Why Is Thanksgiving The Failure Of An Ideal Culture?

He describes that “Eastern Indians had observed autumnal harvest celebrations for centuries” (Loewen 90). This fact makes more sense considering students have always been taught that the Pilgrims feasted as a celebration, but they actually learned these new traditions from the Indians. Loewen informs the reader that the Pilgrims were not even included in the Thanksgiving tradition until the 1890s. He also includes that the Pilgrims were not even called “Pilgrims” until the 1870s.

The relationship between the English and the Native Americans in 1600 to 1700 is one of the most fluctuating and the most profound relationships in American history. On the one side of the picture, the harmony between Wampanoag and Puritans even inspires them to celebrate “first Thanksgiving”; while, by contrast, the conflicts between the Pequots and the English urge them to antagonize each other, and even wage a war. In addition, the mystery of why the European settlers, including English, become the dominant power in American world, instead of the indigenous people, or Indians, can be solved from the examination of the relationship. In a variety of ways, the relationship drastically alters how people think about and relate to the aborigines. Politically, the relationship changes to establish the supremacy of the English; the English intends to obtain the land and rules over it. Socially, the relationship changes to present the majority of the English settlers; the dominating population is mostly the English settlers. Economically, the relationship changes to obtain the benefit of the English settlers; they gain profit from the massive resource in America. Therefore, the relationship does, in fact, change to foreshadow the discordance of the two groups of people.

In modern day society, we often overlook key points in history. For example, Columbus Day, why do we celebrate it? Well, from one’s point of view, we celebrate this holiday for several reasons, one of these reasons are because it recalls Christopher Columbus' entry to the Americas on October 12, 1492. This occasion is questionable on the grounds that the European settlement in the Americas prompted the downfall of the history and culture, of the indigenous people groups. What are some of the pros and cons from naming Columbus Day to Indigenous Day? That is what you will learn in this essay.

The history of the United States with regards to its native population is inaccurate and assumes that the history of this country began when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock (Richter, pp. 4-5). With regards to the native people’s

When the first European colonists arrived in 1620 on land in the New World, a disaster was forming. Arriving in what is known today as Massachusetts on The Mayflower, the settlers didn’t have enough experience surviving cold, harsh winters causing almost half of the settlers to die that had arrived on The Mayflower. This had changed in 1621 with the help of the Native people. The American Indians had started teaching the English people how to do many things including harvesting and growing crops. This help from the Native’s had led to the first Thanksgiving between the two groups. These two societies, however, didn’t remain friends. The English settlers had kicked off the American Indians of their own land and tried to make them convert to Christianity. The English settlers had also brought diseases from Europe causing many Indians to get very sick and even some die.

If one thing is to be respected and understood about the American Indians, it would be that their history and culture goes much further back than contemporary American history. Consequently, the relationship developed between American Indians and the United States is as unique as it is complicated. This unique relationship started because the American Indians were the first faces seen by fresh colonials from Europe. Despite this fact, the American Indians have faced cultural appropriation on a level that cannot be compared to any other ethnic group or minority. Any American who has been through kindergarten can associate Indians and Pilgrims with Thanksgiving, but how many of those Americans can tell about the Battle of Little Bighorn or the Alcatraz Proclamation? The unique relationship between the United States and American Indians has grown over time to allow for the level of appropriation that can be observed today. It is this unique relationship that has allowed the American Indian culture to be exploited because

My essay will have an outlook of the history of the first Americans “Indians” and how they’ve adapted with their religion, subsistence strategy, social organization, and material culture. Over the years things have change in the history of Native Americans, prior to the reconstruction period, Native Americans knew who they were and what they lived for. Before the Europeans came and changed their living they one with nature and the land they’ve came to know. They believe that America was there’s and they lived free. In today’s history of Native Americans culture was founded in many ways, started in the mid 8200s B.C and before Christopher Columbus discovered America. Living in the Americas they were in touch with nature as well as their

As the holiday season is coming nearer each day, I found it appropriate to look further into the traditional Thanksgiving topic. I can only describe what my family does, my Puerto Rican and Caucasian family. As far as I can say, we are not necessarily traditional with our celebration of Thanksgiving. So I figured why not use this assignment as a way to further look into the holiday and how it is celebrated across America, this can mean anything from families celebrating it in their homes, to the retail shops of the country selling holiday/seasonal items to go along with the tradition. I would like to examine the traditions of thanksgiving.

At the start of the film After the Mayflower: We Shall Remain, the English and the Native Americans celebrated the first Thanksgiving together in 1621. Both groups of people seemed trusting of each other and showed personal respect. At this time the Wampanoag Indians had the power and chose to use it to form a treaty with the weak English Pilgrims. The two groups shared everything and traded their assets with each other. As the film continued there was an obvious change in power to the English with more and more Puritan immigrants from Europe arriving. By the end of the movie the English decided to use their power to control all lands instead of keeping the treaty with the native people. The English “thanksgiving” at

The truth of the matter is, when the Pilgrims arrived, they found an abandoned Wampanoag village and moved right in. In 1618, a massive epidemic of an unknown disease left by English explorers swept across Wampanoag country and decimated many of the villages. This epidemic caused the death of ten to thirty percent of the total population and all but a few of the 2,000 people of the village of Patuxet. When the Pilgrims arrived in 1620, they landed at Patuxet with no idea of what had occurred. At this point, there were only about 2,000 members left in the Wampanoag tribe, down from 12,000 in 1600. Despite the incredible losses to his people, Wampanoag leader Massasoit and 90 of his men sat down for a harvest celebration offered by the white men. For three days the Wampanoag and Pilgrims feasted on deer, wild turkey, fish, beans, squash, corn and other foods native to North America. Although the celebration was good-natured, this event truly signifies the beginning of a drastic decline of native culture and Thanksgiving would be more fittingly observed as a day of mourning rather than a celebration. In the years that followed, skirmishes occurred and more Native Americans were killed. In 1637, English soldiers massacred 700 Pequot men, women and children as an example of the English way of war, yet we still celebrate Thanksgiving as a joyful event. So, as we sit down for our Thanksgiving dinner,

Half of the states in the United States recognize and observe Columbus Day as a federal holiday (“officeholidays”). There has always been a controversy involving the celebration and glorification of European settlers from the Age of Exploration. This controversial subject has led to a divide between the country, and different ethnic groups. European settlers from the Age of Exploration should be celebrated in modern times because of the many societal concepts they introduced to the Native American which embarked new systems and procedures which are still practiced today. Take the Columbian Exchange as an example, this system was implemented by European settlers, and benefitted many people including the current empires at that time. Additionally, European settlers ended inhumane practices of the Native Americans, such as human sacrifice. In result of this, new concepts and beliefs were introduced to the Native Americans which aided many. In spite, of the diseases carried at this time by the settler that killed many Native American tribes, this should not be considered to be an argument, since the Spanish were not cognizant of the germs and bacteria they were carrying.

For many Americans the last Thursday of December is a day of food, family, and fun. Families will gather together and eat while anticipating the next day’s Black Friday sales. But for many Native Americans Thanksgiving looks very different. Every year between 700 and 1,200 hundred will gather at Plymouth Rock for the National Day of Mourning, protest of Thanksgiving, and the unfair treatment of Native American culture, history, and people that continues today.

While children are growing up in America, they are told several tales of America’s establishment and history. However, these stories are generally not told as they actually happened. An instance of this is the story of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is explained as this elaborate ceremony where the Pilgrims and Indians gathered in harmony at this large harvest in celebration of their coming together. According to the primary document of William Bradford’s journal, Thanksgiving didn’t pan out quite as it is explained to Americans today. In the film, The Addams Family Values, the Addams children take part in a traditional, yet misconceived celebration of the first Thanksgiving. This

The pilgrims did not find corn, they had stolen the corn from the Wampanoag and ransacked the Indians graves when they first arrived. The Indians were not really invited to the feast. The Indians were close by when they heard the gunshots that the pilgrims did to start the feast. The Indians thought the pilgrims wanted war, when they arrived and has seen the feast going on. They went out and returned to the feast with five deer and introduce their food to the

The concept of American national identity has been one of the founding structures that unifies the group of people that that call and consider themselves to be American. Since the “founders” of this nation settled in New England their patriotism has been celebrated. The legendary story of how the Puritan Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock seeking religious freedom is often taught to young children as a way to help them learn one of the key narratives in the formation of the nation. The story is even more glorified when linked to the greatly loved holiday of Thanksgiving, where the peaceful Pilgrims eat a peaceful meal with the friendly Indians. However, it is never told of how the friendly Indians were betrayed, used, degraded, and in many cases, defeated by the peaceful Pilgrims. During the 19th century, a time of Indian removal and other forms of structural oppression, William Apess addressed how that portion of history was neglected to be told and therefore took matters into his own hands to give the proper historical moment to Native Americans. The hidden and untold story of violence of the Pilgrims continues to this day.