“Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labours. [...] many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted.”
“I speak to you as a man, a Wampanoag Man.”
“Although time has drained our culture, and our language is almost extinct, we the Wampanoags still walk the lands of Massachusetts.”
In 1970, for the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims' landing, Wamsutta Frank James was not allowed to deliver his speech as written. He spoke on Cole's Hill in Plymouth on Thanksgiving Day: it was the first National Day of Mourning.
Total: 20 points
Every November, millions of Americans sit down to a family dinner. The holiday recalls a harvest gathering of 1621 between English settlers and the Wampanoag. But whose story does it tell?
For many families, Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful and to be together. Its origin is documented: Edward Winslow, the only eyewitness, describes three days of feasting with Massasoit and some ninety men. The celebration was later turned into a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863.
However, the story is said to have been simplified. The gathering was a diplomatic alliance, and the colonies were built on Native homelands. In 1970, Wamsutta Frank James was not allowed to give his speech, so he spoke on Cole's Hill, and a National Day of Mourning has been held every year since. As he said, “we the Wampanoags still walk the lands of Massachusetts.”
On balance, the holiday can be kept, but its history should be told in full, with the Wampanoag voices that the national myth has left out.