A Thanksgiving Myth
Dear Friends,
It’s officially still a mad dash for toilet paper, cleaning supplies, holiday food items and connection. Over the past weeks, after writing on hope and bearing witness, I find myself at a loss. The grief comes in waves - and it continues to hit in different spaces.
My 9 year old son watched a video on the history of Thanksgiving - at the end, the educators encouraged students to mourn the losses of Native tribes. Mourn the losses. Mourn the losses.
The Wampanoag peoples of what is currently Rhode Island and surrounding states were struck by European illnesses in 1616 and in a few years, two-thirds of the Wampanoag peoples died. (A neighboring tribe, the Narraguasett were virtually unscathed by the same illness.) Oosamequan, a Wampanoag leader knew he needed to protect his tribe.
Meanwhile, the separatists from England had moved to Holland where they were free to practice their version of Christianity. They didn’t stay in Holland. They sailed for North America. The Mayflower docked in a cold November. About 100 people came ashore and were ill-equipped to survive. They stole from Wampanoag tribal storehouses and looted their burial grounds for valuables. Only half of these separatists survived their first winter.
Samoset, a native from Maine, walked to greet the settlers in the Spring, and arrange a meeting with the Wampanoag. A few days later the settlers and Wampanoag exchanged hostages, Oosamequan and John Carver made a treaty to defend one another from attack. Oosamequan also sent John Carver an English Speaking ambassador, Tisquantum (who they called Squanto) to teach them how to survive.
The English settlers chose a European disease-decimated village of the Wampanoag tribe to build their first settlement, Plymouth.
In the fall of 1621, the settlers fired guns to celebrate their harvest. The Wampanoag tribe showed up with 90 warriors to investigate what was happening. Finding the “celebration”, they went hunting and brought back additional food to join in the meal.
Why the history lesson? Well, Thanksgiving was officially declared a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to unify the nation. Lincoln used myths and lore and aggrandizement of the settlers accomplishments in an attempt to unify the deeply divided nation he was attempting to lead. This is why we celebrate Thanksgiving. The food, drink, decorations are more representations of an 1863 New England than the 1621 version.
Unity is a worthy goal. But, it must be built on truth.
Bravery and gratitude are both worthy values to aspire to - and a part of this bravery is embracing the stories of the land on which we live. The stories of the Wampanoag tribe tell me to investigate the narrative. We have been fighting to hear, see, taste and smell the multiple views of the many people groups which make up the population of the (current) United States. Months of protests, a pandemic and divisive election season are HUGE signs the story of our land has not been told with the truth it needs to heal. This is a place to begin.
While the Thanksgiving myth has led to expressions of gratitude, it also leads to the erasure of the stories of Indigenous peoples, such as the Wampanoag and Narragausett tribal peoples.
This national myth doesn’t allow for the dignity of indigenous peoples or allow for the truth of colonization’s violence. We must contend with both.
Perhaps this Thursday, we can all sit, mourn, and honor the peoples who cultivated the earth under our feet, who cared for the animals, and one another. Perhaps as illness rampages across the country we will finally begin to comprehend in the tiniest way how a virus can change the way we work, live, eat, and gather. Perhaps we begin to repent. Perhaps we begin to know gratitude in our repentance.
Perhaps, we take the moment to offer gratitude to God for what we have.
Perhaps we can both mourn and be grateful.
Love and prayers,
Danielle S. Castillejo
Watch this video to get some information on Thanksgiving:
https://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/thanksgiving/