First-ever thanksgiving demystified
First-ever thanksgiving demystified
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00:00 Even at this day and age, there is such a mystery surrounding the first ever Thanksgiving
00:05 with many unable to separate fact from fiction.
00:08 That that's exactly what VOA correspondent Dora McQuarrie tries to shed light on in this
00:15 show.
00:16 This is Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the first Thanksgiving took place.
00:21 A few miles away is a living history museum where the Pilgrim Way of Life and Thanksgiving
00:29 traditions are recreated for visitors.
00:40 The Wampanoag, the indigenous people who shared the first Thanksgiving with the English colonists,
00:45 are also represented.
00:48 Wampanoag tribe member Melissa Costa oversees the exhibit.
00:52 Wampanoag people are still here.
00:53 I want them to think of Wampanoag people as not just in the past or even indigenous people
00:58 as in the past, but as in the present, still making their way, still teaching the public.
01:04 Native people traveled.
01:06 Richard Pickering, the museum's chief historian, says the first Thanksgiving was marked by
01:12 mutual respect.
01:13 Ultimately, what happens in Plymouth in the fall of 1621 is the highest level of diplomacy.
01:21 The Wampanoag, who today have a small reservation nearby, made an alliance with the Pilgrims.
01:27 They even helped the newcomers survive a harsh second winter by teaching them how to plant
01:32 crops and live off the land.
01:34 We should not be projecting any kind of distrust, animus on that event.
01:40 How the two sides ended up sharing the meal is unclear.
01:44 Tribal citizen and educator Paula Peters says the Pilgrims fired guns, which the Wampanoag
01:49 came to investigate.
01:51 At some point they decided, "Oh, this isn't a threat.
01:55 They're just celebrating their harvest, and guess what?
01:58 We're all here now, so we're all going to eat."
01:59 Corn, beans, and squash.
02:01 There's maize.
02:02 Also the standing dish of New England, stewed pumpkin.
02:07 Historians and others make educated guesses about what was eaten during the three-day
02:11 feast.
02:12 The Wampanoag did go and get fowl, which may or may not have been turkey, some cranberries,
02:18 because that was the fruit of the season.
02:21 There is shellfish there as well.
02:23 There is fish.
02:24 We know that there was deer.
02:25 What is not in dispute is the history of upheaval and destruction Native Americans suffered
02:30 once more white colonists arrived.
02:33 They want their land.
02:34 They want them off that land.
02:36 And so you see a changing attitude from one of admiration to one of stereotyping and derision,
02:45 and it's that kind of thought that enables them to want to push them off the land with
02:50 no sense of guilt.
02:52 The pilgrims originally came to America in search of religious freedom, but apparently
02:57 not for all, says Peters.
02:59 They sacrificed so much for religious freedom, but they didn't offer that same grace to the
03:06 indigenous people who lived here to begin with.
03:09 Like many Americans, Peters and Costa plan to spend Thanksgiving with family, but they'll
03:14 also be thinking of the sacrifices of their ancestors.
03:18 Because bark in the spring is full of sap.
03:21 Dora McQuarr, VOA News, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
03:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]