The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: dandi on November 25, 2010, 03:22:09 PM
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Because happiness is overrated.
Amerigo Vespucci (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-25-10 01:02 PM
Original message
First "Thanksgiving" celebrated safe return home after murdering 700 Pequot men, women, & children.
Richard Greener
Novelist and award-winning essayist
Posted: November 25, 2010 10:04 AM
The True Story Of Thanksgiving
The idea of the American Thanksgiving feast is a fairly recent fiction. The idyllic partnership of 17th Century European Pilgrims and New England Indians sharing a celebratory meal appears to be less than 120 years-old. And it was only after the First World War that a version of such a Puritan-Indian partnership took hold in elementary schools across the American landscape. We can thank the invention of textbooks and their mass purchase by public schools for embedding this "Thanksgiving" image in our modern minds. It was, of course, a complete invention, a cleverly created slice of cultural propaganda, just another in a long line of inspired nationalistic myths.
The first Thanksgiving Day did occur in the year 1637, but it was nothing like our Thanksgiving today. On that day the Massachusetts Colony Governor, John Winthrop, proclaimed such a "Thanksgiving" to celebrate the safe return of a band of heavily armed hunters, all colonial volunteers. They had just returned from their journey to what is now Mystic, Connecticut where they massacred 700 Pequot Indians. Seven hundred Indians - men, women and children - all murdered.
This day is still remembered today, 373 years later. No, it's been long forgotten by white people, by European Christians. But it is still fresh in the mind of many Indians. A group calling themselves the United American Indians of New England meet each year at Plymouth Rock on Cole's Hill for what they say is a Day of Mourning. They gather at the feet of a stature of Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag to remember the long gone Pequot. They do not call it Thanksgiving. There is no football game afterward.
How then did our modern, festive Thanksgiving come to be? It began with the greatest of misunderstandings, a true clash of cultural values and fundamental principles. What are we thankful for if not - being here, living on this land, surviving and prospering? But in our thankfulness might we have overlooked something? Look what happened to the original residents who lived in the area of New York we have come to call Brooklyn. A group of them called Canarsees obligingly, perhaps even eagerly, accepted various pieces of pretty colored junk from the Dutchman Peter Minuet in 1626. These trinkets have long since been estimated to be worth no more than 60 Dutch guilders at the time - $24 dollars in modern American money. In exchange, the Canarsees "gave" Peter Minuet the island of Manhattan. What did they care? They were living in Brooklyn.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-greener/the-true-...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9629956
Some DUmmies are more than happy to scourge themselves with brambles:
nadinbrzezinski (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-25-10 01:15 PM
Response to Original message
2. Sh... Going against the myth
By the way remember to raise your glass to remember the slaves, both black and white, that built the colonial economy, as well as the Indian captives.
Oh I do, madeinbrzybrzybrzybrzy. If they were here, I'd offer them all a turkey leg.
Gregorian (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-25-10 01:16 PM
Response to Original message
3. I wonder how many native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.
Greyhound (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-25-10 01:27 PM
Response to Original message
8. Yes, celebrating slaughter with a feast goes back further than recorded history.
This has always been an ambiguous day to me as well.
panader0 (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-25-10 01:33 PM
Response to Original message
9. Hmmm................I rec'd this and it's still at zero
Some folks are uncomfortable with the truth.
Or maybe they're just tired of the condescending, "We should all be ashamed" shit. Ya think?
Some DUmmies are tired of it:
cherokeeprogressive (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-25-10 01:12 PM
Response to Original message
1. Mmmm I love turkey, Thanksgiving with my family... football... n/t
cherokeeprogressive (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-25-10 01:22 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. This one does, heartily and with gusto... with friends, family, football...
and without shame. I loves me some turkey dinner.
My whole Native American family does as well.
Strange to be the only person awake at my house though, we had a late night last night. Oh well, the bird is stuffed and in the oven. That's all that counts at the moment!
Cherokeeprogressive is one of the less distasteful primitives of the political forums. Someone needs to tell him, though, that his family is obviously self-loathing and has sold out to the white power structure. Preferably, it should be a white Northeastern suburban trust fund liberal who tells him, because they know best.
hfojvt (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-25-10 01:36 PM
Response to Original message
10. of course, that is not the true story of the first
I was just reading this on wiki yesterday
"The event now commemorated by the United States at the end of November each year is more properly termed a "harvest festival". The original festival was probably held in early October 1621 and was celebrated by the 53 surviving Pilgrims, along with Massasoit and 90 of his men. Three contemporary accounts of the event survive: Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford; Mourt's Relation probably written by Edward Winslow; and New England's Memorial penned by Plymouth Colony Secretary – and Bradford's nephew – Capt. Nathaniel Morton.<41> The celebration lasted three days and featured a feast that included numerous types of waterfowl, wild turkeys and fish procured by the colonists, and five deer brought by the Native Americans.<42>"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony#.22First_T...
The slaughter at Mystic took place on May 26th, 1637 - so it is not anywhere near the date of our Thanksgiving celebration, although people do generally give thanks when their husbands or sons or brothers or uncles return safely from a battle.
Interestingly enough, a detail I am just reading, the last of the Pequots were killed, not by the English, but by the Mohawks - other Indians! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pequot_War#The_Mystic_mass...
But I hate to spoil the celebration of another "white-people-are-so-evil" day. So cheers. Down with whitey!
I'll be outside on the roof, trying to get a tan. Which is really tough to do this late in November.
But while I am up there, I may try to rig up the stupid lights, which is even more of a pain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yasSkqJBytk
Awwwww. Talk about a turd in a punchbowl.
Bold Lib (501 posts) Thu Nov-25-10 01:49 PM
Response to Reply #13
17. Truth? This event happened 16 years AFTER the first Thanksgiving.
That is the truth.
NoodleyAppendage (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-25-10 02:07 PM
Response to Original message
20. Well...we're not celebrating the day in that manner in anymore. Prototypical jerk post.
This is exactly why we have communication problems with those on the Right and fail to capture more of the populace towards our way of thinking. Give it a rest.
What do you hope to accomplish (other than pissing people off)?
niyad (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-25-10 01:48 PM
Response to Original message
15. ah, more unrec;s--heaven forfend we should learn how the european invaders "settled" an inhabitied
land.
Yeah, like we don't hear this kind of BS from you every Thanksgiving...and Columbus Day...and Christmas...and Independence Day...and Veterans Day...and Memorial Day...and Flag Day...and... ...
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First "Thanksgiving" celebrated safe return home after murdering 700 Pequot men, women, & children.
Richard Greener
Novelist and award-winning essayist
Must write fiction in a way that stupid people believe it's real.
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OK we'll admit we stole the indians land if you DUmmies will admit you've been stealing our tax dollars.
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Swamp Rat Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Thu Nov-25-10 01:40 PM
Response to Original message
11. **** whoever unrecced this thread
May you suffer a painful bottom boil very soon.
cherokeeprogressive Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Thu Nov-25-10 02:04 PM
Response to Reply #11
19. **** me then because I unrecc'd it with a huge smile.
Mmmm can you smell what's cooking at my house? I can't wait til everyone's up and around... gonna be a GREAT Day!
But you go on with your bad self and be angry at events of a few hundred years ago that you had no control over.
Just don't **** it for the rest of us.
I'd ****ing unrec it again if I could. All day.
:lmao:
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I heard this guy while out running some errands yesterday, wrote the website down for a look see:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb2-kgLYgzE&feature=player_embedded#![/youtube]
weblink: www.dontknowmuch.com
Now back to the Ka'boys ~ Saints. Mmmmmmm, turkey, football, dessert, football..........life is good.
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niyad Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Thu Nov-25-10 01:48 PM
Response to Original message
15. ah, more unrec;s--heaven forfend we should learn how the european invaders "settled" an inhabitied
land.
boppers Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Thu Nov-25-10 03:32 PM
Response to Reply #15
30. Heaven forbid a post get unrec'ed for blatantly twisting facts.
We shouldn't whitewash history, nor should it be redwashed, yellowwashed, greenwashed, whatever.
Bold Lib (501 posts)
Thu Nov-25-10 01:48 PM
Response to Original message
16. Unrecommended for passing off an event as reason for Thanksgiving that took place 16 years AFTER
the first Thanksgiving. Boo. . .
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Gregorian (1000+ posts) Thu Nov-25-10 01:16 PM
Response to Original message
3. I wonder how many native Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.
Quite a few DUmbass for, if you were born here in America, you are a Native American no matter what your ethnic background might be.
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My part Cree daughters all "love them some turkey," too. lol
I know a few hundred Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Lakota that are eating well and enjoying the day, too.
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I surmise the Wampanoag were somewhat less than broken up at the demise of 700 Pequods, and so the mutuality of the event is not really tarnished by this bit of modern ethnocentric retrospection.
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Interestingly enough, if you read George Washington's address to congress establishing the holiday, neither turkey, nor native Americans is mentioned at all.
Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation:
WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"
NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our sasety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.
(signed) G. Washington
Oh.....and note to liberals........you should notice the absence of "religion" in his proclamation....... :-)
doc
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I refuse to have any white guilt. I was born with this skin color and have never oppressed a single person.
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I think turkeys was Ben Franklin's thing, and he was an old man by the time the Constitution was finally ratified in 1788.
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I think turkeys was Ben Franklin's thing, and he was an old man by the time the Constitution was finally ratified in 1788.
I believe it was him who wanted the turkey as our national bird.
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I believe it was him who wanted the turkey as our national bird.
You are correct, sir.
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I think turkeys was Ben Franklin's thing, and he was an old man by the time the Constitution was finally ratified in 1788.
About 2 years before he died.
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Cherokeeprogressive is one of the less distasteful primitives of the political forums. Someone needs to tell him, though, that his family is obviously self-loathing and has sold out to the white power structure. Preferably, it should be a white Northeastern suburban trust fund liberal who tells him, because they know best.
:rotf: That's awesome. Either that or a red diaper doper baby type lawyer.
H5!
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Swamp Rat Donating Member (1000+ posts)
Thu Nov-25-10 01:40 PM
Response to Original message
11. **** whoever unrecced this thread
May you suffer a painful bottom boil very soon.
becomes
Name removed (0 posts)
Thu Nov-25-10 01:40 PM
Response to Original message
11. Deleted sub-thread
Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
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I surmise the Wampanoag were somewhat less than broken up at the demise of 700 Pequods, and so the mutuality of the event is not really tarnished by this bit of modern ethnocentric retrospection.
You mean all the natives of North America weren't holding hands and singing Kumbayaa around the campfire before the white man came?
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You mean all the natives of North America weren't holding hands and singing Kumbayaa around the campfire before the white man came?
Yup...and neither were the Whites. I wouldn't have given a dime for the chances of an unrepentant Catholic Spaniard who washed ashore from a shipwreck there, either.