The First Thanksgiving

More Letters From Paradise          The First Thanksgiving  The following is from a sermon I once preached. They had been at sea for sixty-five days. It was December 11,1620, and that first winter was devastating. At the beginning of the following fall, they had lost 46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower. The Pilgrims were not in good condition. They were living in dirt-covered shelters, and there was a shortage of food. They obviously needed help, and Squanto and Samoset, two members of the Wampanoag Indian Nation taught them how to survive in this new place. The Pilgrams were taught how to cultivate corn and other new vegetables and how to build Indian-style houses. They also learned about poisonous plants and those that could be used as medicine. They were shown how to dig for clams and tap maple trees for syrup. By the time fall arrived, things were going much better for the Pilgrims. The corn they had planted had grown well. There was food to last the winter. They were living comfortably in their Indian-style wigwams, and had also managed to build a log church. The Pilgrims decided to have a thanksgiving feast to celebrate their good fortune. They had held thanksgiving feasts in November for many years before coming to the New World. Captain Miles Standish, the leader of the Pilgrims, invited Squanto, Samoset, Massasoit and their families to join them for a celebration, but they had no idea how big Indian families could be. As the feast began, the Pilgrims were overwhelmed at the large turnout of ninety relatives that Squanto and Samoset brought with them. The Pilgrims were not prepared to feed that many people, for the three day feast. Seeing this, Massasoit gave orders to his men to go home  and bring more food. So it happened that the Indians supplied most of the food: five deer, many wild turkeys,fish, beans, squash, corn soup, corn bread, and berries. Captain Standish sat at one end of a long table, and the Clan Chief Massasoit sat at the other end. For the first time the Wampanoag people were sitting at a table to eat, instead of on mats or furs spread on the ground. The Indian women sat together with the Indian men to eat. The Puritan women, stood quietly behind the table and waited until after the men had eaten, since that was their custom. The friendly relationship deteriorated and within a few years the children of the people who ate together that first Thanksgiving, were killing one another in what came to be called King Phillip's War. On this Thanksgiving, even if you unable to have ninety Indians  at your table, Tonto and I wish all who read this a "Happy Thanksgiving."             Aloha             Grant