In the familiar American account of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth were pious English refugees fleeing the tyranny of the Old World. They encountered “friendly Indians,” led by Chief Massasoit, who took pity on the bedraggled strangers, taught them how to plant corn and where to fish, and thereby helped them survive their first harsh winters in America. According to this telling of the story, Massassoit’s people helped the colonizers, joined them for a celebratory meal, and then moved offstage.
In this talk, Dr. David J. Silverman revealed the distortions of the Thanksgiving Myth and dived into the often overlooked history of the Wampanoag people. Dr. Silverman explored how the traditional Thanksgiving Myth has promoted the idea that Native people willingly ceded their country to the English to give rise to a white, Christian, democratic nation. The talk traced how the Wampanoags have lived—and told—a different history over the past four centuries.
