Thanksgiving is not what you think

Who can remember the days in Elementary School when we first learned about the history of Thanksgiving; how drably dressed pilgrims sailed to America on the Mayflower and learned about growing corn and many other survival necessities from the Native Americans, including the famous Squanto. We learned about how the Native Americans and the pilgrims became friends, and how Thanksgiving was a feast of giving thanks, thus the name of the holiday, where the pilgrims paid the Native Americans back for all that they had done.

Well, you can throw all that out the window.

The Thanksgiving we had learned about was naught but an 1898 fictional propaganda declaration by the government in order to try bringing a racial diverse America together.

Shockingly enough, Thanksgiving, as we know it, was not a feast of thanks, but rather a meeting for a treaty that would secure the lands of Plymouth. What we celebrate now on the last Thursday of November is not a happy feast, but rather the first step colonists took in swiping the land from the Native Americans, a process that would take at least a hundred more years and end with the destruction of a culture and innumerable bloodshed.

Contrary to popular belief, pilgrims did not wear black top hats with buckles, nor black belts with buckles. They smoked tobacco, they drank beer, and they were a model of what a Puritanical society is not supposed to be.

The pilgrims were not the ones who supplied most of the food, either. Captain Miles Standish, leader of the pilgrims, invited Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, to the feast. Standish was immediately stunned by the incredible number of relatives that arrived for the party- he was not ready for such a number. As a result, Massasoit ordered his men to bring back food- much more food than the pilgrims.

And the most shocking story of all is Squanto. We learned that Squanto befriended the pilgrims, taught them much, and eventually went back to England with an explorer named John Weymouth. The true tale is much more interesting.

Tisquantum, Squanto's true name, would live with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, working as an interpreter and guide for various sea captains. Unfortunately, in 1614 he was kidnapped by Thomas Hunt, a fellow captain to John Smith, after Hunt tricked and betrayed Smith. Hunt subsequently sailed off with his 20 or so captives to Spain and attempted to sell them into slavery.

Fortunately for Squanto, local friars found out about this ploy and took the captives in, instructed them in Christianity. Squanto lived in Spain until 1618, when he boarded a ship for New England, met Thomas Dermer (a close friend of both Gorges and Squanto), who subsequently notified Gorges, and eventually after working as an interpreter settled down in Patuxet and lived out his life. However, it is worth noting that Squanto was no kind-hearted Native American, as records indicate that by 1621 he had become corrupted with power.

It is astonishing how brainwashed we truly are about Thanksgiving; most public schools teach students about Thanksgiving in a fictitious manner. This is not to say that the Thanksgiving we celebrate today is a horrible entity- indeed it was a great act by the federal government to try to bring the different ethnicities together. But when you celebrate Thanksgiving from now on, keep in mind that you are not celebrating a feast where pilgrims thanked the Native Americans.

For more related links, visit:
http://members.aol.com/calebj/squanto.html
http://www.2020tech.com/thanks/temp.html#top
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25419