every \u2018Thanksgiving\u2019 about the critical role that the Wampanoag played in saving the settlers at Plymouth Colony,\u201d said David Martinez, associate professor of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University.<\/p>\n

The story of how the Wampanoag helped settlers through their first months on the continent, only to be subjected to land theft, attacks and even sexual assault, has been repeated many times, said Martinez, who is Akimel O\u2019odham and Hia-Ced O\u2019odham.<\/p>\n

His own tribe\u2019s water was stolen in the late 19th and early 20th centuries after aiding early settlers\u00a0with food and protection from other tribes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn spite of generations of Indian leaders reminding the whites what Indian people have done for Americans, beginning with the Wampanoag, they keep forgetting, year after year, always acting like this is the first time they have ever heard of this history.\u201d<\/p>\n

First people meet new people<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the English colonists known as the Pilgrims stepped on the shores of what\u2019s called Plymouth on Nov.16, 1620, they found what they considered paradise, overflowing with wildlife, rich soils, cleared fields and a sheltered location on a hillside. They also found a ghost town, with human skeletons strewn about.<\/p>\n

400th anniversary of Pilgrims\u2019 arrival on Cape Cod<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The seaside Wampanoag village of Patuxet was once home to about 2,000 people. It was one of 69 settlements throughout southeastern Massachusetts and parts of modern Rhode Island as well as Nantucket Island and Martha\u2019s Vineyard.<\/p>\n

After inhabiting their lands and coastal waters for more than 12,000 years, the Wampanoag, or People of the First Light, were masterful stewards. They managed their lands and waters to provide a good life for themselves and other species. They knew how to plant their crops for maximum yields while keeping pests at bay, and to sustain the soils that gave life to corn, beans and squash along with other squashes like pumpkin and zucchini.<\/p>\n

They supplemented their diets with deer, moose, beaver, raccoon and other animal meats. A thrifty people, the Wampanoag used every part of the animal bodies they brought home for clothing, sewing and small tools.<\/p>\n

They also fished freshwater and seawater species, including the famed quahog shellfish, a source of one of their most important and revered cultural materials: wampum. Handmade tubular beads from the shells of both quahog and whelk shells, with their brilliant whites and lush purple shades, were used to create wampum belts. Those belts\u00a0provided historical records and marked important events such as intertribal treaties, marriages and other significant events. The shells were also traded for valuable items like furs.<\/p>\n

Their highly developed social structure and healthy diets had long served them well. Mashpee Wampanoag Councilman Brian Weeden said it was not uncommon for Wampanoags to live to age 90 or 100, amazing colonists who had left a country where\u00a0the\u00a0average life expectancy was 40, with few living past age 59<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0they were no match for an unexpected foe new to the continent, a virulent disease for which they had no immunity.\u00a0During the Great Dying of 1616 to 1619, a smallpox-like plague brought by early European traders spread like wildfire, leaving few to deal with the masses of their dead.<\/p>\n

The colonists considered it God\u2019s blessing. William Bradford, the elected leader of the Pilgrims, wrote that the\u00a0devastation of\u00a0large swaths of Native communities provided the setting for \u201cthe propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post After 400 years, Native people reflect on the real story of the ‘first Thanksgiving’<\/a> first appeared on Native Sun News Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Debra Utacia Krol, Arizona Republic As Americans sit down to a table full of food this Thanksgiving Day, many may retell a story they learned in elementary school, about the Pilgrims who befriended the local Indians after the Mayflower dropped its anchor in Cape Cod Bay in 1620. It\u2019s that <\/p>\n

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Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> November 25, 2021<\/p>\n

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