The Thanksgiving Play
Research to Digest
This research page contains all of the research that went into the show. I have a shortened quick-read version at the top. Below is the longer version in the same order as the short read.
The Thanksgiving Story
Content Warning: This section contains references to death, disease, and genocide of Indigenous People.
This is a link to a helpful site with the historical land of each Native tribe worldwide. It's called Native Land.
Debunking the Myth:
The Thanksgiving story most Americans know of is the one with Plymouth Rock and a bountiful harvest in 1621, where the governor William Bradford invited some friendly native American tribes, including the Wampanoag and their leader Massasoit, where they feasted on fowl and deer, for three days. According to the Wampanoag Tribal record keeper Ramona Peters, the truth of Thanksgiving is not so lovely and heart-warming. Of the 102 people who first boarded the Mayflower to go to America to escape religious persecution, only 53 would unboard the vessel on November 9th, 1620. This is where they then landed at Plymouth Rock, right? Not exactly.
They first landed at Cape Cod, and after an unsuccessful month, they got back in the Mayflower and then made their way to Plymouth Rock, even though none of the original pilgrims wrote about a rock. It wasn’t until 121 years later, in 1741, when 94-year-old Thomas Faunce said that his father told him the original pilgrims swore to him they arrived at the 10-ton boulder when he arrived there in 1623. Whether this is a falsity or not is unknown, but the rock quickly became an icon, and in 1774, they attempted to move it into the town square, but the rock cracked in half. Some saw this as a sign to split from Britain and declare independence. The rock has moved many times and was eventually cemented back together during the American Civil War to symbolize unity.
Jumping back in history to when the pilgrims supposedly landed at Plymouth Rock, the land was not barren and uninhabited, as children are often led to believe. One of the first things they did was take all the corn and beans they could carry, and they robbed the Wampanoag graves. Even with their theft, the pilgrims would have a rough winter, and it wasn’t until they were discovered by Squanto, who is Tisquantum, taught them to plant corn and where the excellent fishing and hunting spots were. Besides getting his name wrong, many Thanksgiving educators don’t question how he knew English when meeting them for the first time.
This is because Tisquantum was one of two dozen men tricked into getting on board a Spanish slave ship under the guise of trading goods. The date of when he was captured is debated, but scholars know Catholic friars freed him, and he made his way to London. He began working for John Slaney, who was colonizing Cuper’s Cove in Newfoundland, which is how Tisquantum found his way back to North America. By 1619, he had made his way back to his tribal home, but much to his despair, all of his people were wiped out by disease. Since the Natives lived mostly isolated from foreign contact, they had no antibodies against common sicknesses in Europe. So when Spain, France, and Britain were coming over to capture slaves or gather resources, they also left their diseases. This caused many natives to die very quickly between 1616 and 1619 in what was called the Great Dying. This wiped out two-thirds of the Wampanoag people, killing 70,000.
Tisquantum was helping Dermer in 1620 when the Wampanoag attacked them near current Martha’s Vineyard, and they captured Tisquantum. When the Mayflower pilgrims came to ask to trade in early 1621, the Wampanoags were cautious as white men usually took them as slaves when they made attempts for positive relations. Samoset spoke English and told them Squanto knew better English than he did. This is when Tisquantum was freed by his people to help the pilgrims. After they didn't need to rely on their Native neighbors, they celebrated in November 1621 to celebrate their first successful harvest and the end of the drought.
When celebrating, the settlers were firing off their guns, and this got the Wampanoags curious, so the chief and 90 of his men prepared for war and went to see what was going on. After the pilgrims explained that they were having a harvest festival, the chief, Massasoit, said he and his men would stay to observe and ensure it was as they said. 90 warriors surrounded the 23 survivors of the Mayflower; one could imagine their fear. It was said that they were extremely kind and polite and fed the warriors there. It is also true that the Natives wanted to repay the kindness, so they brought five deer to add to the feast. It is not said they ate turkey, but fowl is mentioned. The feast lasted three days, during which sports, games, and dancing may have occurred, and they set up temporary huts for sleeping during those nights.
In the actual harvest festival, the Wampanoag were not invited to the party but showed up as unwanted guests. The fact that they were not invited back for another feast speaks volumes. After this, Tisquantum successfully negotiated a treaty where the English helped them defeat the Narragansett but made the Wampanoag people under the English. This meant that they could no longer have weapons at meetings, were at the disposal of the settlers, and had to follow rules made by the English. Tisquantum died in 1622, and scholars propose the idea that his people may have poisoned him after he was not allowed back to the tribe for abusing his power and making up lies he got caught in to gain more power and gifts from both sides.
A recount of the events of the 90 warriors coming to the feast was written by Edward Winslow and published in London in 1622. We base our modern Thanksgiving tale on this account of the events, but it does not mention they were celebrating friendship with, nor did they invite the Wampanoag. It says they showed up while they were already celebrating as they heard the guns. The next recorded Thanksgiving was all-pilgrim as it was to celebrate the Mystic Massacre of 1637, where they killed 600 Pequots in an hour. Then, in 1676, Massasoit's son died at the end of King Philip's War. Before the Great Dying, the Pequots had 8,000 members in their tribe, and only 1,500 after the Great Dying was now less than a thousand. The people died brutally being asked to come out of their houses, and when they did, they were beaten or shot, and if not, they were burned alive.
How did one accidental sharing of food and celebrations of military victories become our modern Thanksgiving? Now that our foundation is there, let's build upon that starting during the Revolutionary War. With George Washington as general of the Continental Army, he declared random days of thanksgiving, such as the first national Thanksgiving, to mark the victory over the British in the Revolutionary War Battle of Saratoga in 1777. The random days would change when he became the first president of the Continental US. On October 3rd, 1789, he said that November 26th was a day designated for “the People of the United States, a day of public thanks-giving” (Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789, Washington). This is the first national celebration of Thanksgiving. While Washington was president for the next eight years, this holiday remained, but as soon as Jefferson took over, this holiday fell to the wayside.
It wasn’t until Abe Lincoln became president that America looked back to its founding to try to unite the nation at war with itself. He was trying to foster an American identity around this holiday, and during the war, the South rejected it as a “Yankee” holiday. After the war, the holiday was solidified, and the story of the savage Native and the Christian pilgrims helped them become dignified. The Wampanoag helping the pilgrims survive became accepted as much of the events were not recorded or well known. This influence is seen in 19th-century artwork, where the natives are depicted as savages with stereotypical large feathers and handmade goods. They also changed the historical clothing the people would be wearing to that which gives more of a religious sense, showing their bravery and purity. The change put in place with the holiday was that it was no longer every 26th but now the last Thursday of every November.
The next shift in the holiday takes it slightly away from national identity, putting it into a commercial category. After the nation had been in the Great Depression, F.D.R. tried to stimulate the economy. In 1939, he moved Thanksgiving to one week earlier, allowing more time for Christmas shopping to boost the post-depression economy. This also developed black Friday and moved the holiday away from the civic and religious aspects of the holiday. Old habits are hard to break, so by 1941, the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution re-establishing Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November.
What some are Thankful for Saddens Others
Organized by the United American Indians of New England in 1970, the National Day of Mourning is celebrated on Thanksgiving day each year, but it is overlooked by many. Native Americans have always had traditions of giving thanks for a successful hunt or harvest, and they believe in being thankful for each day they are given. That’s why they didn’t need a day to tell them to be thankful, so they made it the day of mourning, which was around the time when they started to get colonized. To this day, the American government tries to shut the mouth of Natives up so the truth cannot be spread. They invited Frank Wamsutta James to give a speech on the first day of Mourning. After reading the contents and seeing he would talk about how his people were betrayed and not invited to eat, they canceled his slot and told him he was not welcome. Later, in 1997, the police wrongfully attacked the protestors at Plymouth Rock, where they always have the day, using tear gas, and arrested 25. These charges were dropped a year later after pressure and a settlement with the UAINE.
Thanksgiving pop culture facts:
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, called initially a Christmas parade, was created by employees in 1924 to promote the Christmas sale. It featured animals from the Central Park Zoo to gather attention. It wasn’t until 1927 that they added balloons to the parade, awarding Felix the cat as the first balloon used. They had to let the balloon pop in the atmosphere as they did not have a valve to release the helium. They fixed this issue but still let them fly around to deflate until, in 1932, one brought a plane and its passengers to the ground, and they had to stop releasing the balloons in this manner.
Turkey was an easy-to-catch animal, so it is believed they could have served turkey at the 1621 Thanksgiving and made something similar to brown gravy. The tradition of snapping the Turkey bone for good luck returned to old Rome and was brought over by the English settlers. After WWII, a market campaign was created to promote turkey as the meat of choice for Thanksgiving, now creating a market of 690 million pounds of turkey consumed every Thanksgiving. Pumpkin pie was most likely not around for a while, as they had little access to sugar, flour, and molasses. This tradition came to be when Hale wrote in her 1827 novel Northwood that a meal of roasted turkey with stuffing and gravy was the ideal meal, then later printed a recipe in Godey’s Lady Book. She published this, claiming it to be the perfect Thanksgiving feast because it became a tradition to include foods modern technology made available, such as ice cream and oysters. Flash forward to today, and many families have non-traditional items such as mac and cheese, tamales, and pecan pie if they are from the South.
These are recipes believed to have been at the first Thanksgiving
Lenni Lenape and Going beyond the Land Acknowledgement
History of the Lenni Lenape:
The Lenni Lenape people, the original inhabitants of southeastern New York through northeastern Delaware, including eastern Pennsylvania and all of New Jersey, hold a significant place in history. Translating to “men of men” or “original people”, the Lenape are seen as the first people in the Algonkian tree and were often called to settle disputes between tribes. Despite being a peace-loving tribe, they were not any less fierce, as they were known to have strong warriors. Not enjoying using their strength, they would rather discuss issues than fight about them, so they opted to mediate arguments between neighboring Natives and were often called upon for this purpose. The Lenni Lenape not only had influence with their neighbors but were admired by Europeans for their mediation skills and the hospitality they showed to the settlers.
The Lenape are matrilineal and matrilocal, meaning that the heritage is traced through the mother, so the children's status is based on their mom, and they live with the woman’s family. Once married, the woman and her husband would build a wigwam near the wife’s family so the woman could help with the child-raising needs. The men would hunt, and the women worked the farms, growing crops and raising children. They were a prosperous people until the Dutch that made contact with the Lenape gave them their diseases, killing around 90-95% of their people. The Lenape are known historically to have three clans. This is inaccurate as they had 30 sub-clans before they met any Europeans, but once they lost so many, the sub-clan mothers had to reluctantly consolidate their families to the Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf clans.
The Quaker William Warner was the first European settler to lay roots in West Philadelphia in 1677, just five years before William Penn would forge his ideal utopian city, bringing in around 20,000 people in 1682. After the United States declared independence from Britain, the first treaty signed was an alliance with the Lenni Lenape, promising if they helped with the war. They would be given statehood in the future, a promise never upheld. Being removed from their land and forced to go to Canada to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, killed many more Lenni Lenape, dwindling their population. This forced removal was seen positively for many years, as it was not until 1897 that Native Americans were considered human under the law and worthy of the rights given in the Bill of Rights. While this was a step in the right direction, the Native Americans were not considered citizens of the U.S. until 1924. Then, they had to fight for religious freedom and did not receive the right to practice their religious beliefs until 1978, 201 years after the Bill of Rights gave this right to everyone who lived as a free person in America.
Going Beyond the Land Acknowledgment
Most everything I studied agreed that a land acknowledgment with no intentions of action is tokenism. A land acknowledgment brings visibility to a part of history most would like to ignore: the land we live on was stolen from the original inhabitants. To do nothing more than have a land acknowledgment is not helpful if you aren’t applying ways to make it more equitable. To help understand if your land acknowledgment is proactive, ask these questions:
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What are your equity goals?
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How does your land acknowledgment fit these goals? How does it make progress toward the goal?
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How does this relate to what you are performing?
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How well do you understand the context of the Indigenous people whose land it is in both past and present contexts?
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What is the history of the organization you work for regarding colonialism?
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What work has been done to build relationships with and serve the interests of the local Indigenous communities?
If you do not have any actionable ways to help people genuinely, you are making a gesture to make yourself feel better and keep up with trends.
Another way to go beyond is to donate some of the proceeds or donate to Indigenous-led nonprofits that help further the education, medical, and life conditions of those living on reservations. Another way is to stay informed by listening to Native voices and their. Landback – A Conversation with Demetrius Johnson is an excellent podcast. Decolonizing the dinner table is another way by having meals from recipes written by Indigenous chefs and explaining the cultural significance of the meal to your children or group. One could also hire Indigenous performers and educators for events. Instead of buying cheap knockoffs that are sold as Halloween costumes, make sure to purchase Indigenous and use the garments respectfully, not to use their identity as a costume once a year. Attending events like the National Day of Mourning is a great way to support your Indigenous neighbors. A place should make sure to carefully screen material so as not to have any offensive stereotypes that perpetuate an idea of less than, such as getting rid of racist mascots in sports. There is also a voluntary land tax where that goes into the Indigenous Nations and is still a tax write-off—also helping to write letters to petition the government to give them back land that is rightfully theirs, such as how the Minnesota Historical Society recently returned 115 acres of land to the Lower Sioux Indian Community.
Also, when making a land acknowledgment with all of this in mind, Indigenous people warn that you need to do the research yourself so as not to put extra burdens onto the tribe members and make them relieve that rough past to help you write an acknowledgment. This is called free emotional labor, and asking for this from others is not okay. Also, most Indigenous sites I read said to skip a land acknowledgment altogether in favor of making an action plan to highlight the changes that will be implemented to make a change. There are also sample action plans on the website https://nativegov.org/news/beyond-land-acknowledgment-guide/.
Correct to Incorrect and Everything Inbetween, Politically Speaking
Politically Correct Culture
Political Correctness, commonly abbreviated as PC, is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of marginalized groups in society.
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This term first appeared in 1917 in Marxist-Leninist vocabulary following the Russian Revolution. In his terms, it meant to adhere to the policies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
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The next evolution of the term was in the late 1970s and early 1980s when liberal politicians used it to mock extremism on some left-wing issues, mainly the emphasis on rhetoric over the content.
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By the early 1990s, the term had shifted again and was used by conservatives to question and debate the rise of liberal curriculum and teaching methods at colleges in the US.
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In the late 1990s, the term decreased in use by most but increased in use by comedians to poke fun at political language.
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The big debate focuses on language, names, and which definitions are accepted as truth.
Pro term PC
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Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf made the Whorfian hypothesis based on hearing how English and Native Americans would say the same thing differently. The hypothesis states that “our perception of reality is determined by our thought processes, which are influenced by the language we use. In this way, language shapes our reality and tells us how to think about and respond to that reality” (Roper, C, June 13, 2024). The theory is also interested in how biases are promoted using language, such as how sexist language promotes sexism. Expanding this to behavior, the team believed that culture could influence how they view punctuality by which verbal tenses are used in the language.
Anti the term PC
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Those who oppose it believe it is anti-free speech. They see it as a form of censorship that limits debates. They also believe that the term perceives offensive language where none exists.
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In the book Politically Incorrect Dialogue, philosopher Howard Kainz argues that PC culture has made it to where certain topics, “Brought up at the wrong time in the wrong place, they are classical conversation-stoppers” and that philosophers are “affected by social pressures. So they are sometimes tempted to spend all their time discussing safe and esoteric topics” which is counter to their goals since from “the time of Socrates has given priority to the constant reexamination of meanings and values that are taken for granted in society at large” (1).
A third school of thought
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Another belief is that the term has been used as abuse to stop real attempts to curb hate speech and limit exclusionary speech.
This ties into today's term woke. People who try to be politically correct are seen in many ways, but it is not as directly pointed as the term woke. Woke has a negative connotation that implies the deed is performed performatively, without a genuine heart for the cause.