I will say this only once: knowledge is POWER, and to toss away the opportunity to gain knowledge is to toss away the wide-open avenue towards Truth in this world...a world, here in the US, that often distorts any semblance of 'truth', so it seems these days...From birth we are told what to believe in, what is right, what is wrong, what actually happened when, what you can expect to happen later...we were fed and molded ideologies of which to place faith and values in.
The beautiful Path to Truth is to realize there is no one answer to anything...there is no one 'right' or 'wrong' way to look at anything...and just because we were taught that 'such and such' happened doesn't mean it did, at least not in the way we'd been raised and taught to believe. We need only do one thing: keep an open mind and be willing to seek our own Truth.
If I asked you to write a one-page paper about the original 'Thanksgiving', what would you write? What were you taught? What mental images come to mind when you think of that 'first' day of giving thanks for the Bounty of Life? I am attaching a speech a fellow flute maker made on behalf of the First Nations Peoples of what really happend back in the 1600s...and beyond...
Just a heads up, folks - it will rock your boat. Most likely you were never taught this, and for reasons that fit the our American way of looking at 'truth'...I wasn't taught this, not in any of my classrooms...but especially with my honoring of the Native American flute I have opened my eyes and ears to a Truth of which, sadly, few are aware.
If you want to stick to your mental construct of what took place, don't read this, please. If you are willing to at least accept the possibility that you really don't know what actually happened, and are willing to look at other facets (at times painful) that exist, I invite you to read on.
Be true to yourself...and so the following post from a well-respected elder Barry 'White Crow' Higgins on what Thanksgiving truths we were not taught...and many refuse to even look at, much less acknowledge...I will add nothing more, but I do hope you will at the very least read and mull over his speech...and may every day be one of Thanks Giving for each of you.
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"I have been asked here to day to speak of Thanksgiving from the Native perspective. I am grateful for this opportunity. It is a however a difficult story to be told as it shakes the history most of us have grown to know. It had little to do with turkey, potatoes, or pie."
"Mid winter of 1620 the Americas saw the landing of the Pilgrims in the area known today as Plymouth MA. They were however not the first to land on these shores. In 1614 a British expedition had already landed there. When they left they took 24 Indians as slaves and left smallpox, syphilis and gonorrhea behind. That plague swept the so called "tribes of New England", and destroyed some of the villages totally."
"The new 1620 settlers were not farmers so their crop failed miserably. Were it not for the guidance of a Pawtuxet named Squanto they would have surely perished. Squanto also negotiated a peace treaty with the Wampanoag people. The next year William Bradford declared a three day feast after the first harvest. It would later become a part of the myth known as Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims did not call it that nor were the Indians who attended the feast even invited. The invitation was only to Squanto and Chief Massasoit, They then invited over 90 brothers and sisters to the affair much to the distaste of the Europeans."
"There were no prayers and the “Indians” were never invited back again. So contrary to popular myth, the Puritans were not friends to the Natives. For they believed they were the chosen people of the infinite God, granting them heavenly dispensation for any actions against a people predestined for damnation. Bradford later wrote “It pleased God to visit these Indians with a great sickness though in this regard God was not perfect for 50 of every thousand Indians has survived.” By 1641 things had really begun to deteriorate and the forth coming of the Natives people forgotten."
"A 1641 massacre of the Pequot’s in Connecticut was very successful so much so the churches declared a day of “thanksgiving” to celebrate victory over the now heathen first peoples. This was the first real use of the term of "thanksgiving" to mark a day of celebration. The celebration included the decapitation of the heads of eighty Natives which were tossed into the streets for the New Settlers to kick about as a sign of power and defiance. Also at this time the The Govennor Kieft of Manhattan offered the first use of scalping as a form of bounty of 20 shillings per scalp and 40 for each prisoners they could use to sell into slavery. Permission was given to rape or enslave any Native women and enslave any children under 14. Law gave permission to “kill savages on sight at will.”
"By 1675 the Native people under Metacomet fought back with vengeance. But even Metacomet would meet his fate at the hands of the Europeans when he was hunted down and killed, body dismembered, hands sent to Boston, and head sent to Plymouth to be placed on a pole on a Thanksgiving Day in 1767."
"Early American history goes on to honor those who would contribute to the genocide of the First Peoples of the Americas. George Washington ordered the attacks on the six nations of the Iroquois despite the gift of 700 bushels of corn he and his men at Valley Forge received from the Oneida peoples. Survival of the troops at the fate of the saviors themselves. Lord Jeffery Amherst was the conceiver and first American user of biological warfare with his inspired use of smallpox infected blankets given as gifts to the natives...later to be repeat by Andrew Jackson with the Seminoles. Locally (here in New England) we know the massacre at what we now call Wissatinnewaq by Captain Turner against elders, women, and children. "
"This history would repeat itself with the truth poorly documented and rarely spoken. As recent as 1967 the state of Vermont was performing involuntary sterilization of Native females without permission.5 to 6 Million Jews and Gypsies were decimated by the Nazi regime in World War II. These facts are well remembered and the world mourns these events. Not to minimize these events or the souls of those victimized, these numbers pale in comparison to the events of the Americas. It has been estimated that over 100 million Native Americans were killed by the European invaders during the establishment of the nation we know today."
"Thanksgiving was, without the declared name, a tradition of the Native Peoples a time to give thanks to the Creator for the bounty of the harvest and their lives. As the last crops were harvested time was taken to reflect and give thanks. Although short lived, for three days peace and fellowship was shared in New England back in 1621, a gratefulness was shown for the compassion of one peoples to another and the gifts of Grandfather and Mother Earth acknowledged and shared unconditionally.I do not speak these truths to solicit sympathy or the righting of ancestral wrongs. History’s can not be changed but truth is tool that will give us an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past and use this knowledge to prevent them from happening again."
"We know genocide is happening in many areas of the world today. We can pray for these victim souls and by living a better example we can effect change. I would suggest that Thanksgiving go beyond the gratefulness of the harvest and should be dedicated as well to all our ancestors and give thanks for the things they have taught us with their lives of triumph and failure. By awakening I pray we may learn to make a better tomorrow."
Barry White Crow Higgins
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