Thanksgiving Was a Real Event--For the 32 or is it 64 Million Cousins with Mayflower Ancestors (and everyone else, too)

Image--W.L. Taylor, from Ladies Home Journal, November 1897

However many of us there are that share identical snippets of DNA from the early American colonists, we know it's a lot. Angela Davis recently learned that she shares the Brewster clan in her ancestry. I grew up being told that we were Mayflower but it was not something that entered my consciousness, or instilled any kind of extra pride, or exclusiveness in me. Perhaps the opposite. For example, growing up on Cape Cod, I was totally unaware of another Mayflower story that unfolded in 1969-70 involving a teacher from our neighboring high school.

Frank James, a long time music director at Nauset High School and Wampanoag leader, was asked by Gov. Frank Sargent to give a thoughtful but critical dissenting speech at the 350th Plymouth anniversary program. The annual Thanksgiving celebration was traditionally presented as a harmonious gathering of the two cultures in autumnal splendor and was now infused with a new a spirit of inclusiveness that led to the invitation of Frank James to give a speech in the program. What he planned to deliver on this auspicious occasion, was an indictment of the Pilgrims for robbing American Indian graves, stealing from essential food caches, and decimating the native population with disease. The speech continued with an affirmation that the Wampanoag and other Indians would regain their rightful place in the country, forging a new, more Indian America.*

Mr. James was taken off the program. Subsequently, he was successful in organizing a protest that attracted Native American sympathizers from all over the country. This led to big changes in the Plymouth Plantation's representation of the colony.

In the mid 1990's when I visited Plymouth Plantation with my children, evidence of the Wampanoag story was prominently displayed with domed wigwams made with furs, food being prepared in a traditional manner, and video interviews with Wampanoags in addition to Pilgrims. From my perspective, I learned a great deal that day of the Native Americans and so did the children.

Have you visited Plymouth Plantation? What do you think of the Native representation? Please subscribe to this blog below (all the way to the bottom) and perhaps leave a comment. Thank you.

* Frank James, advocate for American Indians, dies at 77 Cape Cod Standard Times, Feb 21, 2001