THE THANKSGIVING TRUTH

Everyone in America knows the story about the First Thanksgiving.  Even the kids in Kindergarten know the real story. 

In 1621 The Pilgrims and the Indians sat down and had a nice, friendly meal together.  No fighting was allowed on that day.  Everyone sat down at the Plymouth Plantation to a meal of turkey, corn, fruit, pumpkin pie, apple cider, and potatoes.  There was a big Horn of Plenty in the middle of the table.  In fact, the Pilgrims and the Indians started that whole Horn of Plenty tradition on that first Thanksgiving Day.  An Indian named, Squanto, was one of the guests.  The point of the dinner was to celebrate the bountiful harvest and prove to the Pilgrims and Indians that they could live together in peace.

That story works for me.  In fact, every Thanksgiving I run it through my head while I’m baking a pie, basting the turkey, or making the meat sauce for the lasagna.  It was a nice story to tell our kids when they were beating the hell out of each other in the living room, while they were watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

“If those Pilgrims and Indians could manage to get along for one day, I think you two can, too,” I’d yell to them from the kitchen.  “If they could have a civilized meal together, without it turning into a food fight, then you guys can at least try.”

Yes, it’s a nice story.  It’s downright heartwarming.  And it may be a downright lie.

I thought that my days of learning the shocking truth about holidays were long gone.  I slowly got over the fact that Santa Claus wasn’t the guy I thought he was.  I dealt with the Easter Bunny myth.  But Thanksgiving was one holiday I could count on to not let me down.  It’s not like there was a giant turkey named, Tom, who left presents for us every year and whose true identity would one day be revealed.  No.  Thanksgiving was safe.  Nobody was going to mess with Thanksgiving.

Then I stumbled across some disturbing information.  Apparently some folks think that the “friendly” first Thanksgiving wasn’t exactly organized in friendship only.  It seems that there was an ulterior motive.  The first winter for the Pilgrims was devastating.  Of the original 102 Pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower, only 46 Pilgrims remained.  Quite simply, the Pilgrims were outnumbered by the Wampanoag Indians two to one.  The Pilgrims thought it best to keep the Indians on their “good” side, until more Pilgrims could arrive. 

The Pilgrims thought that the Indians savages were powerful and dangerous.  In fact, they thought them to be of Satan.  Cotton Mather, one of the Puritan elders, praised God for the devastating plague of smallpox, which wiped out many of the Indians.  The Puritans and Pilgrims thought of themselves as the “Chosen Elect,” mentioned in the Book of Revelation.  According to them, everyone else in the world had to be “purified” and they were going to be the ones to do it.  They may have been our country’s first founders, but they were also our country’s first fundamentalists.

The Wampanoag Indian weren’t the “friendly” Indians who we picture at the First Thanksgiving table, either.  They knew the power of the White Man and didn’t trust him.  But their religious beliefs taught them to be charitable and to help those who came to them in need. 

So what really happened on that First Thanksgiving Day?  Actually, the celebration lasted three days, not one.  When the Pilgrims invited the Indians, they had underestimated how many were going to show up.  They ran out of food.  The Indians went back home to get more.  In fact, the Indians supplied most of the food, even though they were the Pilgrims’ guests.

No one knows for sure if turkey was served on that First Thanksgiving Day.  But there was most certainly venison.  Potatoes were still thought to be “poisonous” and were not present at the feast.  Nor was there pumpkin pie or apple cider.  There was probably boiled pumpkin. And there was most definitely fish, berries, watercress, lobster, dried fruit, clams and plums. 

The Horn of Plenty tradition was not started by the Pilgrims or Indians.  It wasn’t even started by Americans!  The Greeks are responsible for the notion of the Horn of Plenty.

Did the Pilgrims and Indians live together in peace after that First Thanksgiving?  Nope.  In fact the children of those very Pilgrims and Indians were fighting each other in the conflict known as, “King Philip’s War.”  At the end of that war, most of the Indians were killed.  Some of them were actually later sold into slavery by the Puritans! 

Can this be?  Is this really the truth?  Have I been told a lie all of these years by my parents and even my teachers?  Am I going to have to face all the rest of my Thanksgivings with cynicism and bitterness?  Am I going to tell my grandchildren that the First Thanksgiving was a fake?  Am I going to tell them that the Pilgrims and Indians had weapons hidden under their seats and that they were checking their watercress for poison?  Am I going to explain that the Pilgrims’ fundamentalist attitude wasn’t much different from al Qaeda’s?

No.  I won’t.  I can’t do it!  That would be like telling them that there was no Santa Claus, before they even had a chance to leave cookies and milk for him.  I’m going to tell them the beautiful story about the Pilgrims and the Indians.  They can find out the truth on their own. 

Besides, who knows what really happened that First Thanksgiving Day?  Who knows what was really in the hearts and minds of those men?  They must have been having a good time.  The party lasted three days, didn’t it?