bellker's Blog

Well, it's that time again, Thanksgiving Day..

How do you celebrate it?  What does it mean to you? If you don't celebrate it, why not?  Well, alright, ok, I'll go first: 

To me Thanksgiving is a religious family get together holiday to give thanks. It's like cramming a year of Sundays together into one day and celebrating big with good food, good company and good music and some history discussion so that we always remember the truth and continue to pass it on to our children. So before the Entertainment and eating begins, the history lesson commences... Here's a short summary...

Historically speaking... My family taught us that this is a day that Native American review as a National Day of Mourning. Most children are taught that Native Americans helped the Pilgrims and were invited to the first Thanksgiving feast. This is not accurate. Traditional hospitality and generosity have and continue to be constant Tribal virtues to be practiced at all times. One of a series of feasts reaching back into the Native Americans’ memory seized upon by modern society is: The Wampanoag feast,  Nikkomosachmiawene or Grand Sachem's Council Feast.

It was because of this feast in 1621 (which is when the winter had killed most of the pilgrims) that the Wampanoags had amassed the food to help the Pilgrims thereby creating a new European tradition known today as "Thanksgiving Day.  

But with the Europeans came smallpox, typhus, measles and other diseases to this continent. Native Americans had no natural immunity to these plagues. The Pawtnxet groups were totally wipe out. The Wampanoag was the next closet group. Twenty seven Native Americans were tricked on to ships by Captain Hunt and sold as slaves in Spain when Pilgrims (who did not call themselves pilgrams) and who did not come to America seeking religious freedom - they had that already in Holland. They came here as part of a commercial venture and one of the first things they did when they arrived in Cape code, before they made it to Plymouth was to rob Wampanoag graves at Corn Hill stealing much of the Indians' winter provisions - which is a desecreation and insult to their dead.

The Wampanoags who witnessed this, attacked and some were run off by guns but they returned later to pilgrams running and to get their guns leaving their tools behind.

The Natives took their tools and returned later with the tools and a Native American named Samoset (from Maine), a leader of the Wabnaki people. Samoset walked right up to the Pilgrams and said, "Welcome" in English. He learned the language when he was taken prisoner to England and sold into slavery in Spain. He managed to returned to the Plymouth 6 months before the Pilgrams arrived.

Pilgrams and Samoset talked. Samoset spoke of his friend Tisquantum (Squanto) who also spoke English as he was a prisoner as well and he spoke of Massasoit, the leader of the Wampanoag people.  

Edward Winslow, a Pilgrim lied to Massasoit, saying King James wished to make an alliance and to another English  speaking native, Tisquantum - tricking him into signing a treaty which was heavily slanted in favor of the Pilgraims.

Wampanoags visted the settlements unarmed and all the neighboring nations were contacted by Massasoit believing they had a aliance.

 Tisquantum, a Pawtuxet TAUGHT the Pilgrams how to plant, fertilize corn and other crops, where the best fish were and how to catch them in traps and many other suvival skills. Governer Bradford called Tisquantum "a special instrument set of God". The Native natiosn along the eastern seaboard practiced tribal spirituality, hospitality and generosity - an attibute to this day the fits the Thanksgiving Holiday 

President Lincoln declared the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day Text of Plaque on Cole's Hill    "Since 1970, Native Americans have gathered at noon on Cole's Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native Americans do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims and other European settlers. To them, Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their culture. Participants in a National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience."

So this would be a good blog if I didn't at least tell you what's on the menu usually at our home... so here you go..  Turkey, Chicken dressing from scratch, Baked ham with pineapple sausa, mac and cheese, greens and neckbones (mustard, turnip, collars), corn bread, corn on and off the cob - fried and laid to the side, cranberry sauce, gravy, sweet potatoe pie and cakes all made from scratch including choc., pineapple upside down cake, coconut, and of course tall glasses of water, tea and lemon aid.

Thanksgiving to me is about family, a day to reflect on true history, reconnect with loved ones and remember just how much we have to be thankful for..

So share and share a like... Chat a minute with each other about this wonderful day and of course, let's blog about it.