Y Mag; Christopher Nyerges, Mountain Views News (mtnviewsnews.com) from the latest hardcopy of the Pasadena Weekly (11/23/23); Dhr. Seven, Xochitl (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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| Wampanoag Leader Massasoit Sachem also known as Ousamequin |
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| Massasoit smoking a ceremonial [peace] pipe with Governor John Carver in Plymouth, 1621. |
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| Interview of Samoset with Pilgrims (1853) |
In our age of commercialization, many of us have become jaded about the holidays, feeling that these are nothing more than celebrations invented by big-box stores and greeting card manufacturers to increase spending.
Let's look at Thanksgiving and attempt to discern its actual roots, separate from the myth and custom that has become the norm.
In third grad, we did little skits at Thanksgiving, where Native Americans and Pilgrims met.
The Pilgrims were dressed in black and white, were clean, with black powder guns, whereas the Native Americans wore loin cloths and feathers, carried bows, and were a bit grimier, when, of course, reality was just the opposite.
(davidstanleyweed) Our Story of the sachem Massasoit, 4/20/19
Somewhere in the back of my 10-year-old mind, I knew that a lot of killing went on between the invading Pilgrims and the settled Native Americans.
This was apparently a moment of peace where all came together for a feast over a dead bird and blood colored cranberry sauce, in the middle of the forest, on one Thursday in November a very long time ago. But what really happened?
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| Tisquantum (Squanto) teaches Pilgrims to plant |
First, let's meet the players: There was Massasoit Sachem or Ousamequin, the "leader" or sachem of the Native American Wampanoag confederacy or coalition that controlled Southeastern Massachusetts. There was Samoset, the leader of a group to the north; and there was Tisquantum ("Squanto"), who spoke English and was there as an interpreter. He had plans of his own. [There was also the starving crew of the Mayflower.]
Tisquantum had been taken to Britain and had lived there for a year and half, where he learned British English. Heas distrusted by Massasoit because it was feared he might side with the Pilgrims, but he was need as an interpreter.
The colonists were residing on what had been a Wampanoag village site, but the native inhabitants were wiped out five years earlier by a European disease, and they brought many.
On March 21, 1621, before there was any such thing as the United States of American, these three native men walked into the Pilgrim village, (actually, more of a hovel by most accounts) to make a deal....
Then they ate. More Republished in the Pasadena Weekly on Nov. 23, 2023.
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