T E A C H I N G A B O U T T H A N K S G I V I N G
AN INTRODUCTION FOR TEACHERS
FOOTNOTES FOR TEACHER INTRODUCTION
THE PLYMOUTH THANKSGIVING STORY
STUDY AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
AVOIDING STEREOTYPES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SENECA PRAYER
INDIAN CORN
STORY : CORN HUSK DOLL
A SIMPLE REQUEST
Many of our
files are unique and/or copyrighted by The Center For
World
Indigenous Studies and The
Fourth World Documentation
Project.
All FWDP files may be reproduced for
electronic
transfer
or posting on computer networks and bulletin boards
provided that:
1. All text remains unaltered.
2. No profit is made from such transfer.
3. Full credit is given to the author(s) and the Fourth World
Documentation Project.
4. This file is included in the archive if being used as a
file on a BBS, FTP site or other file archive.
Thank you for
your cooperation.
John Burrows
Director,
Fourth World Documentation Project
||=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-||
||
||
|| The Fourth World
Documentation Project runs entirely on grants ||
|| and private donations.
If you find this information service ||
|| useful to you in
any way, please consider making a donation to ||
|| help keep it running.
CWIS is a non-profit [U.S. 501(c)(3)] ||
|| organization.
All donations are completely tax deductible.
||
|| Donations may be
made to:
||
||
||
|| The Center For World
Indigenous Studies
||
|| c/o The Fourth World
Documentation Project
||
|| P.O. Box 2574
||
|| Olympia, Washington
USA
||
|| 98507-2574
||
||
Thank You,
||
||
CWIS Staff
||
||
||
||=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-||
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: This file has been created under the loving
care of ::
:: -=
THE FOURTH WORLD DOCUMENTATION PROJECT =-
::
::
::
:: Questions and comments on FWDP can be addressed
to: ::
::
::
:: John Burrows
jburrows@halcyon.com ::
:: P.O. Box 2574
::
:: Olympia, Wa
Fido Net 1:352/333 ::
:: 98507-2574
206-786-9629
::
:: USA
The Quarto Mundista BBS ::
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
T E A C H I
N G A B O U T T H A N K S G I V I N G
Dr. Frank B. Brouillet
Superintendent of Public Instruction
State of Washington
Cheryl Chow
Assistant Superintendent
Division of Instructional Programs and Services
Warren H. Burton
Director
Office for Multicultural and Equity Education
Dr. Willard E. Bill
Supervisor of Indian Education
Originally written and developed by
Cathy Ross, Mary Robertson,
Chuck Larsen, and Roger Fernandes
Indian Education, Highline School District
With an introduction by:
Chuck Larsen
Tacoma School District
Printed: September, 1986
Reprinted: May, 1987
This is a particularly
difficult introduction to
write. I have been a public schools teacher
for twelve
years, and I am also a historian and have
written several
books on American and Native American history.
I also just
happen to be Quebeque French, Metis, Ojibwa,
and Iroquois.
Because my Indian ancestors were on both sides
of the
struggle between the Puritans and the New
England Indians
and I am well versed in my cultural heritage
and history
both as an Anishnabeg (Algonkin) and Hodenosione
(Iroquois),
it was felt that I could bring a unique insight
to the
project.
For an Indian,
who is also a school teacher,
Thanksgiving was never an easy holiday for
me to deal with
in class. I sometimes have felt like I learned
too much
about "the Pilgrims and the Indians." Every
year I have
been faced with the professional and moral
dilemma of just
how to be honest and informative with my children
at
Thanksgiving without passing on historical
distortions, and
racial and cultural stereotypes.
The problem is
that part of what you and I learned in
our own childhood about the "Pilgrims" and
"Squanto" and
the "First Thanksgiving" is a mixture of both
history and
myth. But the THEME of Thanksgiving has truth
and integrity
far above and beyond what we and our forebearers
have made
of it. Thanksgiving is a bigger concept than
just the story
of the founding of the Plymouth Plantation.
So what do we
teach to our children? We usually pass
on unquestioned what we all received in our
own childhood
classrooms. I have come to know both the truths
and the
myths about our "First Thanksgiving," and
I feel we need to
try to reach beyond the myths to some degree
of historic
truth. This text is an attempt to do this.
At this point
you are probably asking, "What is the
big deal about Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims?"
"What does
this guy mean by a mixture of truths and myth?"
That is
just what this introduction is all about.
I propose that
there may be a good deal that many of us do
not know about
our Thanksgiving holiday and also about the
"First
Thanksgiving" story. I also propose that what
most of us
have learned about the Pilgrims and the Indians
who were at
the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation
is only part
of the truth. When you build a lesson on only
half of the
information, then you are not teaching the
whole truth.
That is why I used the word myth. So where
do you start to
find out more about the holiday and our modern
stories
about how it began?
A good place
to start is with a very important book,
"The Invasion of America," by Francis Jennings.
It is a
very authoritative text on the settlement
of New England
and the evolution of Indian/White relations
in the New
England colonies. I also recommend looking
up any good text
on British history. Check out the British
Civil War of
1621-1642, Oliver Cromwell, and the Puritan
uprising of
1653 which ended parliamentary government
in England until
1660. The history of the Puritan experience
in New England
really should not be separated from the history
of the
Puritan experience in England. You should
also realize that
the "Pilgrims" were a sub sect, or splinter
group, of the
Puritan movement. They came to America to
achieve on this
continent what their Puritan brethren continued
to strive
for in England; and when the Puritans were
forced from
England, they came to New England and soon
absorbed the
original "Pilgrims."
As the editor,
I have read all the texts listed in our
bibliography, and many more, in preparing
this material for
you. I want you to read some of these books.
So let me use
my editorial license to deliberately provoke
you a little.
When comparing the events stirred on by the
Puritans in
England with accounts of Puritan/Pilgrim activities
in New
England in the same era, several provocative
things suggest
themselves:
1. The Puritans were not just simple religious
conservatives persecuted
by the King and the Church of
England for their unorthodox
beliefs. They were
political revolutionaries
who not only intended to
overthrow the government
of England, but who actually
did so in 1649.
2. The Puritan "Pilgrims" who came to New England
were not
simply refugees who decided
to "put their fate in God's
hands" in the "empty wilderness"
of North America, as a
generation of Hollywood
movies taught us. In any culture
at any time, settlers on
a frontier are most often
outcasts and fugitives who,
in some way or other, do not
fit into the mainstream
of their society. This is not to
imply that people who settle
on frontiers have no
redeeming qualities such
as bravery, etc., but that the
images of nobility that
we associate with the Puritans
are at least in part the
good "P.R." efforts of later
writers who have romanticized
them.(1) It is also very
plausible that this unnaturally
noble image of the
Puritans is all wrapped
up with the mythology of "Noble
Civilization" vs. "Savagery."(2)
At any rate, mainstream
Englishmen considered the
Pilgrims to be deliberate
religious dropouts who intended
to found a new nation
completely independent from
non-Puritan England. In 1643
the Puritan/Pilgrims declared
themselves an independent
confederacy, one hundred
and forty-three years before
the American Revolution.
They believed in the imminent
occurrence of Armegeddon
in Europe and hoped to
establish here in the new
world the "Kingdom of God"
foretold in the book of
Revelation. They diverged from
their Puritan brethren who
remained in England only in
that they held little real
hope of ever being able to
successfully overthrow the
King and Parliament and,
thereby, impose their "Rule
of Saints" (strict Puritan
orthodoxy) on the rest of
the British people. So they
came to America not just
in one ship (the Mayflower) but
in a hundred others as well,
with every intention of
taking the land away from
its native people to build
their prophesied "Holy Kingdom."(3)
3. The Pilgrims were not just innocent refugees
from
religious persecution. They
were victims of bigotry in
England, but some of them
were themselves religious
bigots by our modern standards.
The Puritans and the
Pilgrims saw themselves
as the "Chosen Elect" mentioned
in the book of Revelation.
They strove to "purify" first
themselves and then everyone
else of everything they did
not accept in their own
interpretation of scripture.
Later New England Puritans
used any means, including
deceptions, treachery, torture,
war, and genocide to
achieve that end.(4) They
saw themselves as fighting a
holy war against Satan,
and everyone who disagreed with
them was the enemy. This
rigid fundamentalism was
transmitted to America by
the Plymouth colonists, and it
sheds a very different light
on the "Pilgrim" image we
have of them. This is best
illustrated in the written
text of the Thanksgiving
sermon delivered at Plymouth in
1623 by "Mather the Elder."
In it, Mather the Elder gave
special thanks to God for
the devastating plague of
smallpox which wiped out
the majority of the Wampanoag
Indians who had been their
benefactors. He praised God
for destroying "chiefly
young men and children, the very
seeds of increase, thus
clearing the forests to make way
for a better growth", i.e.,
the Pilgrims.(5) In as much
as these Indians were the
Pilgrim's benefactors, and
Squanto, in particular,
was the instrument of their
salvation that first year,
how are we to interpret this
apparent callousness towards
their misfortune?
4. The Wampanoag Indians were not the "friendly
savages"
some of us were told about
when we were in the primary
grades. Nor were they invited
out of the goodness of the
Pilgrims' hearts to share
the fruits of the Pilgrims'
harvest in a demonstration
of Christian charity and
interracial brotherhood.
The Wampanoag were members of a
widespread confederacy of
Algonkian-speaking peoples
known as the League of the
Delaware. For six hundred
years they had been defending
themselves from my other
ancestors, the Iroquois,
and for the last hundred years
they had also had encounters
with European fishermen and
explorers but especially
with European slavers, who had
been raiding their coastal
villages.(6) They knew
something of the power of
the white people, and they did
not fully trust them. But
their religion taught that
they were to give charity
to the helpless and
hospitality to anyone who
came to them with empty
hands.(7) Also, Squanto,
the Indian hero of the
Thanksgiving story, had
a very real love for a British
explorer named John Weymouth,
who had become a second
father to him several years
before the Pilgrims arrived
at Plymouth. Clearly, Squanto
saw these Pilgrims as
Weymouth's people.(8) To
the Pilgrims the Indians were
heathens and, therefore,
the natural instruments of the
Devil. Squanto, as the only
educated and baptized
Christian among the Wampanoag,
was seen as merely an
instrument of God, set in
the wilderness to provide for
the survival of His chosen
people, the Pilgrims. The
Indians were comparatively
powerful and, therefore,
dangerous; and they were
to be courted until the next
ships arrived with more
Pilgrim colonists and the
balance of power shifted.
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.(9)
5. A generation later, after the balance of
power had
indeed shifted, the Indian
and White children of that
Thanksgiving were striving
to kill each other in the
genocidal conflict known
as King Philip's War. At the
end of that conflict most
of the New England Indians
were either exterminated
or refugees among the French in
Canada, or they were sold
into slavery in the Carolinas
by the Puritans. So successful
was this early trade in
Indian slaves that several
Puritan ship owners in Boston
began the practice of raiding
the Ivory Coast of Africa
for black slaves to sell
to the proprietary colonies of
the South, thus founding
the American-based slave
trade.(10)
Obviously there
is a lot more to the story of
Indian/Puritan relations in New England than
in the
thanksgiving stories we heard as children.
Our contemporary
mix of myth and history about the "First"
Thanksgiving at
Plymouth developed in the 1890s and early
1900s. Our
country was desperately trying to pull together
its many
diverse peoples into a common national identity.
To many
writers and educators at the end of the last
century and
the beginning of this one, this also meant
having a common
national history. This was the era of the
"melting pot"
theory of social progress, and public education
was a major
tool for social unity. It was with this in
mind that the
federal government declared the last Thursday
in November
as the legal holiday of Thanksgiving in 1898.
In consequence,
what started as an inspirational bit
of New England folklore, soon grew into the
full-fledged
American Thanksgiving we now know. It emerged
complete with
stereotyped Indians and stereotyped Whites,
incomplete
history, and a mythical significance as our
"First
Thanksgiving." But was it really our FIRST
American
Thanksgiving?
Now that I have
deliberately provoked you with some
new information and different opinions, please
take the
time to read some of the texts in our bibliography.
I want
to encourage you to read further and form
your own
opinions. There really is a TRUE Thanksgiving
story of
Plymouth Plantation. But I strongly suggest
that there
always has been a Thanksgiving story of some
kind or other
for as long as there have been human beings.
There was also
a "First" Thanksgiving in America, but it
was celebrated
thirty thousand years ago.(11) At some time
during the New
Stone Age (beginning about ten thousand years
ago)
Thanksgiving became associated with giving
thanks to God
for the harvests of the land. Thanksgiving
has always been
a time of people coming together, so thanks
has also been
offered for that gift of fellowship between
us all. Every
last Thursday in November we now partake in
one of the
OLDEST and most UNIVERSAL of human celebrations,
and THERE
ARE MANY THANKSGIVING STORIES TO TELL.
As for Thanksgiving
week at Plymouth Plantation in
1621, the friendship was guarded and not always
sincere,
and the peace was very soon abused. But for
three days in
New England's history, peace and friendship
were there.
So here is a
story for your children. It is as kind
and gentle a balance of historic truth and
positive
inspiration as its writers and this editor
can make it out
to be. I hope it will adequately serve its
purpose both for
you and your students, and I also hope this
work will
encourage you to look both deeper and farther,
for
Thanksgiving is Thanksgiving all around the
world.
Chuck Larsen
Tacoma Public Schools
September, 1986
FOOTNOTES FOR TEACHER INTRODUCTION
(1) See
Berkhofer, Jr., R.F., "The White Man's
Indian," references to Puritans, pp. 27, 80-85,
90, 104, &
130.
(2) See
Berkhofer, Jr., R.F., "The White Man's
Indian," references to frontier concepts of
savagery in
index. Also see Jennings, Francis, "The Invasion
of
America," the myth of savagery, pp. 6-12,
15-16, & 109-110.
(3) See Blitzer,
Charles, "Age of Kings," Great Ages
of Man series, references to Puritanism, pp.
141, 144 &
145-46. Also see Jennings, Francis, "The Invasion
of
America," references to Puritan human motives,
pp. 4-6, 43-
44 and 53.
(4) See "Chronicles
of American Indian Protest," pp.
6-10. Also see Armstrong, Virginia I., "I
Have Spoken,"
reference to Cannonchet and his village, p.
6. Also see
Jennings, Francis, "The Invasion of America,"
Chapter 9
"Savage War," Chapter 13 "We must Burn Them,"
and Chapter
17 "Outrage Bloody and Barbarous."
(5) See "Chronicles
of American Indian Protest," pp.
6-9. Also see Berkhofer, Jr., R.F., "The White
Man's
Indian," the comments of Cotton Mather, pp.
37 & 82-83.
(6) See Larsen,
Charles M., "The Real Thanksgiving,"
pp. 3-4. Also see Graff, Steward and Polly
Ann, "Squanto,
Indian Adventurer." Also see "Handbook of
North American
Indians," Vol. 15, the reference to Squanto
on p. 82.
(7) See Benton-Banai,
Edward, "The Mishomis Book," as
a reference on general "Anishinabe" (the Algonkin
speaking
peoples) religious beliefs and practices.
Also see Larsen,
Charles M., "The Real Thanksgiving," reference
to religious
life on p. 1.
(8) See Graff,
Stewart and Polly Ann, "Squanto, Indian
Adventurer." Also see Larsen, Charles M.,
"The Real
Thanksgiving." Also see Bradford, Sir William,
"Of Plymouth
Plantation," and "Mourt's Relation."
(9) See Larsen,
Charles M., "The Real Thanksgiving,"
the letter of Edward Winslow dated 1622, pp.
5-6.
(10) See "Handbook
of North American Indians," Vol.
15, pp. 177-78. Also see "Chronicles of American
Indian
Protest," p. 9, the reference to the enslavement
of King
Philip's family. Also see Larsen, Charles,
M., "The Real
Thanksgiving," pp. 8-11, "Destruction of the
Massachusetts
Indians."
(11) Best current
estimate of the first entry of
people into the Americas confirmed by archaeological
evidence that is datable.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES and ADMINISTRATIVE CENTER
15675 Ambaum Boulevard S.W. Telephone 206/433-0111
Seattle, Washington 98166
November 13, 1985
Dear Colleague:
As educators, we continually strive to improve
the clarity
and accuracy of what is taught about the history
of our
country. Too often, we have presented what
is considered to
be a traditional mono-cultural perspective
of history to
our students. Our celebrations and observances
have borne
this out. We are, however, becoming increasingly
aware of
the need for greater cultural accuracy in
historical
studies. This is consistent with the State
Superintendent
of Public Instruction's commitment to multi-cultural
education for all students.
With this in mind, the Highline Indian Education
program
designed these instructional materials last
year to be used
in teaching about Thanksgiving in grades K-6.
The response
to these materials has been very positive
and we are happy
to have the opportunity to share them with
districts in the
state. We trust that you will find them to
be a valuable
addition to your instructional resources.
Dr. Kent Matheson
Superintendent
Dr. Bill McCleary
Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum and Instruction
The Thanksgiving
holiday season is a time when Indian
history and culture are frequently discussed
in the
schools. Unfortunately, the information and
materials
available to teachers are often incomplete
or stereotyped
in their presentation. For example, some commercially-
produced bulletin board posters depict Plains-style
Indians
with feather warbonnets, tipis in the background,
and
horses tied nearby, sitting down to dinner
with the
Pilgrims. While these images are popular,
they do not
accurately represent the unique culture of
the New England
tribes, whose lifestyle was quite different
than that of
the Plains Indian stereotype. In addition,
some books make
brief mention of the critical assistance given
by the
Indians to the Pilgrims and tend to leave
readers with the
mistaken impression that all participants
at the
Thanksgiving feast remained friends for many
years to come.
This unit provides
additional information about the
Indians of the North-east culture area where
the first
Thanksgiving took place. It includes art projects
and other
activities teachers can use for expanding
and enriching
their instruction. It is hoped that these
materials will
enable teachers to better portray the events
surrounding
the first Thanksgiving.
-- Cathy Ross, Mary Robertson and Roger Fernandes
THE PLYMOUTH THANKSGIVING STORY
When the Pilgrims
crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1620,
they landed on the rocky shores of a territory
that was
inhabited by the Wampanoag (Wam pa NO ag)
Indians. The
Wampanoags were part of the Algonkian-speaking
peoples, a
large group that was part of the Woodland
Culture area.
These Indians lived in villages along the
coast of what is
now Massachusetts and Rhode Island. They lived
in round-
roofed houses called wigwams. These were made
of poles
covered with flat sheets of elm or birch bark.
Wigwams
differ in construction from tipis that were
used by Indians
of the Great Plains.
The Wampanoags
moved several times during each year in
order to get food. In the spring they would
fish in the
rivers for salmon and herring. In the planting
season they
moved to the forest to hunt deer and other
animals. After
the end of the hunting season people moved
inland where
there was greater protection from the weather.
From
December to April they lived on food that
they stored
during the earlier months.
The basic dress
for men was the breech clout, a length
of deerskin looped over a belt in back and
in front. Women
wore deerskin wrap-around skirts. Deerskin
leggings and fur
capes made from deer, beaver, otter, and bear
skins gave
protection during the colder seasons, and
deerskin
moccasins were worn on the feet. Both men
and women usually
braided their hair and a single feather was
often worn in
the back of the hair by men. They did not
have the large
feathered headdresses worn by people in the
Plains Culture
area.
There were two
language groups of Indians in New
England at this time. The Iroquois were neighbors
to the
Algonkian-speaking people. Leaders of the
Algonquin and
Iroquois people were called "sachems" (SAY
chems). Each
village had its own sachem and tribal council.
Political
power flowed upward from the people. Any individual,
man or
woman, could participate, but among the Algonquins
more
political power was held by men. Among the
Iroquois,
however, women held the deciding vote in the
final
selection of who would represent the group.
Both men and
women enforced the laws of the village and
helped solve
problems. The details of their democratic
system were so
impressive that about 150 years later Benjamin
Franklin
invited the Iroquois to Albany, New York,
to explain their
system to a delegation who then developed
the "Albany Plan
of Union." This document later served as a
model for the
Articles of Confederation and the Constitution
of the
United States.
These Indians
of the Eastern Woodlands called the
turtle, the deer and the fish their brothers.
They
respected the forest and everything in it
as equals.
Whenever a hunter made a kill, he was careful
to leave
behind some bones or meat as a spiritual offering,
to help
other animals survive. Not to do so would
be considered
greedy. The Wampanoags also treated each other
with
respect. Any visitor to a Wampanoag home was
provided with
a share of whatever food the family had, even
if the supply
was low. This same courtesy was extended to
the Pilgrims
when they met.
We can only guess
what the Wampanoags must have
thought when they first saw the strange ships
of the
Pilgrims arriving on their shores. But their
custom was to
help visitors, and they treated the newcomers
with
courtesy. It was mainly because of their kindness
that the
Pilgrims survived at all. The wheat the Pilgrims
had
brought with them to plant would not grow
in the rocky
soil. They needed to learn new ways for a
new world, and
the man who came to help them was called "Tisquantum"
(Tis
SKWAN tum) or "Squanto" (SKWAN toe).
Squanto was originally
from the village of Patuxet (Pa
TUK et) and a member of the Pokanokit Wampanoag
nation.
Patuxet once stood on the exact site where
the Pilgrims
built Plymouth. In 1605, fifteen years before
the Pilgrims
came, Squanto went to England with a friendly
English
explorer named John Weymouth. He had many
adventures and
learned to speak English. Squanto came back
to New England
with Captain Weymouth. Later Squanto was captured
by a
British slaver who raided the village and
sold Squanto to
the Spanish in the Caribbean Islands. A Spanish
Franciscan
priest befriended Squanto and helped him to
get to Spain
and later on a ship to England. Squanto then
found Captain
Weymouth, who paid his way back to his homeland.
In England
Squanto met Samoset of the Wabanake (Wab NAH
key) Tribe,
who had also left his native home with an
English explorer.
They both returned together to Patuxet in
1620. When they
arrived, the village was deserted and there
were skeletons
everywhere. Everyone in the village had died
from an
illness the English slavers had left behind.
Squanto and
Samoset went to stay with a neighboring village
of
Wampanoags.
One year later,
in the spring, Squanto and Samoset
were hunting along the beach near Patuxet.
They were
startled to see people from England in their
deserted
village. For several days, they stayed nearby
observing the
newcomers. Finally they decided to approach
them. Samoset
walked into the village and said "welcome,"
Squanto soon
joined him. The Pilgrims were very surprised
to meet two
Indians who spoke English.
The Pilgrims
were not in good condition. They were
living in dirt-covered shelters, there was
a shortage of
food, and nearly half of them had died during
the winter.
They obviously needed help and the two men
were a welcome
sight. Squanto, who probably knew more English
than any
other Indian in North America at that time,
decided to stay
with the Pilgrims for the next few months
and teach them
how to survive in this new place. He brought
them deer meat
and beaver skins. He taught them how to cultivate
corn and
other new vegetables and how to build Indian-style
houses.
He pointed out poisonous plants and showed
how other plants
could be used as medicine. He explained how
to dig and cook
clams, how to get sap from the maple trees,
use fish for
fertilizer, and dozens of other skills needed
for their
survival.
By the time fall
arrived things were going much better
for the Pilgrims, thanks to the help they
had received. The
corn they planted had grown well. There was
enough food to
last the winter. They were living comfortably
in their
Indian-style wigwams and had also managed
to build one
European-style building out of squared logs.
This was their
church. They were now in better health, and
they knew more
about surviving in this new land. The Pilgrims
decided to
have a thanksgiving feast to celebrate their
good fortune.
They had observed thanksgiving feasts in November
as
religious obligations in England for many
years before
coming to the New World.
The Algonkian
tribes held six thanksgiving festivals
during the year. The beginning of the Algonkian
year was
marked by the Maple Dance which gave thanks
to the Creator
for the maple tree and its syrup. This ceremony
occurred
when the weather was warm enough for the sap
to run in the
maple trees, sometimes as early as February.
Second was the
planting feast, where the seeds were blessed.
The
strawberry festival was next, celebrating
the first fruits
of the season. Summer brought the green corn
festival to
give thanks for the ripening corn. In late
fall, the
harvest festival gave thanks for the food
they had grown.
Mid-winter was the last ceremony of the old
year. When the
Indians sat down to the "first Thanksgiving"
with the
Pilgrims, it was really the fifth thanksgiving
of the year
for them!
Captain Miles
Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims,
invited Squanto, Samoset, Massasoit (the leader
of the
Wampanoags), and their immediate families
to join them for
a celebration, but they had no idea how big
Indian families
could be. As the Thanksgiving feast began,
the Pilgrims
were overwhelmed at the large turnout of ninety
relatives
that Squanto and Samoset brought with them.
The Pilgrims
were not prepared to feed a gathering of people
that large
for three days. Seeing this, Massasoit gave
orders to his
men within the first hour of his arrival to
go home and get
more food. Thus it happened that the Indians
supplied the
majority of the food: Five deer, many wild
turkeys, fish,
beans, squash, corn soup, corn bread, and
berries. Captain
Standish sat at one end of a long table and
the Clan Chief
Massasoit sat at the other end. For the first
time the
Wampanoag people were sitting at a table to
eat instead of
on mats or furs spread on the ground. The
Indian women sat
together with the Indian men to eat. The Pilgrim
women,
however, stood quietly behind the table and
waited until
after their men had eaten, since that was
their custom.
For three days
the Wampanoags feasted with the
Pilgrims. It was a special time of friendship
between two
very different groups of people. A peace and
friendship
agreement was made between Massasoit and Miles
Standish
giving the Pilgrims the clearing in the forest
where the
old Patuxet village once stood to build their
new town of
Plymouth.
It would be very
good to say that this friendship
lasted a long time; but, unfortunately, that
was not to be.
More English people came to America, and they
were not in
need of help from the Indians as were the
original
Pilgrims. Many of the newcomers forgot the
help the Indians
had given them. Mistrust started to grow and
the friendship
weakened. The Pilgrims started telling their
Indian
neighbors that their Indian religion and Indian
customs
were wrong. The Pilgrims displayed an intolerance
toward
the Indian religion similar to the intolerance
displayed
toward the less popular religions in Europe.
The
relationship deteriorated and within a few
years the
children of the people who ate together at
the first
Thanksgiving were killing one another in what
came to be
called King Phillip's War.
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."
STUDY AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Who lived on the rocky shores
where the Pilgrims
landed?
2. The Wampanoags were part of what culture area?
3. In what type of homes did the Wampanoags live?
4. Explain what the Wampanoags
did to obtain food during
the different
seasons of the year?
5. What was the basic dress for the Wampanoag people?
6. Describe the Iroquois system of government.
7. Who later used this system of government as a model?
8. What courtesies did the Wampanoag
people extend toward
all visitors?
9. Who was "Tisquantum" and what village was he from?
10. Explain how Squanto learned to speak English.
11. Why did Squanto and Samoset go to
live with another
Wampanoag village?
12. Tell four ways in which Squanto helped the Pilgrims.
13. Describe the "First Thanksgiving" in your own words.
14. Why was this really the fifth thanksgiving
feast for
the Indians
that year?
15. What do you think would have happened
to the Pilgrims
if they had
not been helped by the Indians?
16. After studying about the culture
of the Wampanoags,
how would you
react to a thanksgiving picture showing
tipis and Indians
wearing feathered headdresses?
17. Quickly re-read the lesson and as
you read, make a
list of vocabulary
words that are new to you and write
a definition
for each one.
IDEAS FOR ENRICHMENT
* Study harvest celebrations in other cultures:
Asia (New
Year), Northwest Coast Indians (salmon feast),
and Europe
(Oktoberfest). For further information, contact
the Ethnic
Heritage Council of the Pacific Northwest,
1107 NE 45th,
Suite 315A, Seattle, Washington, 98105, 206/633-3239.
* Imagine for a moment that people from different
cultures
have come to your neighborhood. How will you
make them feel
welcome? How might you share your possessions
with them?
What kinds of things could you do to build
feelings of
friendship and harmony with them?
* Investigate agriculture in your local community.
What
crops are grown? What time of year are they
harvested? What
harvest fairs are celebrated in your area?
* Discuss religious and cultural intolerance
as evidenced
by the problems that developed between the
Indians and the
Pilgrims in the years following the first
thanksgiving at
Plymouth. How do the United States Constitution
and Bill of
Rights safeguard the freedom of religion and
the rights of
all citizens in America today?
If you enact the story of the first thanksgiving
as a
pageant or drama in your classroom, here are
some things to
consider:
* Indians should wear appropriate clothing
(see dolls on
pages 31 and 35). NO WARBONNETS! A blanket
draped over one
shoulder is accurate for a simple outfit.
* Squanto and Samoset spoke excellent English.
Other
Indians would have said things in the Algonkian
language.
These people were noted for their formal speaking
style. A
good example of their oratory would be the
prayers on page
23. Someone could read this as part of the
drama.
* Indians in the Woodlands area did not have
tipis or
horses, so these should not be part of any
scenery or
backdrop.
* Any food served should be authentic. The
following would
be appropriate:
-- corn soup (see recipe
on page 28)
-- succotash (see
recipe on page 28)
-- white fish
-- red meat
-- various fowl (turkey,
partridge, duck)
-- berries (including
whole cranberries)
-- maple sugar candies
-- corn starch candy
(believe it or not, candy corn is
almost authentic except for the colored dyes)
-- watercress
-- any kind of bean
(red, black, green, pinto)
-- squash
-- corn
-- sweet potato
-- pumpkin
"An Educational Coloring Book of Northeast
Indians,"
Spizzirri Publishing Company, Illinois, 1982.
Arber, Edward, "Plymouth Colony Records," Boston,
Massachusetts, 1897.
Armstrong, Virginia Irving, "I Have Spoken,"
Pocket Books,
New York, 1972.
Benton-Banai, Edward, "The Mishomis Book,"
Indian Country
Press, Inc., Saint Paul, Minn., 1979.
Berkhofer, Jr., Robert F, "The White Man's
Indian," Vintage
Books, Random House, New York, 1978.
Blitzer, Charles, "Age of Kings," Great Ages
of Man Series,
Time-Life Books, Time, Inc., New York, 1967.
Bradford, Sir William, and Winslow, Edward,
"Of Plymouth
Plantation" and Mourt's Relation," Massachusetts
Historical
Society Collections, Tri-centennial Edition,
1922.
"Chronicles of American Indian Protest," The
Council on
Interracial Books for Children, Fawcett Pub.
Inc.,
Greenwich, Conn., 1971.
Epstein, Sam and Beryl, "European Folk Festivals,"
Garrand
Publishing Company, Champagne, Illinois, 1968.
Dalgliesh, Alice, "The Thanksgiving Story,"
Charles
Scribner's Sons, New York, 1954.
Forbes, Jack D., "The Indian in America's Past,"
Prentice
Hall, Inc., 1964.
Graff, Stewart and Polly Ann, "Squanto, Indian
Adventurer,"
Garrard Publishing Company, Illinois, 1965.
"Handbook of North American Indian series,
Volume 15,
"History of the Indians of the Northeast,"
Smithsonian
Institute, Washington, D.C., 1978.
"Harpers' Popular Cyclopaedia of United States
History,"
Vol. 1 & 2, Harper and Brothers, Pub.,
Franklin Square, New
York, 1892.
Jennings, Francis, "The Invasion of America,"
W.W. Norton
and Company, Inc., New York, 1976.
Larsen, Charles M., "The Real Thanksgiving,"
Tacoma Public
Schools, Tacoma, Washington, 1981.
Leiser, Julia, "Famous American Indians and
Tribes," Youth
Publications, Saturday Evening Post Company,
1977.
Ross, Cathy and Fernandes, Roger, "Woodland
Culture Area,"
Curriculum Associates, Seattle, Washington,
1979.
Russell, Howard S., "Indians in New England
Before the
Mayflower," University Press of New England,
Hanover, New
Hampshire, 1986.
Simmons, William S., "Spirit of the New England
Tribes,
Indian History and Folklore 1620-1984," University
Press of
New England, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1985.
Gwa! Gwa! Gwa!
Now the time has come!
Hear us, Lord
of the Sky!
We are here to speak the truth,
for you do not
hear lies,
We are your children, Lord of the Sky.
Now begins the Gayant' gogwus
This sacred
fire and sacred tobacco
And through this smoke
We offer our
prayers
We are your children, Lord of the Sky.
Now in the beginning of all things
You provided
that we inherit your creation
You said: I shall make the earth
on which people
shall live
And they shall look to the earth as their
mother
And they shall say, "It is she who supports
us."
You said that we should always be thankful
For our earth and for each other
So it is that we are gathered here
We are your children, Lord of the Sky.
Now again the smoke rises
And again we offer prayers
You said that food should be placed beside us
And it should be ours in exchange for our labor.
You thought that ours should be a world
where green grass of many kinds should grow
You said that some should be medicines
And that one should be Ona'o
the sacred food, our sister corn
You gave to her two clinging sisters
beautiful Oa'geta, our sister beans
and bountiful Nyo'sowane, our sister squash
The three sacred sisters; they who sustain us.
This is what you thought, Lord of the Sky.
Thus did you think to provide for us
And you ordered that when the warm season comes,
That we should see the return of life
And remember you, and be thankful,
and gather here by the sacred fire.
So now again the smoke arises
We the people offer our prayers
We speak to you through the rising smoke
We are thankful, Lord of the Sky.
(Liberally translated)
Chuck Larsen, Seneca
Corn was a very important crop for the people
of the
northeast woodlands. It was the main food
and was eaten at
every meal. There were many varieties of corn
-- white,
blue, yellow and red.
Some of the corn was dried to preserve and
keep it for food
throughout the winter months. Dried corn could
be made into
a food called hominy. To make hominy, the
dried corn was
soaked in a mixture of water and ashed for
two days. When
the kernels had puffed up and split open,
they were drained
and rinsed in cold water. Then the hominy
was stir-fried
over a fire. You can buy canned hominy in
most grocery
stores. Perhaps someone in your class would
like to bring
some for everyone to sample.
Corn was often ground into corn meal, using
wooden mortars
and pestles. The mortars were made of short
logs which were
turned upright and hollowed out on the top
end. The corn
was put in the hollow part and ground by pounding
up and
down with a long piece of wood which was rounded
on both
ends. This was called a pestle.
Corn meal could be used to make cornbread,
corn pudding,
corn syrup, or could be mixed with beans to
make succotash.
A special dessert was made by boiling corn
meal and maple
syrup.
All parts of the corn plant were used. Nothing
was thrown
away. The husks were braided and woven to
make masks,
moccasins, sleeping mats, baskets, and cornhusk
dolls.
Corncobs were used for fuel, to make darts
for a game, and
were tied onto a stick to make a rattle for
ceremonies.
Corn was unknown to the Europeans before they
met the
Indians. Indians gave them the seeds and taught
them how to
grow it. Today in the U.S.A., more farm land
is used to
grow corn (60 million acres) than any other
grain.
From: _Woodland Culture Area_, Ross/Fernandes,
1979
ROAST CORN SOUP
('o' nanh-dah) by Miriam Lee
SENECA
12 ears white corn in milky stage
1 # salt pork (lean and fat)
1 # pinto or kidney beans
Using low heat, take corn and roast on top
of range (using
griddle if your stove is equipped with one)
and keep
rotating corn until ears are a golden brown.
After the corn
is roasted, take ears and put on foil covered
cookie sheet
until cool enough to handle. Scrape each ear
once or twice
With a sharp knife. Corn is ready for making
soup. While
corn is being roasted, fill kettle (5 qt.
capacity)
approximately 3/4 full with hot water and
put on to boil
along with salt pork which has been diced
in small pieces
for more thorough cooking. Beans should be
sorted for
culls, washed twice and parboiled for approximately
35-45
minutes. After parboiling beans, rinse well
in tepid water
2 or 3 times. Corn and beans should then be
put in kettle
with pork and cooked for about 1 hour. (Note:
Beans can
also be soaked overnight to cut cooking time
when preparing
soup).
SUCCOTASH SENECA
Ingredients
green corn with kernels removed
fresh shelled beans
enough water to cover
salt and pepper to taste
cubed salt pork
Mix the corn and beans and cover with water.
Cook the
mixture over medium heat for about a half
hour. (Be sure to
stir the mixture to avoid scorching.) Add
pepper and salt
and salt pork if desired.
FROM: _Our Mother Corn_
Mather/Fernandes/Brescia
1981
This legend is told by Mrs. Snow,
a talented Seneca craftswoman.
Many, many years ago, the corn, one of the
Three Sisters,
wanted to make something different. She made
the moccasin
and the salt boxes, the mats, and the face.
She wanted to
do something different so the Great Spirit
gave her
permission. So she made the little people
out of corn husk
and they were to roam the earth so that they
would bring
brotherhood and contentment to the Iroquois
tribe. But she
made one that was very, very beautiful. This
beautiful corn
person, you might call her, went into the
woods and saw
herself in a pool. She saw how beautiful she
was and she
became very vain and naughty. That began to
make the people
very unhappy and so the Great Spirit decided
that wasn't
what she was to do. She didn't pay attention
to his
warning, so the last time the messenger came
and told her
that she was going to have her punishment.
Her punishment
would be that she'd have no face, she would
not converse
with the Senecas or the birds or the animals.
She'd roam
the earth forever, looking for something to
do to gain her
face back again. So that's why we don't put
any faces on
the husk dolls.
From: _Our Mother Corn_
Mather/Fernandes/Brescia
1981
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To have a current Center For World Indigenous
Studies Publication
Catalogue sent to you via e-mail, send a request to
FTP ftp.halcyon.com /pub/FWDP/CWIS
Center For World Indigenous Studies
P.O. Box 2574
Olympia, WA U.S.A.
98507-2574
BBS: 206-786-9629