Why is miles standish important to thanksgiving

By , the Massachusetts Englishmen were in a full-scale war with the great Indian chief of the Wampanoags, Metacomet. Just two years later one could reap a 50 reward in Massachusetts for the scalp of an Indian-demonstrating that the practice of scalping was a European tradition. Tingba Apidta]. At the end of that conflict most of the New England Indians were either exterminated or made refugees among the French in Canada, or they were sold into slavery in the Carolinas by the Puritans.

So successful was these early trade in Indian slaves that several Puritan ship owners in Boston began the practice of raiding the Ivory Coast of Africa for black slaves to sell to the proprietary colonies of the South, thus founding the American-based slave trade.

The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre.

George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War — on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.

Our country was desperately trying to pull together its many diverse peoples into a common national identity. It was with this in mind that the federal government declared the last Thursday in November as the legal holiday of Thanksgiving in Today the town of Plymouth Rock has a Thanksgiving ceremony each year in remembrance of the first Thanksgiving.

There are still Wampanoag people living in Massachusetts. Frank B. James, president of the Federated Eastern Indian League, prepared a speech. But he was not allowed to deliver it; the Massachusetts officials told him to write another. James declined to speak. But it is not a time of celebrating for me. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People.

When the Pilgrims arrived, we, the Wampanoags, welcomed them with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end. That before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a tribe. That we and other Indians living near the settlers would be killed by their guns or dead from diseases that we caught from them.

Let us always remember, the Indian is and was just as human as the white people. Although our way of life is almost gone, we, the Wampanoags, still walk the lands of Massachusetts. What has happened cannot be changed. But today we work toward a better America, a more Indian America where people and nature once again are important. Dr Habib Siddiqui has authored nine books. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Log In Search. Thanksgiving — the real truth behind the holiday by Mostafa Ghandar Nov 16, Americas , History 0 comments. Eye and Ear up until Like his namesake, Dr. Standish was a Captain in the state militia, in command of the Ambulance Corps. He was also very interested in genealogy — Treasurer of the Standish Monument Association, a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, and he even wrote a book titled The Standishes of America.

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But did you know that Mass. The repeal must then pass the legislature and be signed by Gov. Mitt Romney. A spokeswoman for Robert E. Travaglini, the president of the State Senate, said Mr.

Travaglini had not seen the petition and would allow the City Council to act before considering action. A spokeswoman for Mr. Romney, a Republican, said he had not seen the petition either and would be "happy to take a look at it" when it crossed his desk.

Felix Arroyo, a city councilman, said he expected the measure to pass unanimously at a council meeting on Dec. Arroyo said. The legislation came at the height of King Philip's War, a conflict between the Wampanoag tribe, led by Metacom, known as Philip, and settlers near Plymouth, Mass. The war began in with a raid on the town of Swansea and spread across Massachusetts, spilling north to New Hampshire and south to Connecticut.

The war, one of the bloodiest on American soil, ended the next year. The law rolled over when the state's Constitution was enacted in and has lingered for centuries, with no one taking the steps to repeal it. The group petitioned the legislature, then the city, and received the necessary resolution last year. It renewed the push in July, before the Democratic National Convention. Menino signed the petition the day before Thanksgiving. The podium at the news conference was decorated with a splash of crimson chrysanthemums, and the desk Mr.

Menino used to sign the petition was festooned with a pumpkin and other gourds. An Indian leader also invoked the holiday. Wright believes there might be other, similarly discriminatory laws. Menino said he would look into the possibility of repealing them.

To many that will seem an outlandish and even an offensive comparison - can you explain why you think it is apt comparison? Would we not question the distortions woven into such a celebration and denounce such a holiday as grotesque? Would we not question that claim? Comparisons to the Nazis are routinely overused and typically hyperbolic, but this is directly analogous. Others get angry and accuse me of posturing. But Who to Thank? Thanksgiving has often served political ends.

He brought a host of media photographers to capture him carrying a glazed turkey to the troops. He flew home in three hours, and soon after TV brought his act of courage and generosity to Americans. But the turkey he carried to the soldiers in Baghdad was never eaten. It was cardboard, a stage prop.

Thanksgiving as a photo-op. Baghdad in had a lot in common with the origin of Thanksgiving. In English Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower landed at Plymouth and survived their first New England winter because Wampanoag people brought them corn, meat and other gifts.

Then in Governor William Bradford of Plymouth proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving - but not for the Wampanoag saviors but his Pilgrims. His Christian settlers had staved off hunger through their courage, resourcefulness, and devotion to God, that was his spin. To this day most politicians, ministers and educators describe this First Thanksgiving as the Governor did. European settlers saw Native Americans -- who were neither Christian nor white -- as undeserving. The heroic European scenario of school texts rarely has room for others.

Bradford claims Native Americans were invited to the dinner. Since Pilgrims classified their dark neighbors as "infidels" and inferiors, if invited at all, they would be asked to provide and serve and not share the food. English military power pushed westward after In Governor Bradford, without provocation, dispatched his militia against their Pequot neighbors.

As devout Christians locked in mortal combat with heathens, Pilgrim soldiers assaulted a village of sleeping men, women and children. Bradford rejoiced: "It was a fearful sight to see them frying in the fire and the streams of blood quenching the same and horrible was the stink and stench thereof. But the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice and they [the militiamen] gave praise thereof to God. The edition of the authoritative Columbia Encyclopedia [P. It became one of the first ships to carry enslaved Africans to the Americas.

Currently Thanksgiving celebrates not justice or equality but aggression and enslavement. It affirms racial beliefs that led to the world's worst genocide -- the wanton destruction of tens of millions and ancient cultures. It's time for a different American Thanksgiving. I suggest one that honors the American continent's freedom-fighting tradition that ended European colonial rule.