Thanksgiving in Plymouth - History Repeats Itself

Thanksgiving is intended to be a time of joyous celebration when people give thanks for the gifts and blessings the Creator has provided. It is a day when we thank our families and friends for their love and support. It is a time to give thanks for our abilities. The idea and purpose of Thanksgiving is both simple and complicated, but the truth about this holiday is mired in mythology, historical inaccuracies, and outright lies.

The political system in the United States created Thanksgiving as a political ploy and its intention was never to honor Native American Indian people. The educational system in the United States has supported the ploy by refusing to enter the truths in history books. The media in the United States, including movies and television, have ignored the historical truth, and have helped to create the romanticized fantasy of Thanksgiving.

Educational and entertainment outlets have become bastions of ignorance and racism. All commit a grave disservice to the people of the United States, and to the people of the world who look to this country as a mainstay of democracy-in-action. The disservice can be found in the relentless bigotry that is the social and cultural foundation of the dominant culture residing on these lands.

A popular expression: the truth shall set you free. The concept of the democratic process will never be fully realized until the true history of this country is taught in educational institutions. Educators (including all forms of media) are required (so they claim) to present history in a precise manner using both intelligence and logic. Regardless of how ugly and brutal these truths are, justice in the United States will never be served until these historical truths are fully accepted by all, no matter how painful they may be to think about, and to comprehend.

When historical lies are formed, and allowed to take on a life of their own, they become enjoyable to those who avoid the truth. When people and governments avoid historical truth they serve injustice to particular peoples, and in the case of Thanksgiving (and many many more situations) the injustice is served to the Native American Indian people. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Among Native American Indian peoples the oral tradition of telling history (family, social, politics, games, ways of nature, spirituality) is the most reliable form of learning. The oral tradition builds continuity, mutual dependency, and trust between speakers and listeners. Anglo-Americans discount oral tradition as being unscientific because the story cannot be proved. Yet - Christians abide according to the tenets of their bibles. Hypocrisy can be found in the Christian acceptance of bible stories combined with an unwillingness and refusal to accept the histories, beliefs, and spirituality of the Native American Indian peoples.

If there are no scientific facts (no proof) then Native American Indian histories can be discounted as fanciful myths and legends to be exploited (usually for profit). Anglo-Americans have built their own myths and legends using Native American Indian people as the catalyst. These historical lies create stereotypes, racism, and bigotry against Native American Indian people. They also create ignorance and mindlessness among the dominant culture.

The following facts and information are readily available for anyone with a modicum of interest in seeking the truth and researching fact. That they are so easy to find merely confirms the fact that historians, educators, politicans, and the media have no excuse for their lazy ignorance.

So......................

Once upon a time in England there were a group of political revolutionaries who called themselves Puritans. They had their own formal confederacy. They intended to overthrow the monarchy of England (and they succeeded in 1649). The Puritans strongly believed (as do many cultist religions) in the imminent occurrence of Armageddon. Although they did suffer from some political, social, and religious persecution they themselves were hardened and intolerant bigots bent on purifying everyone.

A splinter group of Puritans, calling themselves Pilgrims (note the word grim in Pilgrim), fled England and came to these lands. Mostly middle-class the Pilgrims were unprepared and ignorant of basic survival techniques and necessities. Upon their arrival the Pilgrims were unhealthy, diseased, and filthy. Their clothing was infested with crawly bugs, and they were seriously malnourished. Half of them died before they were found by the Wampanoag. Anglo-American propagandists have led us to believe that the Pilgrims were noble members of society when in fact the Pilgrims were outcasts and misfits bent on destroying their own country. When they could not do that, they came to destroy the lands of the native peoples.

The Pilgrims did not know how to hunt, fish, farm, or construct protective shelters. Their needs in England had been met by servants and indentured servants (sort of a slave). The Pilgrims were inept. They did not flee England because of persecution - they fled because they did not believe they were going to successfully overthrow the monarchy in order to inflict their "Rule of Saints" on their British brethren. They came to these lands with the clear purpose of taking the land away from the native peoples in order to build their unholy cultdom.

The Pilgrims were followed here by larger groups of Puritans and from this point on we will refer to this group as Puritans since they are one and the same. Their fanatical cultism dictated the use of genocide, treachery, germ-warfare (disease), torture, mass murder, and deception to achieve purification of those who disagreed with them. The Puritans were homocidal maniacs. The native peoples did not agree with this compartmentalized cultism and so the Puritans declared war on the natives who had saved their pitiful lives.

The Wampanoag were members of the League of Delaware and their common language was Algonkian. The native tribes were healthy and strong from their constant physical activity. Their diets consisted mainly of agriculture products supplemented by meat and fish. Their lives were intertwined with a spirituality older than Christianity. Clans were based on family relationships and tribes belonged to leagues and confederacies for support and survival. The tribes were well-traveled and their traders and explorers spoke many languages and were respectfully familiar with the customs of other tribes. Food and material goods were traded among the continent's and hemisphere tribes. Spirituality was revered and share (eg: the Creator saw fit to put different people onto the earth at different times and in different places for different purposes).

Native people were content in their relationship with Mother Earth. Time was marked by the light of day, the darkness of night, the shape of the moon, and by the seasons. It was not a perfect world, but it was the healthiest and most productive, and was as close to Eden as any other place on earth.

For nearly 100 years preceding the arrival of the Pilgrims, the Delaware and other coastal tribes defended themselves against English slavers who raided their villages. The scurrilous English, and other Europeans, kidnapped native people and sold them in foreign ports. The slavers tore apart the native families and tribes. One year before the Pilgrims came to these lands entire populations of native villages were destroyed by fatal diseases the English slavers brought on their kidnapping raids. The profitable raiding of these coastal villages inspired Europeans to begin their insidious slave trade on the continent of Africa. The native people were fully aware of the treachery of the English people learning quickly not to trust them.

The Wamponoag provided every necessity in order to prevent the sickly Puritans from dying. Although the Wamponoag did not trust the Puritans their hospitality prevented them from mistreating, ignoring, or outright killing the Puritans. Wampanoag men taught the Puritans to hunt, fish, and farm. The Wampanoag built shelters to protect the helpless Puritans from harsh weather conditions. The Wampanoag taught the Puritans to tap maple trees for the sap, and showed them how to gather edible plants. Quite simply, as an act of compassion and humanity, the Wamponoag saved the Puritans from certain death.

The native peoples had annual Harvest celebrations along with celebrations of thanksgiving at particular times during the year. The Harvest festivities were a time to appreciate the gifts of the Creator and to make ready for the winter months. The native peoples did not need to declare a national holiday in order to thank the Creator - it was an everyday part of their spirituality.

At Harvest time, in 1621, the Wampanoag and the Puritans celebrated a feast of Thanksgiving familiar to both cultures. Based on the reliability of oral tradition, and centuries-old customs, we know that the Wampanoag and other tribes gave verbal thanks to the Creator, and that the Puritans said their "grace before meals." There was, however, no formal thanksgiving holiday.

One would like to think that the hospitality of the Wampanoag was returned with equal kindness, but that is not the case. The greedy Puritans discovered where the Wampanoag had their winter food storage and stole the winter food supply which put the Wampanoag at great risk of starvation. The Puritans looted and robbed grave sites stealing the possessions of those who had walked on into the spirit world. The Puritans introduced more diseases to the coastal tribes and these diseases spread quickly.

The incredibly healthy native populations had no immunity or medicinal cures for these diseases and entire villages were descimated. The purification methods employed by the Puritans soon began to include murder and mayhem. In 1637 Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts declared a day of Thanksgiving to celebrate the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children, and men. Cotton Mather, a maniacal preacher, declared a thanksgiving for the destruction of the native populations as the action of a benevolent Puritan God. On June 20, 1676 the governing council of Charlestown (Massachusetts) determined that June 29 would be a day of thanksgiving. It was not a formal holiday, and June is hardly the seasonal harvest time. On October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving, but it was only for American citizens. Non-citizens were non-participants. The message: white is right. The unspoken message: if you ain't white, you ain't right.

Lincoln (and his generals) were having trouble rallying support for the Civil War. Declaring a national holiday of Thanksgiving was a political ploy to create patriotism for this war and to help create a national identity among white people. In his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation, Lincoln states, "may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins."

Presumptuous means: overstepping due bounds, taking liberties. Although Lincoln does not list the presumptuous sins there are some logical extrapolations regarding this particular statement. Lincoln was trying to assure everyone that the Civil War was not punishment from God for the sins of the Anglo-forefathers and their progeny towards the natives and Africans.

The Puritans were fanatical in their belief in the bible and in their ten commandments. In their brutal treatment of the native populations (and the enslavement of the Africans) and their outrageous exploitation of the land and its resources the Puritans and their descendants broke every commandment given to the prophet Moses and broke every principal taught by the Christian savior Jesus.

The foundation of this democratic government clearly was a coast-to-coast genocidal war against the native populations. The foundation of this government and the constitution was (and is) supported mightily by exclusive, repressive, racist, and bigoted behaviors and actions. The foundation of the United States democracy is laden heavily with the presumptuous sins of the Anglo-American forefathers. Did Lincoln see the Civil War as Godly punishment for the actions of the Anglos toward the native populations? It is a most interesting premise.

Since 1863 the Thanksgiving Holiday has been mythologized, romanticized, and has been removed (as far as possible) from truth, fact, and actual history. Truthful history has intentionally been censored so as not to give any credence or voice to the truth. History has been denied free speech.

Today visitors to Plymouth can take a tour of the city (for a fee) and see how the Puritans and native people merrily and happily gave thanks together. Propagandists would have us believe that the Puritans were plump healthy people, and this is supported by the "tour" where tourists observe history: healthy white people wearing beautifully sewn and starched frocks, working themselves into a frenzy preparing dinner for the heathen Indians. An educational disaster.

In 1970 a group of Native American Indian people formed the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) to organize the first National Day of Mourning (to be held on the government declared holiday of Thanksgiving). Truth be known: for most Native American peoples this is a time of mourning. November has, for several years, been designated as Native American Indian Heritage Month. Tribute to the Indians of the Americas is sandwiched between the holidays of Halloween, Columbus Day, and Thanksgiving. Ironic.

Native American Indian history has been repressed and revised by Anglo-Americans who staunchly defend these untruths. When native people attempt to teach the truth they are called "revisionists" or "liars." They are accused of trying to force others to be politically correct. They are told to "go back where you came from."

Since when it is lying to tell the truth? Who declared themselves as arbitrator of truth when truth clearly speaks and does not need arbitration. Who would ever want to be wrong? And - native peoples were here thousands of years (in Michigan we know at least 11,000 years ago) and so they are here and will remain here.

UAINE is dedicated (as are many Native American Indian groups) to fighting the ignorance and apathy of the people of the United States. For 27 years UAINE and their supporters have marched in Plymouth on Thanksgiving Day to protest this joke of a holiday which the people of the United States claim as an honor to Native American Indian peoples. For 27 years UAINE was not required to have a parade permit and for 27 years they have marched peacefully.

Incidents of unprovoked physical violence against Native American Indians is on the rise in the United States (and in all of the so-named Americas). This year, the Plymouth (Massachusetts) Police Department assaulted and battered many of the several hundred UAINE marchers. Grandfather Oak (age 97) and Firewoman Emerton (70 year old clan mother of the Abenaki Nation) were injured by billyclubs swung by enthusiastic police officers who have no respect or regard for elders or children because they also battered an eight and an eleven year old native child. Many of those beaten and arrested were revered elders representing many tribes from across the United States. Pepper gas and mace were forced (police officers held mouths open) down the throats of the marchers which included Latinos, Asian-Americans, and African-Americans. Many of the marchers are direct descendants of the Wampanoag who saved the lives of that first group of Puritans.

The Pilgrim Progress People have never needed a parade permit to march and in 1997 they did not have a permit, but the Plymouth Police Department did not bother them - not one bit. The Pilgrim Progress People use the destruction of the Native American Indian people as a theme of their thanksgiving parade and celebration.

In the unwarranted and unprovoked attack on the UAINE marchers, the Plymouth Police Department called upon the Massachusetts State Police and the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department for assistance although it is known that UAINE marchers did nothing to provoke such a violent response to their annual march.

Plymouth prosecutor Ruth Kechejian, Police Chief Robert Pomeroy, and Police Captain William O'Meara have fully supported the actions of the Plymouth goon-squad who mascarade as police officers. UAINE marchers have stated that the police officers were lying in wait - prepared in their riot gear. The day before the march the Plymouth Police Department issued a statement to the newspapers saying that the Indians would be "dispersed by whatever means necessary." Threats. This begs the question: why the Indians and not the Pilgrims wanna-be's? What can you expect, however, from a state which decorates their highway signs with the infamous Puritan hat. True Americana?

UAINE is representative of the Wampanoag and other coastal tribes from the time with the Puritans first came here. History, without impunity, does repeat itself when politicans, educators, and the population at large support historical distortions and ignorance.

Thanksgiving. A day to be thankful. For what? That depends on the color of your skin, your ethnic heritage, and your power base. Native American Indian people comprise 0.9% of the United States population and are the smallest minority in this country. Yet - when the Pilgrims came here the native population numbered somewhere between 20 and 25 million thriving people. The purification process was simply a matter of homicidal genocide. It has a strong resemblance to the Nazi Holocaust and to the Ethnic Cleansings in Bosnia. Amnesty International states that the incidents of police brutality in the United States makes this country a serious violator of human rights.

Sadly Thanksgiving Holiday season in 1997, in Plymouth, was a violent exercise in history repeating itself. Several combined police departments brutalized Native American Indian people and their supporters. The history and actions of the United States is buried in an intellectual coma. The events in Plymouth (past and present) have been a part of an inhumane plot to take away the freedoms of Native American Indian people - to hold them down, to keep them down, and when you hold a group down you also stay down because if you let go.....................
PLEASE WALK WITH US....

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