天美传媒

By Michael A. LaCombe, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History and author of Political Gastronomy: Food and Authority
in the English Atlantic World (The University of Pennsylvania Press: 2012)

Most Americans at least suspect that the meanings, menus and traditions we associate听with Thanksgiving鈥攅ven its date鈥攈ave only a nodding acquaintance with historical听fact. Before the founding of Plymouth in 1620 and for centuries afterward, days of听thanksgiving were celebrated without any reference to Pilgrims, cranberries or roast听turkey, much less Native Americans.

Even so, commemorating Plymouth鈥檚 1621 harvest feast can teach important lessons.听Thanksgiving is arguably the only American symbol that places Indians at the center听of our national narrative in a positive way. In their crudest form, many images of听Thanksgiving ignore the violence, disease, death and dispossession that mark every听chapter of Native American history, replacing them with cartoonish, smiling Pilgrims and听Indians passing steaming dishes of food around a table. Other representations depict听Indians as trusting allies betrayed and exploited by European greed. Both ignore a vital听fact: in 1621, English settlements were frail tributaries of powerful, canny native leaders听who tolerated their presence as allies and trading partners.

The most substantial description of the first Thanksgiving begins like this: 鈥渙ur harvest听being gotten in, our Governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a more听special manner rejoyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours.鈥� After听these four returned, the Plymouth planters 鈥渆xercised our Armes, many of the Indians听coming amongst us.鈥� This is where the story gets interesting.

Of the 100 or so men, women and children who had settled at Plymouth the previous听winter, more than half were dead. Relations with the Wampanoag tribe were friendly,听but the unexpected arrival of their leader Massasoit along with 90 able-bodied, armed听men was understandably a bit alarming. Massasoit was greeted with a fusillade of听gunfire, turned and left, returning shortly afterward with five deer, which he took pains to听present personally to each of Plymouth鈥檚 leading men.

The meal that followed was a rare occasion of commensality in early America, a听celebration of peace and abundance that included both English and Indians. But听Massasoit鈥檚 conduct underscored the fact that the English were guests, not equals.听Arriving in state, bearing the bulk of the food consumed at the feast, Massasoit made听it clear that Plymouth existed because he permitted it to exist. He was not out for a听stroll with 90 close friends on that fall day; instead, he was making it clear that any听celebration of Plymouth鈥檚 abundance must also honor him.

In the years that followed, the English spread themselves over the landscape,听displacing native villages, crops and animals. As they recognized that the English could听not be contained, Indians everywhere resisted with violence. King Philip鈥檚 War of 1675鈥�76 marks the end of that long and bloody struggle in New England, a clear end to the听period of accommodation and negotiation symbolized by Plymouth鈥檚 harvest feast. The听war was inspired and led by Metacom, Massasoit鈥檚 son, in a desperate push to remove听the English from New England forever. As his allies surrendered or retreated, Metacom听was captured and killed, then his corpse was beheaded and his head placed on the听gates of Plymouth. Not an appetizing image, to be sure, but an instructive one: although听most Native Americans lost their lives and lands, they were never passive, much less听na茂ve. What had changed between Massasoit鈥檚 day and Metacom鈥檚 was the range of听options available.